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.) 

Fr. Reese, S.J. and Pope Francis

There was an old joke that listed a few things the pope doesn’t know about the Church. As I recall (hard to do these days), one of those things was “what the Jesuits will do next.” Presumably this no longer applies since for the first time in history we have a Jesuit pope. Of course, even Pope Francis may not be able to predict what each of his fellow Jesuits decides to say or do or write. 

This week, for example, American Jesuit, Rev. Thomas Reese, S.J., wrote down a few of his thoughts on Pope Francis’ recent hospitalization. Fr. Reese, who writes a column for Religion News Service suggested that the 84-year-old pope’s illness, hospitalization, and surgery formed what might be a key event in Francis' papacy. According to Fr. Reese, “…even with the best prognosis, age is catching up with Francis. Barring a miracle, he will only be expected to continue as pope for five or six years. We may look back at his hospitalization as the moment that marked the beginning of the end of his papacy.”

As you might expect — after all, he is a Jesuit — Fr. Reese has a distinct point of view that does not always coincide with the Church’s teachings on a number of issues. A former editor-in-chief of America, the left-leaning Jesuit journal, and columnist for the National Catholic Reporter, Reese has espoused some interesting religious, political, and moral positions. For example, he really dislikes what he calls the “unreformed liturgy” — aka, the Latin or Tridentine Mass — and says that young people should not be permitted to attend such Masses. 

More troubling, however, were his comments during the 2020 presidential campaign when he declared approvingly that, “A Catholic Democrat might feel impelled to vote for Biden despite his position on abortion and gay marriage because of other morally grave reasons, for example, his positions on racism, immigration, global warming and COVID-19.” Since the Church considers abortion nothing less than murder, the slaughter of innocents, one wonders whether Fr. Reese would consider it okay to overlook a candidate's support for a new Holocaust or for Communist China's enslavement of Uyghurs and Kazakhs so long as his policies were correct when it came to issues like climate change. 

New York's Cardinal Dolan made this case in his public rebuke of Fr. Reese when he wrote that the priest's approach was nothing less than a "...capitulation to the abortion culture, and a grave weakening of the powerful pro-life witness...Thank God, those who believed that slavery was a moral horror, a cancer on our country, and contrary to the higher values of a lawful republic, could never accept this capitulation." 

Over the years Fr. Reese has been consistent in downplaying the Church's teaching on abortion. For example, he likes to quote the U.S. Bishops document, Faithful Citizenship, while avoiding its strong language regarding abortion. He also came out strongly against government defunding of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. In the same way he avoids mentioning Pope Francis' very public condemnation of abortion and abortionists, whom the pope compared to "Mafia hit-men." As the pope said, "Is it legitimate to take a human life to solve a problem? Is it permissible to hire a hitman to solve a problem?...human life is sacred and inviolable and the use of prenatal diagnosis for selective purposes should be discouraged with strength." One suspects Fr. Reese isn't very pleased to hear his fellow Jesuit speaking with such moral clarity.

In this latest column, Fr. Reese again avoids these life issues and seems more concerned that Pope Francis has perhaps not done enough to ensure his successor will follow in what Fr. Reese consider the correct ideological path: "If his papacy is reckoned a failure, it will be because Francis failed to replace or outlast the clerical establishment put in place by John Paul and Benedict. His papacy will only succeed if he is followed by popes who are in sync with his approach to Catholicism, and this is not guaranteed." No, indeed, Father, it is not guaranteed, thanks to the Holy Spirit. Fr. Reese also wrote that "Francis has rebranded the papacy for the 21st century with a pastoral, prophetic and inclusive voice." After the truly pastoral and prophetic papacies of Saint John Paul II and Benedict XVI, this seems a rather odd thing to say, and I expect Pope Francis would agree.

Finally, Fr. Reese's comments about the pontiff's illness might also be an indication of the real and perhaps serious nature of Pope Francis' health. The Vatican has rarely been very open about popes and their health issues. Too often a pope must die before the world learns he was seriously ill.

It's all very interesting, though. And Fr. Reese will likely get lots of airtime on those networks that despise the Church and its teachings. But that's just another reason I always tell my friends not to believe a word you hear or read about the Catholic Church in the secular media. 

We are left with an ailing pope for whom we pray daily. We pray for his full recovery and for his wisdom in these times of moral relativism and political and social chaos. We need him to speak clearly and loudly to the world on faith and morals.

Pray for Pope Francis...oh, yes, and pray, too, for Fr. Reese.

Pope Francis Surprises

While I certainly didn't expect Cardinal Bergoglio to be elected Pope, I did, however, expect to be surprised. And for me, at least, his election was definitely a surprise, although a most pleasant one.

Pope Francis Smiling

There are some, however, who are not at all pleased with his election, and many media outlets were only too happy to parade the disaffected through their studios almost as soon as the Holy Father's name was announced. With the DVR recording EWTN, I channel surfed the other networks to see what the self-appointed experts had to say. One network, obviously displeased that the new Pope was not a Unitarian, introduced an ex-priest and a (former?) nun who also happened to be a practicing lesbian. As you might expect they were very unhappy that the College of Cardinals had elected a man who strongly supported the Church's consistent teaching on moral issues. On another network, one interviewee, while admitting that Pope Francis appeared to support the poor, went on to question the depth of that support because he had long ago rejected liberation theology. I was amazed the network had been able to find someone who still equated Marxism with helping the poor. And then there was our new Pope's fellow Jesuit who added with some suspicion: "I've never seen him smile."

I encountered much more of the same that first evening of Pope Francis' papacy. I suppose all this was to be expected since most of the secular media are hostile to the Catholic Church and its teachings. Their usual tactic is to shine the spotlight on Catholics who share this hostility. This, they believe, will allow them to brush aside any charges of anti-Catholic bias. Their selection of commentators, however, only confirms the bias they try to disguise.

What interests me most about the secular media is their belief that the Catholic Church will somehow toss aside 2,000 years of magisterial teaching simply to appease them and those who share their ideology. They believe this because they've been able to find some nominal Catholics who agree with them. I say "nominal" because a Catholic who openly rejects the magisterial teaching of the Church is really rejecting the Church as well. Indeed, once a person rejects one set of teachings, what's to keep him from rejecting all the rest whenever it becomes convenient to do so? Moreover, one who believes the Church can change its teaching on such issues as abortion or homosexual marriage simply does not understand the Church. It's not that the Church stubbornly refuses to change its teachings in the face of the prevailing zeitgeist; rather, the Church cannot change because these teachings are founded on divine law, not human law.

I expect this truth will eventually and grudgingly be accepted, and result in either schism or a massive apostasy. In this I tend to agree with Pope Benedict XVI who foresees a future Church that will be smaller, holier and persecuted.

Over the past few days, as I've thought about Pope Francis and what he will mean for the Church, I've come to believe that he will probably surprise us all again and again throughout his papacy. He is fully Catholic, fully the Apostle, the one sent by God to serve His people. He is a man of orthodox belief, who, like his predecessors, will be unwavering in his teaching. And by choosing the name "Francis" he has shown us that he is a man of the poor, a man who understands better than most what Catholic social teaching really means.

Peter and John at the Temple Gate

When I first saw Pope Francis standing on that balcony, I thought immediately of St. Peter on the day of the first Pentecost when he and St. John encountered the crippled man begging at the "Beautiful Gate" of the Temple:

When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked for alms. But Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” He paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them. Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.” Then Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles grew strong. He leaped up, stood, and walked around, and went into the temple with them, walking and jumping and praising God. [Acts 3:3-8]

This was the image that came to mind when I first saw Pope Francis. He, too, was standing at a "Beautiful Gate," but today's temple gate looks out over St. Peter's Square and from there to the entire world; and the world was certainly watching. "Look at us," Peter said. And Pope Francis asked us to look at him and pray for him. This humble man bowed low to the people, to the Church he will serve, asking, begging for our prayers. Then he spoke to all of us, and blessed us all, knowing that like the crippled beggar outside the gate we, too, are broken and in need of healing, knowing that we are poor in both body and spirit. In his humility he reached out to us with the hand of the shepherd asking us to take hold so that, together, we can raise each other up, we can, through God's grace and in the name of Jesus Christ Crucified, make each other strong. Yes, together, we can enter the temple "walking and jumping and praising God."

This was what the Spirit showed me when I first saw Pope Francis. And on the next day the Pope reinforced this image in the first homily of his papacy as he spoke to the Cardinals who elected him, asking them "to walk, to build, to profess Jesus Christ Crucified."

Keep Pope Francis in your prayers, for he will need both strength and humility as he leads the Church. He will surprise the world, and the world will respond. Some will cheer him on and join in his work of walking and building and professing; too many will attack him; others will wonder what he's about; and perhaps the largest number will be forced to examine their own faith and how they live it.

Pax et bonum...