It Ain't Necessarily What The American Media Says Is So

I do actually research what I write, sometimes.  Much of the time, actually.  In researching the aftermath of the Vatican's conference on dealing with clerical sex abuse, late in February, I came across a fascinating article, How did George Pell get to where he was? about the disgraced, convicted, sentenced (6 years), man who will almost certainly follow Mr. (formerly Cardinal) Theodore McCarrick into that rarest of ranks, a Cardinal who has been totally defrocked by the Pope.  

The article is useful for those of us who aren't deeply involved with the workings, machinations and intrigues that are the Vatican and its politics.  The author points out many things that outsiders seem to have mistaken as honors and an expression of confidence by Pope Francis as being entirely something else.  A few examples. 

However, there are three reasons why Cardinal Pell reached the Vatican and they are very revealing for those who want to know how the Vatican actually works.The first reason was that Cardinal Pell was a significant figure at the time Pope Francis was elected Pope. He was believed to be the person organizing the numbers for the election of the candidate for the papacy preferred by Pope Benedict – Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan.  Scola was such a favorite among the Italians that the local bishops' conference sent a congratulatory note to Cardinal Scola when the white smoke appeared to say a candidate had been elected only to be disappointed when it turned out to be someone else – Jorge Mario Bergoglio from Buenos Aires!

As the "numbers man" for a competitor to Pope Francis he needed to be taken seriously.

During the previous two pontificates, he had become a well-known and influential figure in Rome. He was a member of two of the most significant Congregations in the Vatican bureaucracy – Bishops and Doctrine of the Faith – and so became a force to be reckoned with.That prominence would lead any new pope to the advice of Machiavelli: keep your friends close and your enemies closer!

Far from honoring Pell by assigning him to the Vatican, it was a means of keeping tabs on an infamous reactionary and thuggish theocratic gangster while, in the way of governments and ecclesiastical establishments, not admitting to the true character what Pell must have understood about his position, himself. 

And there were even better reasons to get him out of Australia:

But his arrival in Rome had other reasons than simply containing his impact on a pontificate he never warmed to.  Pell was generally unpopular as archbishop in both Sydney and the See he led before Sydney – Melbourne which is the largest archdiocese in Australia.

His departure from Sydney was a relief to the Catholics of that city and beyond, defusing the Catholic culture wars and allowing the church to regroup after almost two decades during which Pell was the most visible, divisive and controversial Catholic in the country.

It may come as a surprise to those whose idea of Catholics is limited to the sappy piety of old-line Hollywood movies, but I've heard, many times, when a priest, bishop or cardinal were reassigned somewhere else, many lay Catholics and religious and members of the clergy said "thank God and good riddance."  

And, in that most clerical of ways,  Pope Francis made use of Pell's skills as he kept his eye on him.

But there was one more reason to welcome Pell to Rome. The Vatican's finances – a small affair by comparison with what he had been responsible for in Sydney and Melbourne whose assets, staff numbers and turnover dwarf the Vatican – were a running sore for the popes for decades.

When Pope Francis came to Rome, he had a simple solution: close the Vatican's bank and hand financial responsibility to a suitably qualified and professional organization whose dedicated task was transparency and accountability – virtues never reached by the Vatican's bank.

The fact that the Vatican bank – the IOR – was a purpose built entity during WW2 which did not collapse with the Italian finance system, meant those influential in the Vatican prevailed on the new pope to retain the institution. But who could run it?

Enter George Pell. Though his reputation in Australia was one for being a big spender, internationally he appears to have developed a name for administrative and financial skills.

The fit was perfect: Pell got a job Francis didn't really care about.

What was presented in the secular and even some Catholic media as Pope Francis putting trust in Pell (who he certainly knew he couldn't trust) and as his honoring, was anything but that.  I think that I'll remember that from now on, that what appears to be honor and trust from the outside, when it's inside the Vatican, might not be what it seems and even what it's presented as being.  This article was a real lesson to me so I decided to share it. 

I will also include this from another article because it shows, contrary to the apparent inertia in the glacial rate of change at the Vatican, things have actually changed:

The Cardinal Pell case is a warningIn an interview with one of Austria's most respected dailies, Die Presse, Schüller noted that, only 48 hours after the conclusion of the Vatican abuse summit, it was officially announced that Australian Cardinal George Pell had been convicted of sexual abuse.

He said the "remarkable" thing about the Pell case was that Pope Francis had made no attempt to protect the Australian cardinal at the Vatican. Rather, he told Pell to report to the police in Melbourne where he'd been accused."That is very different from former times when Church officials who committed offences did not turn themselves in," Schüller said.

The Pell case certainly indicates a shift from the way the Vatican previously has dealt with sexual abuse involving senior Church officials, he said."Pell was one of a group of the pope's closest advisors," the Austrian priest said. "His case is a warning for the many who have up to now not taken the abuse cases seriously enough."

You can contrast what John Paul II and Benedict XVI did, especially in the infamous case of Bernard Law who fled the United States before they could arrest him or even serve him with papers.  JPII (who I will not honor with the title "saint") put him in charge of one of the major Churches in the Vatican, a definite honor.   Bernard Law should probably have served time.  I think it's regrettable that Francis didn't order him back to the States to face the consequences, thought I don't know if he'd have still been liable for prosecution.    

I do think that the case of Richard Malone now of the Buffalo Archdiocese is a case that is pending demotion, at the very least.  I haven't seen any news about his case resulting in consequences, yet.  The Pope shouldn't wait for him to be convicted in an American court to remove him from that office.