Fr. Z's Blog

His Eminence George Card. Pell

I firmly believe that Card. Pell would have been a “kingmaker” in an upcoming conclave because of his ecclesiastical experience, his personality, and his enormous moral authority after his persecution and unjust imprisonment.

As one of my correspondents wrote, rightly, “Shall we see his like again?”

I direct the readership to four necessary items to read.

First, there is the “Demos Memo”, written under the pseudonym last year but confirmed as Pell’s.  HERE

QUOTE:

The first tasks of the new pope will be to restore normality, restore doctrinal clarity in faith and morals, restore a proper respect for the law and ensure that the first criterion for the nomination of bishops is acceptance of the apostolic tradition. Theological expertise and learning are an advantage, not a hinderance for all bishops and especially archbishops.

Next, there is Pell’s own piece in The Spectator which came the day after he died.  Of course, he wrote it and wanted it published believing that he was going to be alive.  HERE

QUOTE:

The Catholic Synod of Bishops is now busy constructing what they think of as ‘God’s dream’ of synodality. Unfortunately this divine dream has developed into a toxic nightmare despite the bishops’ professed good intentions.

Next, George Weigel wrote a piece about Pell at First Things.  HERE

QUOTE:

Whatever brickbats will be thrown at the grave of Cardinal Pell because of these two testamentary statements, serious people in the Church will focus on the question of whether these texts accurately describe the current Catholic situation. I believe they do. Let the critics demonstrate the opposite.

Also, Robert Royal penned a piece at The Catholic Thing about Pell and the two documents mentioned above.  HERE

QUOTE:

Pell’s earlier memo is equally blunt, claiming that in the eyes of everyone, except for a few figures close to the pope, “this pontificate is a disaster in many or most respects; a catastrophe.” Not only is Francis failing to maintain truths of the faith, when he speaks to them it often creates greater confusion. Pell lists the usual moral controversies but even identifies a kind of uncertainty on something basic like monotheism (e.g., Pachamama at the Synod on the Amazon).

The orthodox are suspect, the heterodox welcomed. Canonical procedures are ignored, phones are tapped, finances (which Pell was ready to reform) are better but still bad. There’s “little support among seminarians and young priests and wide-spread disaffection exists in the Vatican Curia.”