THE CATHOLIC Church in the UK has been asked to return £100,000
(€114,000) donated by James Murdoch to help defray the costs of the
papal visit to Scotland and England last September.
Mr Murdoch is
chief executive of News Corporation Europe and Asia and the youngest son
of News Corp chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch.
James
Murdoch met Pope Benedict XVI in private audience on September 18th last
at Westminster Cathedral in London, just before the pope celebrated
Mass.
Catherine Pepinster, editor of influential UK Catholic weekly the
Tablet , has asked in the current issue whether “Catholics
really want their memories of one of the greatest occasions in their
national Church’s history to be sullied by links to the corrupt and the
cruel”.
She continued: “A welcome gesture now would be to return
the Murdoch money and find other ways of replenishing the church
coffers.”
Pepinster felt that “enjoying a few private moments with
the Holy Father in return for a donation does have a touch of ‘cash for
access’ about it”.
She added that this was “made plainer by the
fact that when one of the party leaders who were also meeting the pope
before the Saturday Mass asked to bring along a devout Catholic
constituent to meet Benedict, the response was that this was not
appropriate. The rich man’s gesture, it seems, is preferred to the
widow’s mite.”
In 1998 Rupert Murdoch was made a Knight Commander
of St Gregory by Pope John Paul II.
Mr Murdoch is not a Catholic but was
recommended for the honour by the then cardinal archbishop of Los
Angeles, Roger Mahony, after he gave money to a Church education fund.
The knighthood is bestowed “to acknowledge an individual’s particular
meritorious service to the Church”.
In 1999 Mr Murdoch snr donated $10 million to help build Los Angeles Catholic cathedral.
His wife at the time, Anna Torv,mother of James, is Catholic. She was Mr Murdoch’s second wife.
They divorced in June 1999.
He married his current wife, Wendi Deng, the following month.