Vatican affairs
Vale Josef Alois Ratzinger — aka Pope Benedict
Ratzinger resigned as Pope in 2003, to become “Pope Emeritus Pope Benedict”. He is widely seen as a traditionalist, but that is too simple a characterization. Writing in The Conversation, Matthew Schmalz, of the College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts, says he was a man at odds with the modern world who leaves a legacy of intellectual brilliance and controversy. It would be wrong to characterize him as a typical conservative reactionary hostile to ideas.
Vale George Pell
George Pell’s death attracted plenty of media attention in Australia. Barry Schwartz, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, summarized that reaction with his headline Pell will always be seen as a servant of the Church, not its flock.
There are 223 cardinals in the Catholic Church, of whom 188 are aged over 70. Normally the media would cover the death of a cardinal with a few column centimeters in Il Messaggero, but Pell’s death made news worldwide, because of the blind eye he turned to victims of sexual abuse, the restrictive terms he applied to the “Melbourne solution” to compensate victims, and his convictions and successful appeal in relation to sexual abuse.
In Rome was best known for his work in cleaning up Vatican finances: as one distant from Italy and as one with a reputation for toughness, he was just the person for the task, for which he was appointed as “prefect of the Holy See’s Secretariat for the Economy”. This role is described in an Inside the Vatican podcast hosted by the Jesuit magazine America. (Covered in the first 15 minutes of the podcast.)
He was also known as one who had been more theologically comfortable with Pope Benedict than with his successor, Pope Francis. Since his death Pell has been revealed as the author of anonymous articles highly critical of Pope Francis. Pell’s views are revealed in an article in America in which he is quoted as asserting that this pontificate is a disaster. Nicole Winfield, the author of the America article, writes:
Cardinal Pell grew increasingly disillusioned with the direction of Francis’ papacy, including its emphasis on inclusion and canvassing of the laity about the future of the church.
Pell is also revealed as author of a more recent article, published anonymously in The Spectator, highly critical of the church’s moves to “enlarge the space in its tent”. Interviewed on ABC Breakfast, Robert Mickens of the Catholic magazine La Croix, describes it as:
… a kind of alert, a warning, and a call to arms as it were, for the next conclave. That is, who will be the successor? It’s basically rallying the troops to look for another pope to succeed Pope Francis, who will restore discipline, rule of law and orthodoxy in the Catholic Church.
If he could have he would surely would have branch-stacked the Curia before it will be called on to vote for Pope Francis’s successor.
Pell’s dissent is a manifestation of differences in the Catholic Church going back many generations. Contrary to some impressions of the Church as a tightly disciplined body, the Church’s 1.3 billion believers have largely gone their own way on its codes of sexual behavior and observance of rituals.
But the Catholic Church still exerts significant influence in politics, not only in Catholic countries but also in countries like Australia with a formal church-state separation. Writing in the Saturday Paper, Richard Ackland describes Pell’s political connections, including his influence on News Corp journalists and a political deal in which he urged Catholics to vote for the Howard government, even though its policies were at variance with the teachings of Catholic social morality: How Cardinal George Pell seduced News Corp.
Ever since our colonial times the hierarchy of the Catholic Church (and to a lesser extent other religions), have done political deals involving land grants and school funding. Also there is a certain resonance between the authoritarian hierarchies of the Church and authoritarian governments. That’s one reason matters to do with reproduction and sexual behavior have pushed most other aspects of Christian morality into the background. When religious hierarchies get too close to government there is usually a price to be paid in terms of the relevant religion’s moral teachings. Perhaps the most extreme compromise is in the relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and Putin.
That’s the context of Pell’s parting shots at Pope Francis, who has been teaching a social morality, quite consistent with the New Testament of Christianity, that directly challenges some traditional alliances between the Catholic hierarchy and movements on the far right.