FROM CARDINAL SPELLMAN TO CARDINAL SARAH IN ERRORS
By Prof. Nana Essilfie-Conduah
Historically, it is said the Vatican had never been short of two categories of able Officers, Finance and State. Francis Cardinal Spellman was one of the very splendid at Finance. His fatal error was to flaunt his expertise when he knocked the gate in Heaven for admission after he had died in an encounter with St. Peter, said the joke.
The underlying problem with him was his apparent rejection of “moral simplicity” a contradiction Popes feel besieged by defending the opulence of the Church and “Peter’s pence (poverty) as a rock solid principle. Some years back, Cardinal Heenan shocked the World Synod of Bishops in Rome to uphold St. Peter – that the Vatican should sell some of its art treasures. His idea was to use the proceeds to help the poor and needy. The condemnation was led by Cardinal Jose Slipyi (Ukraine). The Pope then I believe was John XXIII. He was taken for a bad mistake.
Another Cardinal Sarah has supposedly made remarks in a commentary on a Papal directive which for all intents and purposes could be interpreted as further liberalisation with regard to the hold of Rome on the Universal Church – not “international.”