Cardinal Pell and the ‘Demos’ Memorandum

National Catholic Register ^ | January 16, 2023 | Edward Pentin

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Cardinal Pell and the ‘Demos’ Memorandum

NEWS ANALYSIS: Whether or not the Australian cardinal wrote it himself, the text is a strong rebuke of the current pontificate and its style reflects the late prelate’s forthright personality.

VATICAN CITY — A text is being attributed to the late Cardinal George Pell that summarizes deep concerns he and many others in Rome have had about the current crisis in the Church and the direction of this pontificate. 

Last March during Lent, the veteran Italian Vaticanist Sandro Magister published the text and described it as a “memorandum” circulated to cardinal electors and pseudonymously written under the name “Demos,” the Greek name for people. Magister wrote at the time that it was written by someone who “shows himself a thorough master of the subject” and it “cannot be ruled out that he himself is a cardinal.” 

Last week, Magister revealed to the Associated Press that Cardinal Pell was the author. He also told the Register Jan. 13 that “the text was handed over to me personally by Cardinal Pell” who was “very pleased that I published it, provided I did not mention the name of the author. 

“And he wrote it all,” Magister said, “from the first words to the last.” 

What Does ‘Demos’ Say?

The author of the text begins by stating an assessment that is shared by many in, or close to, the Vatican — that this pontificate “is a disaster in many or most respects; a catastrophe.” He then goes on to recall that the task of the Successor of Peter is to be a unifier, preserve the apostolic tradition and uphold the Church’s teaching, a task that the memo asserts is not being accomplished at this time.

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He adds that instead of “Roma locuta. Causa Finita est” (Rome has spoken; the cause is finished), “today it is: ‘Roma loquitur. Confusio augetur’” (Rome has spoken; confusion grows). 

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Ping

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“Demos” then lists the times the Pope was silent in the face of evils in the Church, including in response to the current German Synodal Way that is promoting homosexuality and women priests, and what the author describes as “explicitly heretical” statements by Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the relator general of the global Synod on Synodality, rejecting the Church’s teaching on sexuality. The memorandum calls on the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to formally correct Cardinal Hollerich — something Cardinal Pell also publicly urged on the same day Magister published the memorandum last March.

“The silence is emphasized,” the author adds, “when contrasted with the active persecution of the Traditionalists and contemplative convents” — a reference to severe restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass issued in 2021, and harsh regulations imposed on women contemplative religious.