Published in The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald - December 1, 2001
Barney Zwartz
December 1, 2011
A LEADING Melbourne priest has criticised Cardinal George Pell for reserving a ''grand apartment'' for himself at the Australian church's new guest house in Rome, saying ''the ethics of our secular state are higher than those of our church''.
Father Eric Hodgens, an elder statesmen among the clergy, also savaged Australia's Catholic bishops for an abject performance during their five-yearly visit to Rome last month, particularly in failing to stand up for Bill Morris, sacked earlier this year as Bishop of Toowoomba.
''They eat their own when fingered by Rome,'' Father Hodgens wrote in the The Swag, the national journal of Catholic priests.
''How can you trust them? They are reckless with our patrimony. They seem incapable of protecting their own rights, let alone ours, in a system which is corrupt by today's secular standards. No wonder the attitude of so many priests and observant laity is moving from disappointment to disgust.''
Father Hodgens said the guest house in the old city - a beautifully refurbished old religious house with 33 rooms for paying visitors, richly restored grand chapel and organ, and 150-seat auditorium, opened by Pope Benedict last month - cost between $30 million and $85 million, according to different estimates.
He said Cardinal Pell hoped all Australian dioceses would pay for it, but only Melbourne, Perth and Lismore made contributions and the Sydney archdiocese paid the bulk.
''Was it worth it? Hard to tell. Dioceses do not publish their accounts. Diocesan funds belong to the Catholics of the diocese. However, bishops are free to dispose of diocesan funds as they please and with no disclosure, no transparency, no accountability,'' Father Hodgens wrote. ''Can this enormous expense be justified?''
He said Catholics of the four dioceses were not consulted, that there was no prospect of a reasonable financial return, and no accountability. ''What does it say of us who trust bishops? The ethics of our secular state are higher than those of our church.''
Similar secrecy surrounded the sacking of Bishop Morris, who never saw the charges or the report by an ''inquisitorial visitor'', Archbishop Chaput of Denver.
''And the Australian bishops simply rolled over. Like subs in sado-masochistic play they thanked their humiliators for being generous with their time,'' Father Hodgens wrote. ''Thank God we live in a secular state and not in a Catholic theocracy.''
Cardinal Pell is overseas but a spokeswoman for the Sydney archdiocese said Domus Australia cost about the same as a new parish or school, ''not the excessive amounts quoted by some ill-informed sources''.
''Domus Australia was funded by the transfer of an underutilised property investment, borrowings and donations - not parish collections,'' she said. ''Domus Australia is not an exercise in philanthropy; it is a property investment that will be expected to pay its way - all indications to date confirm this important goal will be achieved.''
The country’s greenhouse-gas emissions are almost a third higher than 1990 levels, and it has a 6 percent CO2 reduction target for the end of 2012. If it couldn’t meet its goal, Canada would have to buy carbon credits, under the rules of the legally binding treaty.
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