This is a google translation of Sandro Magister's take on today's news about the Vatican Finances and the Secretary of State no longer in control of it.
“Vatican affairs. Pell's revenge on the secretariat of state ”: this was the title of a post from Settimo Cielo last June 11.
But today the bells ring for this revenge. Because the Vatican press office has released the text of a letter from Pope Francis that gives the coup de grâce precisely to those leaders of the secretariat of state who in 2017 rejected and humiliated the Australian cardinal's reform plans.
(For the record, it was Pope Francis himself who gave George Pell full powers to reform Vatican finances and then soon revoked them for the benefit of his opponents, except today to record this new turnaround, this time in support of the cardinal. ).
The full text of Francis's letter to Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin is also on page 7 of today's edition of "L'Osservatore Romano", with the reference on the front page.
The letter bears the date of August 25 and ends by setting the changes it dictates to "before November 1".
But evidently in the secretariat of state they must not have set to work with due diligence, given that only "on the evening of yesterday, November 4" - as the Vatican press office informed - Cardinal Parolin and the other elders gathered around the papa for a first meeting aimed at the business.
And the enterprise consists precisely in what the secretariat of state has hitherto always refused to do: the delivery of all its movable and immovable property to the Vatican central bank, APSA, under "the control of the secretariat for the economy ”, That is, the office originally presided over by Cardinal Pell.
But in his letter the pope says more.
He explicitly refers to the “investments made in London” and the infamous “Centurion fund”, from which - he orders - “we need to get out as soon as possible”.
The secretariat of state will have to account for and obtain approval of its ordinary income and expenses. And his secret activities will also have to pass the scrutiny of the commission "for reserved matters" recently established under the presidency of Cardinal Kevin Farrell.
Much less can the secretariat of state claim to supervise any other body of the Holy See, in economic and financial matters.
In short, "taking into account that the secretariat of state will no longer have to administer or manage assets, it will be appropriate for it to redefine its administrative office, or to evaluate the need for its existence".
The "terminus ad quem" set by the pope for this spoliation was, as has been said, November 1, the feast of All Saints.
Perhaps the 2nd day of the dead would have been more suitable.
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8 comments:
One of my favourite quotes from Cardinal Pell was from a speech he gave in 2006:
“.....hysterical and extreme claims about the natural environment are the result of the ‘pagan emptiness’ of Western culture....in the past pagans sacrificed animals and even humans in vain attempts to placate capricious and cruel gods, today they demand a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions....”
What with statements like that, and going back to the 1990s with his public claims that “homosexual activity is a greater health hazard than smoking” and in the 1990s refusing communion to all members of the Rainbow Sash Movement” and generally being almost always on the wrong side of every “culture war” issue from the day he became a Bishop he was called by many “the Bully Bishop” or “irresponsible scum” or a “pompous buffoon” and worse......the VERY opposite of how then Bishop and Cardinal McCarrick was regarded for decades as - ie: “....a moderate presence in the hierarchy......a telegenic pastor who presents the welcoming face of the Catholic Church.” Who rose to be a power broker in Washington DC........
AJP.
What ever happened to TJM, Bob and Gene and others who used to often contribute here?
Maybe some people just like taking a break from blogs or maybe a break from all online activity for a while?
Or get caught up in new blogs or reading new or different online publications?
Had Cardinal Pell been a Bishop in the USA in the 1990s and an archbishop in the USA c. 2000 to 2010 would Demonicrat Catholics and lapsed Catholic journalists and celebrities and musicians have called him irresponsible scum and a pompous buffoon? Or worse?
Would a hit song have been written and played on radio and TV using those words “scum” and “buffoon” and saying he belonged in jail even before before any arrest and conviction? As occurred in Australia.
I don’t think people, Catholics in the USA know how much Cardinal Pell was hated by many in Australia. He would often speak and explain, for example, how what the Catholic Church taught on abortion, artificial contraception and homosexuality etc were neither the personal moral opinions of Karol Wojtyla or the reactionary, out dated, personal views of George Pell of Ballarat but were God given moral truths that the Catholic Church had taught for two millennia.....and he called on all Catholic bishops to be servants of these and other truths; to be faithful and courageous servants of these truths, even if fidelity involved personal risk.
Not all despised him; a significant minority respected him, including 2 former prime ministers, but when he spoke out against extreme views on climate change/global warming etc those who already hated him hated him even more.
Cardinal Pell had serious enemies in Australia and for sometimes different reasons he had serious enemies in the Vatican; add to this the likelihood that c $2 million was sent from the Vatican to assist in his wrongful arrest and conviction and imprisonment of Cardinal Pell and the repeated attempts going back to 2002 to find anything and the testimony of anyone that could result in his discrediting and imprisonment
it is not surprising that Cardinal Pell eventually ended up in maximum security prison.......he was lucky not to die in prison. Australia’s highest court eventually overturned the conviction that led to a jail sentence 7 - 0 but there was a high chance that that high court might never have even heard that last appeal.....
I might write a letter to Pope Francis,
Holy Father,
Have you considered sacking every Churchman involved in Vatican finance except Cardinal Pell, who could have the task of recruiting, say, 20 to 30 committed, recently retired lay Catholics who have great experience in accounting, economics and finance etc. Each of them could be paid an attractive but not exorbitant salary, and then they could be let loose sorting out the corrupt mess of Vatican finance - not all messes are good, I humbly submit...
Holy Father! Imagine the millions saved, imagine the world wide approval for transparency and imagine how much this will conform with the glorious Second Vatican Council’s call for lay participation.
And not just lay participation, Holy Father, but one could achieve the participation of women too, by recruiting 50% women to this new body of laity - of proven moral and financial integrity - to what may, I suggest, be called The Fellowship of St Matthew (the patron saint of bankers).....
Imagine the “optics” of this! Devout, honest Catholic men and WOMEN, lay people seen as “God’s New Bankers” fixing what has been at least a 4 decade long scandal!
And one final suggestion, any cleric of any stature with any close involvement in Vatican finances must be given the choice of a future Church career as 1. Prison chaplain or 2. Cook and cleaner at a strict, preferably traditional, monastery.
Yours,
Joseph Taylor.
If any of the shenanigans that resulted in the false imprisonment of Cardinal Pell are found to be true, would the perpetrators be tried in Vatican City? Would the person(s) be extradited to Australia?
RCG,
The shenanigans are very likely true. It was very suspicious how, in Victoria, Australia, the police and prosecutors went after Cardinal Pell for so long and the way they advertised for victims to come forward and so on...and with Pell facing all up 27 charges over a period of time, and many of the allegations were just absurd......they all collapsed except one which was “proven” till overturned on appeal. Also, other Australian agencies are taking seriously the allegations re big Vatican $$$ being sent to Australia to assist in the unjust conviction of Cardinal Pell EXCEPT, surprise surprise, the Victorian state police, who understandably don’t want to potentially be unveiling further uncomfortable truths about themselves and their own complicity in the witch-hunt against Pell; they could not take that risk at the same time there has been a recent ENORMOUS scandal in the state of Victoria with the revelation of some of their police from 1995 to 2009 using as an informant a high profile defence lawyer who represented some of the state’s worst murderers and biggest drug dealers......”Lawyer X” was simultaneously a registered police informant and acting as a defence lawyer for some of the state’s most dangerous criminals...this led to a recent Royal Commission....on many levels, the whole state of Victoria is a bad joke at the moment, especially in being led by an incompetent, socialist premier, known here as “Chairman Dan” Andrews, whose abysmal handling of COVID-19 has led to yet another major inquiry........
Anonymous at 3:35, thanks. I just finished a job for a client in Victoria and didn't get to travel since COVID for reasons you know well. I was hoping to find someone to tell WHY the antipathy toward Pell, but never found a trusted source, considering the situation of a foreigner in the Commonwealth. So what was the impetus?
RCG,
A lot of it goes back a long, long way!
To begin with, some of this may sound pathetically petty but one Australian priest about 20 years ago was asked specifically why he and others thought Pell was such a bully and the best he and some fellow priests could come up with were: his strong, rough way of playing football in the junior seminary; once hitting some other seminarians with a rolled up newspaper on a bus trip - George even back then thought pansies belonged in the garden; and as a younger bishop, Pell stopped a group of priests at an official Archdiocesan priests’ gathering from wasting time watching the film “Jesus of Montreal”....
At Oxford, in the 1960s George and his Australian friend, Peter Elliott, were labelled or dubbed by certain Catholic priests with a spot for Modernism and Marxism as “the big Australian bastard, and the little Australian bastard”.....they did not like, apparently, tough questions and no adulation, from 2 “colonials”...
Shortly before becoming a bishop, Pell was the rector of a seminary in Victoria; it was incredible how much hostility ( from a large number of seminary staff and students) he faced over his “few small changes” ; eg a daily rosary for the seminary community, an extra community week day Mass and prayers before the Blessed Sacrament !
Basically, starting in the late 60s through the 80s and after there was in Australia (as in the USA and elsewhere) an ever-increasing chasm between the traditional and the “liberal/progressive” factions in the Catholic Church. In 1987, Pell became a bishop, and an effective voice for the more traditional/conservative faction in the Church..... and from then till now, as he rose to the highest levels of the Church he has been insulted, defamed, mocked and hated by very many - eg obviously, many “liberal/progressive” clerics were against him, many high profile celebrities and journalists who were secular/humanist types despised him and hated the fact that George actually had some followers and supporters AND some influence.......and this goes back to the 1980s....
Finally, Cardinal Pell made some serious enemies in the Vatican and that happened simultaneously with the findings being released in Australia of a Royal Commission into institutional child sex abuse......so Pell was perfect for the role of scapegoat, and having him appearing in court repeatedly in Melbourne and then locked up in jail was a great outcome for his enemies in Rome too.....
I hope that explains a bit....
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