‘Catastrophe’: George Pell blasts Pope Francis in secret memo

Cardinal George Pell was revealed as the secret author of an anonymous Vatican memo that slammed Pope Francis as a “catastrophe” for the Catholic Church.

Cardinal George Pell has been revealed as the secret author of a bombshell memo that condemned the “politically correct” tenure of Pope Francis.

As the Vatican announced that Pope Francis would deliver a funeral mass for Pell at St Peter’s Basilica on Saturday (local time), the Australian was outed as working secretly behind the scenes against the “disaster” and “catastrophe” of the current pontiff’s leadership.

Pell’s memo released under the pseudonym “Demos”, or populace, in Spring 2022, slammed the pope’s silence on progressive churches embracing LGBT ideology, female priests and communion for the divorced.

“This pontificate is a disaster in many or most respects; a catastrophe,” the memo began.

“Decisions and policies are often ‘politically correct’, but there have been grave failures to support human rights in Venezuela, Hong Kong, mainland China, and now in the Russian invasion,” Pell continued.

Pope Francis talking with Australian cardinal George Pell. Picture: AFP

The Italian journalist who leaked the memo last year, Sandro Magister, revealed Pell’s identity on his blog, saying the Australian’s relationship with Pope Francis was in stark contrast to his predecessor Pope Benedict.

“He wanted me to publish it,” Magister told Reuters.

On the same days as the memo was revealed secretly on March 15, Pell published an unusual public interview calling on the Vatican to rebuke two of the German church’s members for their rejection of teachings on sexual ethics.

Pope Francis praised Cardinal George Pell for “unwavering” faith in the “hour of trial”, referencing the former Archbishop’s years in jail before being acquitted of child sex allegations.

Pell died in Rome at the age of 81 following complications from hip surgery. He was reported to have gone into a sudden cardiac arrest while chatting with medical staff.

The former Archbishop of Sydney and Melbourne was the most senior Australian to serve in the Catholic Church and was a close adviser to Pope Francis, who praised his work as the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy, spearheading investigations into the Holy See’s opaque finances.

In revealing the identity of Pope Francis’ biggest critic, Magister said that Pell shared a closer relationship with Pope Benedict, who died just 10 days earlier.

“Between him and Joseph Ratzinger there was a strong proximity of vision … despite their diversity of character,” Magister wrote.

“In the last period of his life, in the evening, after the recitation of vespers, he loved to have articles or books read aloud to him. And among the texts that Benedict appreciated so much were the memoirs of Cardinal George Pell on the trial and imprisonment in Australia”.

Pope Benedict XVI, right, is greeted by Cardinal George Pell, left, upon his arrival at Richmond Air Base on the outskirts of Sydney in 2018. Picture: AP Photo/Mark Baker

Pell spent more than a year in prison while defending unproven allegations of child sex abuse.

Shortly before his death, Pell wrote an article for The Spectator denouncing the Vatican as a “toxic nightmare”, singling out the “neo-Marxist jargon about exclusion, alienation, identity, marginalisation, the voiceless, LGBTQ” instituted by Pope Francis.

In publishing the piece after his death, Spectator associate editor Damian Thompson noted that while Pell didn’t mention Pope Francis by name, it was the pontiff’s pet project that the Australian called an “attack on traditional morals”.

“Why the silence on the afterlife of reward or punishment, on the four last things; death and judgment, heaven and hell?” Pell wrote in his final article.

Pell’s body will be returned to Australia and buried in the crypt of St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney, church officials said.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said on Thursday he would deny Pell a taxpayer-funder funeral in his home state, given to Australians who make significant contributions to public life.

“We will never ever forget victim-survivors of institutional child sexual abuse at the hands of the Catholic Church,” Andrews told reporters.

“There will be no memorial service or state funeral because I think that would be a deeply, deeply distressing thing for every victim-survivor of Catholic Church child sexual abuse.”

Originally published as ‘Catastrophe’: George Pell blasts Pope Francis in secret memo