The Guardian
July 15, 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jul/15/catholicism-pope-benedict-xvi
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The Catholic weekly The Tablet has a news story and editorial about concerns over the six-figure donation from James Murdoch towards the pope's visit to the UK last year, a trip that made as many headlines for its financing as it did for its historic nature.
According to the magazine:
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James Murdoch, who is in charge of his father Rupert Murdoch's media empire in Europe and Asia, is understood to have given a donation believed to be at least ?100,000. On the day that Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass in Westminster Cathedral, Mr Murdoch, and other major donors to the visit's funding, were introduced to the Pope in Archbishop's House.
The meet and greet led to a minor "pope for hire" firestorm in some circles. The Tablet carries a photograph of James Murdoch bowing before Benedict XVI as they meet. If you've never bought The Tablet before, the picture alone is worth the cover price.
With some understatement, the Catholic bishop of Arundel and Brighton has told The Tablet the church will have to "be careful about that source of money". Kieron Conry said:
A conversation needs to take place, discussion needs to take place. It is a public scandal and everyone knows Murdoch's empire is tainted by these revelations.
A spokesman for the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales has said the donation was "given and accepted in good faith".
Catholic commentator Francis Davis said:
Given the importance that the English bishops have attached to ethics in business since the banking crisis, it would now be extraordinary if the bishops were not to review the ethical provenance of this donation. And perhaps it raises questions about other donations we don't know about.
It is not the first or only link between the Catholic hierarchy and the Murdoch empire. In 1998 Rupert received a papal knighthood, thanks largely to his $10m donation to Los Angeles Cathedral, and last year the Guardian revealed how the media mogul enjoyed lunch with Times editor James Harding and the Roman Catholic archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, weeks before Benedict XVI flew into Britain.
It is not just the Catholics who have found themselves mired in the phone hacking scandal.
Last Saturday the Church of England revealed it had a ?3.76m stake in News Corporation and ?5.3m invested in BSkyB. Days later its First Church Estates Commissioner warned against a "premature" sale of shares. Former Independent editor Andreas Whittam Smith (coincidentally the same chap investigating Johann Hari) told General Synod:
I feel that a premature sale of News Corp and BSkyB might just be simply very bad timing. I don't argue with anything that anybody is saying about them, but I think it must be possible that News Corp will get rid of its entire British holdings, of newspapers that is, and that if it is to do so, first of all the problem would have vanished if you look from the point of view of the parent company and for us as investors, and the shares will certainly bounce up again, and so it is a ticklish area.
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