George Cardinal Pell, R.I.P.

Cardinal Pell, the Australian prelate whom liberals love to hate, and, along with Joseph Cardinal Zen, is among the most persecuted of modern cardinals, died last Tuesday at the age of 81. His funeral Mass will be celebrated today in Rome. May he rest in peace. 

I won’t offer a eulogy here since those who knew him best will do that far better than I. But if you want to come to a better understanding of this remarkable man, just read his three-volume Prison Journals. I also suggest reading another of his books: Test Everything: Hold Fast to What Is Good.

How influential was Cardinal Pell? The Wall Street Journal, certainly no particular friend of the Church, described him as “the most influential Catholic churchman in the English-speaking world.” I certainly agree.

Since March of 2022 a rather lengthy memo has circulated among the cardinals who presumably will take part in the next conclave. The anonymous author called himself “Demos” (Greek for “people”) and most knowledgeable folks in the Vatican believed it was written by a cardinal. After Cardinal Pell’s death, Sandro Magister, a veteran Catholic journalist revealed that Pell was actually the memo’s author.

The 2,000-word memo consists of two sections — “The Vatican Today” and “The Next Conclave” — in which Pell provides a detailed and rather intense description of the papacy of Pope Francis. It is not complimentary. Cardinal Pell, who had been a close collaborator of Pope Francis, had been brought in to clean up the Vatican’s messy financial operations. Pell, however, came to believe Francis’ papacy was trying to take the Church in the wrong direction. In another article, apparently written shortly before the cardinal’s death, he expressed his growing concern about what he sees as serious moral lapses and wokeness on the part of the Vatican:

“...deepening confusion, the attack on traditional morals and the insertion into the dialogue of neo-Marxist jargon about exclusion, alienation, identity, marginalization, the voiceless, LGBTQ, as well as the displacement of Christian notions of forgiveness, sin, sacrifice, healing, redemption.”

In the memo Cardinal Pell pulls no punches and states that “Commentators of every school, if for different reasons … agree that this pontificate is a disaster in many or most respects; a catastrophe.” He also declares that “The Holy Father has little support among seminarians and young priests and wide-spread disaffection exists in the Vatican Curia.”

The memo’s first section describes a litany of problems affecting the Church today, largely, Pell believes, resulting from decisions made by Pope Francis. The second section, addressing the next conclave, focuses on what the kind of pope the Church will need in the near future. Cardinal Pell’s description is clear and concise:

“The Pope does not need to be the world’s best evangelist, nor a political force. The successor of Peter, as head of the College of Bishops, also successors of the Apostles, has a foundational role for unity and doctrine. The new pope must understand that the secret of Christian and Catholic vitality comes from fidelity to the teachings of Christ and Catholic practices. It does not come from adapting to the world or from money.”

I could include the entire memo here, but it is readily available elsewhere. You may or may not agree with Cardinal Pell's assessment of Francis' papacy and the current state of the Church, but it is still worth reading. It certainly shouldn't be swept under the rug. Read it and, as you always do, pray for Pope Francis and for the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.

Here’s the link to the original memo: A Memorandum. (Note that the memo was posted on the site before the author's identity was revealed.)