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| Going but not yet gone. Cardinal George Pell - the most incompetent leader in Chrisendom? |
Well he’s finally going. Cardinal Pell, the leader of the Australian Catholic Church, is being promoted to almost the very top. George is being kicked upstairs to be the Vatican's "Grand Financial Inquisitor". www.smh.com.au/national/cardinal-george-pell-named-by-pope-francis-to-head-vatican-finance-ministry-20140225-hvdn3.html
This Inquisition
unlike its Spanish predecessor is reasonably welcome. I say reasonably because I wonder if it will
be as transparent as would be desirable.
There are allegations of corruption, nepotism and dysfunction in the Vatican made
public by the Pope Benedict’s butler. I
mean, really, who cares? So what if the
Vatican is awash with sleaze and fraud.
That has been a centuries old tradition.
The allegations of the money laundering through the Vatican Bank by
pious war lords and prayerful crooks exemplifies how Vatican finances are remote
from both God and the good works required by the Bible.
Several issues emerge, however, from this appointment which
requires the godless to drop their repugnance and gaze in wonder at byzantine
world of Vatican finances.
The first point is the remarkable seniority of Cardinal Pell
in the catholic stronghold. We look at
him as a doddering fool. His public
appearances are a wonderful catastrophe.
He appears remote, devoid of charisma and slow witted. In short, his is atheism’s greatest
friend. And yet he is a member of the
Group of 8 most senior Cardinals at the elbow of the Pope nudging him
along. It is incredible that such a low
calibre man could achieve these dizzying heights. What this tells me is that there is a leadership
vacuum. Catholicism is an organisation
where leadership cannot be recruited from a competitive pool of qualified
candidates. It must recruit from a group
of elderly men with great expertise in theological and liturgical matters but probably
untrained in finance and management. It
is a recipe for disaster. And we have
seen this disaster unfold both here in Australia and across the world.
The second thing I feel is that Australia is diminished with
the loss of Cardinal Pell. He is such a
lumbering fool, that Catholicism in Oz must be cheering from the rafters at his
departure. They must have wished him
dead for some time. Now he disappears
into the bowels of the actuarial inquisition in Rome never to be seen again
they would hope. I, as an unbeliever, am
gutted. Never have I seen such a poor
adversary as dumb foolish Pell. It is a
nightmare for me that he is gone and a wonderful opportunity for Australian
Catholicism to somehow reinvent itself.
Finally, Cardinal Pell’s elevation gives one pause for
thought on the Indian notion of Karma found in Buddhist, Hindu and other
eastern faiths. Karma is a notion based
on the justice of causality. If one is
good, then good things should be caused to happen. My rather uninformed knowledge of Karma
essentially boils down to this. If a
good/bad person has good/bad things happen, then I intone the word “Karma” even
though I think that causation has no basis in fact. Indeed, I feel that Karma is complete
crap. Would you say to the dying Syrian
child, “Karma kid because you were naughty”? I don’t think so. The notion that actions and intentions lead inexorably
to a causal outcome is nonsense. Bad
things happen to good people and vice versa.
Great things have happened to Cardinal Pell and he doesn’t
deserve them. He presided over the demoralization
and decline of the Church. The Church is
a basket case when he was its leader. Is
he fired? No. Do the normal processes of accountability
apply so that the buck stops with him?
No. Will he be subject to the
competitive pressures of the labour market and be forced to resign? No. His
last task before his Roman holiday is further testimony on child sex
abuse. It is a fucking joke. Catholicism is in crisis in this country on
his watch and he gets promoted. Kids
were abused and his record seems less than proactive in stopping the rot. No, as a leader he was appalling and should
be held accountable. But he is promoted to
ethereal heights. Karma????
What is your view?
Was Cardinal Pell atheism’s greatest friend?
Is his departure good or bad?
Is his departure deserved or is he being kicked upstairs to
be hidden?
Why is he so successful in Rome?
Over to you guys….
