wishful punting

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Oct 07, 2007

I was pleased to learn from the U.K. blogger Mulier Fortis that the Irish betting service Paddy Power makes the odds at 10-1 that Sydney's Cardinal George Pell will become the next Archbishop of Westminster. Clearly someone sees a gap in the field.

Ok, it'll never happen, but the suggestion of Pell's translation to London is gratifying all the same. He'd provide exactly the kind of shake-up that most timid of bishops' conferences so desperately needs. True, they recently took a bold stance against the fundamentalist interpretation of Scripture -- by which thousands of souls yearly are seduced from the faith -- and they went out on a limb in favor of affordable housing. Make that "in favour" of affordable housing. But in large measure they seem content to spend their days armed with bottles of white-out, scouring drafts of committee reports for survivals of gender-exclusive language.

Mulier Fortis, as enthusiastic as I about the prospect of Pell in Westminster, is less pessimistic about his chances. I hope she knows something I don't. There'd be a fine edge to the irony, were Australia -- once viewed the dumping-ground of the U.K.'s "remittance men" -- to export back to the mother country the antidote for her current malaise. Think what it would mean to Tim Radcliffe.