Churches urged to return ‘tainted’ News International cash

The Roman Catholic Church in Britain has been urged to return a £100,000 cash gift from News International chief executive James Murdoch towards the cost of the Pope’s visit to this country last September because it is “tainted”.

by Bernard Purcell
Friday, July 22nd, 2011

The request – from the respected, high-brow journal The Tablet – came as Church of England leaders admitted they are retaining their £9 million shareholdings in News Corporation and BSkyB in the hope that they will rise on foot of  further British newspaper closures in the group.

The Church Commissioners manage the Church of England’s £5.3 billion investments portfolio which includes shares in both News Corp and BSkyB, despite pressure from senior Anglicans to pull out of Murdoch-owned companies.

Church Estates Commissioner Andreas Whittam Smith – one of the founders in the mid-1980s of The Independent which then boasted of being free from the interference of proprietors such as Rupert Murdoch – said selling the Church’s £3.8 million share of News Corp and £5.3 million stake in BSkyB might mean it would miss out on a jump in their value – caused by News Corp selling off or closing its UK newspaper interests.

Last week, Mr Whittam Smith was reported to have told the Church of England’s General Synod in York: “A premature sale of News Corp and BSkyB might just be simply very bad timing. I don’t argue with anything that anybody is saying about them, but I think it must be possible that News Corp will get rid of its entire British holdings of newspapers. If it is to do so, first of all the problem would have vanished from the point of view of the parent company, and for us as investors, and the shares will certainly bounce up again. So it is a ticklish area.”

James Murdoch met Benedict XVI in private audience on September 18th last at Westminster Cathedral just before the Pope celebrated Mass. Pope Benedict’s predecessor gave his non-Catholic father, Rupert, a papal knighthood in 1999. He divorced his Catholic wife Anna – James’ mother – very shortly afterwards. The News Corp boss reciprocated the knighthood the following year with a $10 million donation to the Catholic cathedral in Los Angeles the following year.

Editor of The Tablet Catherine Pepinster last week asked readers and the British branch of the church if they really wanted memories of the Pope’s visit “to be sullied by links to the corrupt and the cruel”.

In her editorial she said: “A welcome gesture now would be to return the Murdoch money and find other ways of replenishing the church coffers.”

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About The Author

Bernard Purcell is Tribune's Chief Reporter
  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_D66D26PXWBMAP2VKH4HRXBQHPU John

    The Catholic Church is supposed to be the Church of the Poor. Archbishop Romero of El Salvador, Cardinal Paulo Arns,  Bishop Pedro Casaldáliga and Bishop Helda Camara, all of Brasil are glowing examples of what a Christian must be – unequivocally serving the poor, the humble and the neglected. Yet we find the British Church messing about with capitalism, as unchristian an occupation as can be. They are putting money before the practice of morality and should blush.

  • terence patrick hewett

    Our Yorkshire comrades have a very pithy saying: “your s**t may stink but by gum there’s owt wrong wi yer brass.”  The late Mother Teresa had the same sort of criticism since she  took money from some very odd sources reckoning they were certainly in most need of the spirit of charity.  Those who criticised her of course would not be seen within a thousand miles of a leprosarium let alone have to finance it.  A Roman emperor answered this question long ago when was criticised for taking the income of the public lavatories of Rome; he withdrew a denarius from his cloak, raised it to his nose and quizzically remarked “it does not smell”

  • Anonymous

    The days of churches being the place of the poor ended many years ago, they are now places to enjoy  the building but that’s about it.

  • terence patrick hewett

    To illuminate some dark corners: 

    Christians have been here a long time, despite the best efforts of some real experts.  Catholicism arrived here during the tenure of the Roman Empire after the Emperor Constantine the Great converted to Christianity following his victory at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312AD.  When St Augustine arrived in Britain in 597AD to convert the Saxons, he found a fully functioning Catholic Church in Britain who spoke and wrote better Latin than he did.  The Latin that Augustine used having been corrupted by the romance languages of Europe after the fall of the Western Empire in 410AD.  Catholic dogma and doctrine has developed over 2000 years and only changes slowly and then only with great contemplation upon the consequences of change. What may be termed Core Values are never changed and are defended to the point of death.  It certainly is not democratic, but it is amazingly successful.  We have over one billion faithful worldwide and are one of the few institutions who regard the rights of the unborn child sacrosanct.

    You should remember the words of Macaulay: “The history of that Church joins together the two great ages of human civilisation…. She saw the commencement of all the governments and of all the ecclesiastical
    establishments that now exist in the world; and we feel no assurance that she is not destined to see the end of them all. She was great and respected before the Saxon had set foot on Britain, before the Frank had passed the Rhine, when Grecian eloquence still flourished at Antioch, when idols were still worshipped in the temple of Mecca. And she may still exist in undiminished vigour when some traveller from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St.Paul’s.” 

    .The Church has been in Britain for 1698 years; it’s been around somewhat longer than its enemies I believe.  The sad part is, that its enemies in Britain always attack the Church in its strongest suit; that of theology.  One day I suppose they will learn by experience but it doesn’t look likely yet.

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