Pope told British cardinal not to accept seat in House of Lords
CWN – October 02, 2012
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the retired Archbishop of Westminster, has confirmed that Pope Benedict XVI told him that he should not accept a seat in the House of Lords.
In 2009, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown extended an invitation to Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor to become the first Catholic prelate to serve in the House of Lords in almost 500 years. The cardinal, who was stepping down from his pastoral duties, told the Daily Telegraph that he was inclined to accept the post, but decided to decline the honor on the Pope’s advice.
“I consulted with the Pope and his chief adviser, and they were against it,” the British prelate said. (Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor did not identify the Pope’s “chief adviser.”) He said that the Pope was concerned about the precedent that could be established by a prelate assuming a role in government. In recent years the Vatican has consistently opposed the involvement of Catholic clerics in secular political affairs.
A leading Vatican journalist, Paolo Rodari, had reported in 2009 that Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor was prepared to accept the seat in the House of Lords until Pope Benedict intervened. Until now, the cardinal himself had not previously addressed that report directly. Earlier this month he had said that he was happy he did not accept the seat, because “I would be involved in matters that were beyond my brief and might have caused me some hassle and difficulty.”
Additional sources for this story: See www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=15779
You know, I was going to make a sarcastic comment about my amazement at a Conciliarist Cardinal actually obeying a Papal order, but decided against it… mainly because it was probably more along the lines of a suggestion — you know, that “gentle persuasion” stuff that works so well with “Catholic” politicians — that just happened to be in line with the decision toward which this courageously obedient Cardinal was already strongly inclined. After a career in the Conciliarist church, he would obviously be ill-prepared for any of that potential “hassle and difficulty”.
That said, although I’m not so sure that a “retired” cleric should necessarily refrain from political involvement in all cases, it was probably the correct decision in this case. For one thing, the still explicitly anti-Catholic British government would have certainly used him as a token “proof” that they aren’t the bigots that they actually are — not that they won’t use the mere offer as such “proof”, all the while pushing their perverted agenda under the false flag of “conservatism”.
(Okay, so I didn’t manage to completely avoid sarcasm, but trust me, this is the polite version of this post.)