Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

Cardinal Murphy O'Connor has departed this vale of tears during the weekend. The Evil Clown himself, who isn't very fast in remembering the plight of persecuted Christians, was not slow at all in letting us know how saddened he is.

He bloody well knows why.

CMOC was a prominent member of the so-called St. Gallen Mafia, the group of prominent prelates who helped Bergoglio to position himself for the 2013 Conclave. No, I do not think for a second that this made the election invalid, and only in kindergarten can children believe that this kind of positioning does not take place all the time (and even more intensely so in the past, when “transition Popes”, expected to reign for only months or maximum a year or two, made the positioning and PR game a permanent one; and I will ignore the bribes and exchange of favours out of the charity of my heart).

What I am thinking is this: that this powerful man, once able to influence papal election, is now dust.

What is worth, now, the knowledge of being one of the Big Whigs? What has remained of the satisfaction of knowing that one's own prestige and influence with the wrong people has led to the desired outcome even without him taking part in the Conclave? What use is the knowledge that a Pope himself will express one's sadness at one's demise, when the Judgment will be faster than that?

CMOC had, of course, all the time in the world to repent, as his knowledge that he was dying of cancer put him, by God's grace, in a much more favourable position than, say, Cardinal Meisner, who appears to have simply dropped dead, without even seeing it coming. (Like Saul Alinsky. Just saying…).

However, the great grace of knowing that one's last hour is approaching is only useful if one has the right faith. If one thinks that there is no God at all, or a kindergarten version of one (as Meisner clearly indicated in interviews before he died), then this grace will be of little and, very possibly, of no use at all.

Now everything is gone. Gone are the events with heads of state and government; gone is the life of prestige and comfort; gone are the interviews and the obsequience of the Catholic masses. The Cardinal stood naked in front of his just Judge.

Thousand battles could he have fought, and he shunned all of them. Where he has now gone, no one is fooled by pomp and interviews. Where he has gone, he is one of the greatest failures of the Church in the last decades.

Pray for the poor bastard, because one day we will stand, just as naked, in front of our just Judge.

But seriously, do all you can to get there in a better position than this one.

A red hat was never a “get out of hell”-card.

M