Frank Brennan

Frank Brennan SJ. The Cardinal Pell precedent.

Speaking of the financial reforms in the Vatican, Cardinal Pell says:

‘The first principle was that the Vatican should adopt contemporary international standards, much as the rest of the world does. 

The second principle meant that Vatican policies and procedures would be transparent.

The third important principle within the Vatican was that there should be something akin to a separation of powers and that there would be multiple sources of authority.’

Imagine if the same approach were taken to administrative processes in the Holy See. I daresay Bishop William Morris would have received a fair hearing and we might all have known why he was sacked and who was pulling the levers. See: http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/issues/december-5th-2014/the-days-of-ripping-off-the-vatican-are-over/

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.

Frank Brennan

Fr Frank Brennan SJ has published four books on Indigenous constitutional recognition: Sharing the Country (Penguin Books, two editions, 1992 and 1994); No Small Change: The Road to Recognition for Indigenous Australia (University of Queensland Press, 2015); An Indigenous Voice to Parliament: Considering a Constitutional Bridge (Garratt Publishing, 2023, three editions) and Lessons from Our Failure to Build a Constitutional Bridge in the 2023 Referendum (Connor Court, 2024). He was a member of the Calma/Langton Senior Advisory Group on the Indigenous Voice Co-Design Process.

John Menadue

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