Stephen D'Agata

One of the revelations to come forward after the death of Cardinal George Pell, was the statement by Italian journalist Sandro Magister that the author of a memo which, among other things, described the current Pope as a catastrophe, was none other than George Pell himself.

Now, George Pell replaced Francis Little as Archbishop of Melbourne in 1996. At that time, I was recently appointed as a pastoral councillor in Melbourne and, when, in late 1997, the archbishop graced our parish with a visit, my wife and I thought it would be a great honour to have our newborn child blessed by him. Little did I know at the time that this blessing would prove to be a curse and my poor child has experienced more than their fair share of woe over their 25 years on the planet.

Over the next couple of decades, I came to the opinion that George Pell represented everything that was wrong with the Catholic Church. Although he is not explicitly emulated in my novel, Pope Dreams: Pope Peter the Improbable, I believe that he was an example of the conservative sycophants who would like to see the church regress to the glory days before Vatican II.

Given my opinion on the cardinal, I have decided to have a look at the memo he is purported to have authored and give my take on it in a series of blog posts.

The memo is titled ‘The Vatican Today’ and was written in early 2022 (during Lent) by an anonymous author Demos (Latin for: the people). The memo discusses 6 main points followed by a list of the key issued to be addressed in the next conclave. The 6 main points are:

1. The need for the papacy to uphold apostolic tradition,
2. The danger of the church diverging from strict monotheism,
3. A lack of respect for Vatican law,
4. A failure to address the financial woes of the Vatican,
5. The decline in the political influence of the Vatican, and
6. The failure of the pontiff to inspire clergy and support traditional values.

So, in the next series of blog posts, I intend provide a critique of the issues purportedly raised by the late cardinal.  A link to the memo itself can be found here.