Me: Santo Subito: Santo Demos!
Crux has a very good retrospect concerning Cardinal Pell and his once secret identity, “Demos”, as it now regards the Conclave that elected Pope Leo and now Pope Leo’s reversing of some of Pope Francis’ less than auspicious decisions and policies.
At the time, I was fully in accord with what “Demos” had written, although I had no idea that it was Cardinal Pell. Once we discovered it was Pell, it had even more importance. Cardinal Pell was a Catholic Cardinal, orthodox and fought to protect Catholicism from heterodox leanings, left or right, that could weaken and destroy the Church (although the gates of hell will never prevail against the Church). Individual believers, though, are another consideration and yes they can be led to hell despite the graces God and His splendor of truth give us.
Here are some money bytes from the Crux commentary, which you can read in full HERE:
After his death at the age of 81, it was revealed (that the orthodox Cardinal Pell) was the man behind the pen-name “Demos,” under which he had authored a memo the year before, condemning the papacy of Pope Francis as a “catastrophe.”
The statement complained about issues such as the appointment of officials it considered heretical, the “Pachamama” statue, and the softening attitude towards homosexuals.
Pell died before the election of Pope Leo XIV, but it is interesting to look at what the cardinal wrote regarding “The Next Conclave” – the one that would elect Francis’s successor – which happened to choose Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as Pope Leo XIV.
(Because Pope Francis did not meet with the cardinals they were) unknown to one another, adding a new dimension of unpredictability to the next conclave (which proved to be a correct assumption after the election of the American-Peruvian Prevost.)
Many cardinals read the “Demos” document, especially after it became known that Pell, who was not only a leading figure in the “(ORTHODOX)” wing of the worldwide Catholic Church but also one of their number, had authored it.
It gives one to wonder: Did “Demos” have any influence on the cardinals’ thinking – if not directly on their choice – in the May 2025 conclave?
“After Vatican II,” wrote Pell (as Demos), “Catholic authorities often underestimated the hostile power of secularization, the world, flesh, and the devil, especially in the Western world, and overestimated the influence and strength of the Catholic Church.”
The cardinal said the pope does not need to be the world’s best evangelist, nor a political force.
“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,” he wrote.
Looking at the first months of Pope Leo’s tenure, we see this approach to evangelism is central.
“Since we live in a confusing society of noise,” Pope Leo XIV said on Dec. 12, “today more than ever we need servants and disciples who announce the absolute primacy of Christ and who keep His voice clearly in their ears and hearts.”
This is something the Demos document emphasized.
“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,” Pell said in the Demos document.
He also complained of the seemingly endless synodal gatherings around the world, saying they “will consume much time and money, probably distracting energy from evangelization and service rather than deepening these essential activities.”
In his letter, Pell also complained about the Synodal Way of Germany, which he said promoted homosexuality, women priests, communion for the divorced.
“If there was no Roman correction of such heresy, the Church would be reduced to a loose federation of local Churches, holding different views, probably closer to an Anglican or Protestant model, than an Orthodox model,” the Australian cardinal wrote.
“An early priority for the next pope must be to remove and prevent such a threatening development, by requiring unity in essentials and not permitting unacceptable doctrinal differences. The morality of homosexual activity will be one such flash point,” Pell said.
The Demos document also noted that younger clergy and seminarians are almost completely orthodox, and even sometimes quite conservatively so – and most data certainly confirms this – but said the next pope “will need to be aware of the substantial changes effected on the Church’s leadership since 2013, perhaps especially in South and Central America,” adding that there is “a new spring in the step of the Protestant liberals in the Catholic Church.”
Pell admitted schism is not likely to occur from the Left, “who often sit lightly to doctrinal issues.”
“Schism is more likely to come from the right and is always possible when liturgical tensions are inflamed and not dampened,” the cardinal wrote.
In these opening months of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV has certainly emphasized the unity of the Catholic Church.
He has also indicated his intention to work toward resolving conflicts that have been simmering – and occasionally boiling over – since the conciliar and post-conciliar era in 1960s.
On Wednesday, at the opening of his extraordinary consistory of the college of cardinals, the pontiff placed Pope Paul VI with Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI with Pope Francis – pairing popes together, even though they were seen as polar opposites in the media.
Leo also tied all of the post-Vatican II popes together as deeply holding to the last ecumenical council.
