BishopAccountability.org
	Return the Murdoch Money By Catherine Pepinster The Tablet July 15, 2011 http://www.thetablet.co.uk/blogsub.php?id=149&ti=17 Unlike most of the congregation at the papal Mass at Westminster Cathedral last September, James Murdoch did not have to crane his neck to get his only sight of the Pope. He met him personally just before the Mass; the photograph taken by the Vatican photographer and reproduced in this week's Tablet shows him bowing low over the outstretched hand of Benedict XVI. Mr Murdoch was one of a large group of benefactors who got to meet the Pope, one by one, that Saturday morning. What they had in common were generous gifts to the papal visit fund, of around ?100,000 each. Enjoying a few private moments with the Holy Father in return for a donation does have a touch of "cash for access" about it, made plainer by the fact that when one of the party leaders who were also meeting the Pope before the Saturday Mass, asked to bring along a devout Catholic constituent to meet Benedict, the response was that this was inappropriate. Revelations about phone hacking at the News of the World and allegations about other unethical journalistic practices at The Sun and The Sunday Times are coming thick and fast, but one stands out above all others: the culture of the News of the World made it acceptable to hack the phone of a missing child and delete her voicemail messages, thereby giving the parents of that young girl, Milly Dowler, hope that she was still alive and was still using her phone. Do Catholics really want their memories of one of the greatest occasions in their national Church's history to be sullied by links to the corrupt and the cruel? A welcome gesture now would be to return the Murdoch money and find other ways of replenishing the Church coffers.
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