The BBC continues its irritating habit of reporting events before they happen – budget statements, for example, or speeches – by describing in advance Cardinal Murphy O’Connor’s Christmas Midnight Mass address.
Cardinal M O’C is going to ‘query’ the cost of the war in Iraq. According to the BBC the cardinal will continue the Catholic Church’s historic tradition of appeasing fascism by saying:
What a terrible thing it is that billions – and I mean billions of pounds – are being spent in war in the Middle East which could have been spent bringing people out of dire poverty and malnourishment and disease
The Cardinal’s main objection seems to be made on the grounds of value for money; he might look at how his own church spent $572 million to settle 10,600 claims against 4,392 priests in child abuse scandals. Just think of all the people who could have been brought out of poverty with that amount of money, Cardinal.