Memorandum for Next Conclave Calls Francis Pontificate a ‘Catastrophe’

ROME — A memorandum circulating among the Catholic cardinals who will elect the next pope calls the Francis pontificate a “disaster” and a “catastrophe” while laying out essential tasks for the next successor to Saint Peter.

The nearly 2000-word memo, signed with the pseudonym of Demos (“people,” in Greek), declares that historically, “the Pope and the Church of Rome have a unique role in preserving the apostolic tradition, the rule of faith, in ensuring that the Churches continue to teach what Christ and the apostles taught,” a role that has been virtually abandoned since the installation of Pope Francis in March 2013.

Previously it was said: “Roma locuta. Causa finita est” (Rome has spoken, the case is closed). Today it is: “Roma loquitur. Confusio augetur” (Rome speaks and confusion increases), the memo states.

The text goes on to criticize the silence of the papacy in the face of public refutations of key elements of the Church’s moral teaching by high-ranking prelates, combined with a heavy-handed crackdown on conservatives and liturgical traditionalists.

It also underscores “grave failures” on the part of Pope Francis to “support human rights in Venezuela, Hong Kong, mainland China, and now in the Russian invasion,” adding that there has been “no public support for the loyal Catholics in China who have been intermittently persecuted for their loyally to the Papacy for more than 70 years.”

Regarding the next papal election, the new pope “must understand that the secret of Christian and Catholic vitality comes from fidelity to the teachings of Christ and Catholic practices. It does not come from adapting to the world or from money,” the document reads.

“The first tasks of the new pope will be to restore normality, restore doctrinal clarity in faith and morals, restore a proper respect for the law and ensure that the first criterion for the nomination of bishops is acceptance of the apostolic tradition,” it declares.

Veteran Vatican journalist Sandro Magister, who published the statement, said that the author of the text “shows himself a thorough master of the subject,” adding that it cannot “be ruled out that he himself is a cardinal.”

If the author is indeed a cardinal, many signs seem to point to Australian Cardinal George Pell.

Though released in multiple languages, the original memorandum was clearly written in English, but it also employs both the prose style and typical phrases utilized by Cardinal Pell.

For example, the memo states that if there were no Roman correction of heresies recently proposed by German prelates, “the Church would be reduced to a loose federation of local Churches, holding different views.”

Compare this to a statement released on March 15 from Cardinal Pell’s office, which declared that the Catholic Church “is not a loose federation where different national synods or gatherings and prominent leaders are able to reject essential elements of the Apostolic Tradition and remain undisturbed” (emphasis added).

The text employs the unusual phrase to “sit lightly,” namely: “Schism is not likely to occur from the left, who often sit lightly to doctrinal issues.” In a 2011 interview, Pell used the same expression: “If a person says to me, ‘Look, I’m nominally a Christian but it sits lightly with me,’ I understand that” (emphasis added).

The author of the memorandum also demonstrates precise and detailed knowledge of the Vatican’s financial situation, an area previously under Pell’s direct responsibility as head of the Secretariat of the Economy.

It is uncertain exactly how widespread has been the circulation of the memorandum among the college of cardinals, or how many would subscribe to its diagnosis of the situation and its roadmap for the way ahead.

What is clear is that a marker has been laid down, perhaps the clearest statement to date of how some prelates view the Francis pontificate.

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