dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

Catholic anger at Murdoch's papal knighthood

Steve Boggan

Tuesday 17 February 1998 01:02

"The Roman Catholic church is receiving complaints from worshippers following news that Rupert Murdoch has been awarded a papal knighthood from Pope John Paul II.

Senior Catholics are said to have been "mystified and astonished" when they heard that the purveyor of newspaper sex, scandal and nudity was made a Knight Commander of St Gregory at a ceremony in Los Angeles last month.

News of the award was kept out of Mr Murdoch's British titles - the Sun, the Times, the Sunday Times and the News of the World - at his request, although it is provoking outrage in the religious media and in Ireland, where many Catholics have reacted with anger that Mr Murdoch, who is not a Catholic, appears to have been honoured purely for donating large sums of money to the church. He and his wife, Anna, who is a Catholic, are known in Los Angeles as large contributors to the Archdiocesan Education Foundation, although specific amounts are not known.

The award was made by the Pope at the suggestion of Cardinal Archbishop Roger Mahony of Los Angeles. His recommendation was vetted by the Secretariat of State at the Vatican before being given the approval of the pontiff.

The knighthood is bestowed upon people of "unblemished character". It was presented by the Cardinal at St Francis De Sales Church in Los Angeles on 11 January. Other recipients included Bob Hope and Roy Disney, of the Walt Disney empire.

The reaction of Catholics in Britain has been almost unanimously negative.

Deborah Jones, editor of the Catholic Herald, said: "We have been receiving a much larger mailbag that usual, about 99 per cent of it asking: `What the hell is the church doing giving him a knighthood?'"

moar:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/catholic-anger-at-murdochs-papal-knighthood-1145252.html

You know it is coming pepe been waiting