ROME/AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net
Lewis Blayse
Domus Australia (“Australia House”) is a palatial building in Rome which the Catholic Church purchased and renovated for about $30 million (see photo above). Cardinal “Georgie” Pell stays there six or seven times a year, according to the rector of the on-site chapel, Father Andrew James.
Victorian Parliamentary enquiry into clerical child sexual abuse committee member, Andrea Coote caused a sensation when she suggested the Catholic Church could sell it to raise funds for compensating victims. Father Brendan Arthur sprung to the defence of what he fondly calls an “Australian Oasis” saying that selling the place would be a crime since “for people like that [victims] it’s never going to be enough.” Father Brendan said, “Where do you stop? Sell off St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney next? Or St Patrick’s in Melbourne?” Probably wouldn’t fetch as much as Domus Australia, though.
Cardinals of the Catholic Church are fondly known (by some) as “Princes of the Church”, so it is fitting that Prince Pell should have his own palace. Like all impoverished nobility, he is forced to rent it out to the hoi-polloi occasionally, for a mere $250 per night per room and $120 per meal. When he stays, if there are other “guests”, poor Prince Pell only occupies two rooms. A current guest, Father Brennan, who is on holidays there from his parish in Dandenong North, in Victoria, likes to slip out for a quiet cigarette in the internal courtyard (see photo below).
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