VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis will say a final farewell to Cardinal George Pell At a funeral mass on Saturday, the Vatican said, as revelations emerged of the Australian prelate’s growing concern over what he saw as the “disaster” and “catastrophe” of the papacy under Francis.
The Vatican said on Thursday that the dean of the college of cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, would celebrate Pell’s funeral mass in St. Petersburg. Saint Peter’s basilica. As is customary for the funerals of cardinals, Francis will deliver a final recommendation and a greeting.
Pell, who had served as Francis’ first finance minister for three years before returning to Australia to face child sex abuse charges, died in a Rome hospital on Tuesday of heart complications following a a hip operation. He was 81 years old.
He split his time between Rome and Sydney after being exonerated in 2020 over allegations he molested two altar boys while Archbishop of Melbourne. The Australian High Court overturned an earlier conviction and Pell was released after serving 404 days in solitary confinement.
Pell had repeatedly clashed with the Vatican’s Italian bureaucracy during his 2014-2017 tenure as prefect of the Holy See’s Secretariat for the Economy, which Francis created to try to rein in the opaque finances of the Vatican. Vatican. In his telegram of condolence, Francis credits Pell with having laid the foundations for reform underway, including the imposition of international budgeting and accounting standards on Vatican offices.
But Pell, a staunch conservative, grew increasingly disillusioned with the leadership of Francis’ papacy, including his emphasis on inclusion and solicitation of the laity over the future of the church.
He wrote a remarkable memorandum outlining his concerns and recommendations for the next pope at a future conclave, which began circulating last spring and was published under a pseudonym, “Demos,” on the Vatican blog Settimo Cielo. .
Blogger Sandro Magister revealed Wednesday that Pell was indeed the author of the memo, which is an extraordinary indictment of the current pontificate by a former close aide to Francis.
The memo is split into two parts – “The Vatican Today” and “The Next Conclave” – and lists a series of points covering everything from the “weakened” preaching of the Gospel of Francis to the precariousness of finances. of the Holy See and to the non-compliance with the law in the city-state, including in the ongoing financial corruption lawsuit that Pell himself had defended.
Commentators from each school, if for different reasons… agree that this pontificate is a disaster in many, if not most, respects; a disaster,” Pell wrote.
Also on Wednesday, the conservative magazine The Spectator published what it said was a signed article that Pell wrote in the days before his death. In the article, Pell describes as a “toxic nightmare” Francis’ two-year canvassing of lay Catholics on issues such as the church’s teaching on sexuality and the role of women that is expected to come to a head during of a meeting of bishops in October. .
Referring to the Vatican’s summary of the canvassing effort, Pell complained of “growing confusion, the attack on traditional morality and the insertion into the dialogue of neo-Marxist jargon about the exclusion, alienation, identity, marginalization, voiceless, LGBTQ as well as the displacement of Christian notions of forgiveness, sin, sacrifice, healing, redemption.
Pell’s anonymous note, however, is even harsher and takes particular aim at Francis himself. While other conservatives criticized Francis’ crackdown on traditionalists and prioritizing mercy over morality, Pell went further and devoted an entire section to the Pope’s involvement in a major financial fraud investigation. which resulted in the prosecution of 10 people, including Pell’s former nemesis. ., Cardinal Angelo Becciu.
Pell initially applauded the indictment, which stemmed from the Vatican’s €350 million investment in a London property deal, as it vindicated his years-long effort to uncover financial mismanagement and corruption in the Holy See. But during the trial, uncomfortable questions were raised about the rights of the defense in a judicial system where Francis has absolute power, and handled it.
Pell noted that Francis issued four secret executive orders during the investigation “to assist the prosecution” without the right for those affected to appeal. The the defense pleaded the decrees violated the suspects’ human rights.
Pell also came to the defense of Becciu, who Francis removed in September 2020 even before it is investigated. “He was not given due process. Everyone is entitled to due process,” wrote Pell, for whom the issue is particularly dear given his own experiences.
“Vatican lawlessness risks becoming an international scandal,” Pell wrote.
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