One of Britain’s most high-profile Catholic priests has admitted arranging papal knighthoods for wealthy businessmen for money.
Father
Michael Seed, who regularly celebrated Mass for Tony Blair and his
family in Downing Street, now faces questions from his religious order
after an investigation by The Mail on Sunday.
The
most damaging evidence concerns his attempted cultivation of an Israeli
arms dealer, Hezi Bezalel, who was seeking business opportunities in
the Balkans.
It shows that
Fr Seed, a former ecumenical adviser to the Archbishop of Westminster,
had ‘agreed’ a papal knighthood for Mr Bezalel before approaching him.
In return for a £45,000 donation to charity, Fr Seed said he could also
introduce Mr Bezalel to influential Balkan politicians ‘and the man who
looks after all arms for the region’. Mr Bezalel declined the offer,
saying he did not give to charity ‘under instruction’.
Papal
knighthoods are awarded to lay men and women for conspicuous service to
the church and society. They are among the highest honours the Pope can
bestow.
Tonight a source
close to Fr Seed’s order, the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, said
his superiors were ‘appalled’.
Although he failed to solicit funds from
Mr Bezalel, at least four wealthy Britons were impressed by his
overtures.
Fr Seed admitted they made donations to an Archbishop
friend’s charity in Serbia to become papal knights.
It
was unclear last night if the four, who are each understood to have
contributed between £25,000 and £50,000, had done anything else to merit
their honour.
Our inquiries also reveal that:
- Fr Seed gave a £34,000 cheque drawn from his order’s charity bank account to a friend, Chinese businesswoman Xuelin Black, who later paid the money into his personal account. Last night the order said it was auditing accounts over the disclosure. Ms Black, 47, who was made a papal dame by Pope Benedict XVI, is a Tory donor and adviser to the Government’s Big Society project.
- Fr Seed is on indefinite leave from his order after claims that he marked the 25th anniversary of his ordination in January with a champagne party at a racy club, with entertainment provided by men dressed as nuns.
- He lives rent-free in a flat owned by one of his wealthy papal knights in exclusive Dolphin Square in Pimlico, Central London.
Fr
Seed, who has taken a vow of poverty, denied profiting from any of the
deals. But he agreed that trying to solicit funds from Mr Bezalel could
be seen as ‘morally wrong’.
Asked if he thought many would see the deal as an abuse of the papal honours system, he said: ‘Of course I do.’
Fr
Seed is honorary chaplain to the International Committee on Human
Dignity, based at the European Parliament in Brussels.
But it was as
unofficial Catholic envoy to Parliament that he acquired many
well-connected friends.
He was praised by Cherie Blair for turning ‘the
great into the good’ and helped to convert Tony Blair, Ann Widdecombe,
John Gummer and the Duchess of Kent.
When he approached Mr Bezalel in
November 2008, he had recently left his post as ecumenical adviser to
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, then Catholic Primate of England and
Wales.
The Mail on Sunday
can reveal that Fr Seed and his go-between, American corporate
strategist Kalman Sporn, 39, constructed a careful plan to try to win
over Mr Bezalel.
Central
to their strategy was Archbishop Eugenio Sbarbaro, the Vatican’s
ambassador to Serbia, who had the power to nominate people for papal
knighthoods.
He has been a close friend of Fr Seed for nearly 30 years
and Fr Seed was soliciting funds for the Archbishop’s Belgrade charity,
The Path to Peace in the Balkans Foundation.
In
an email to Mr Sporn dated November 17, 2008, Fr Seed wrote: ‘Spoke to
Eugenio – Hezi can meet President [of Montenegro, Filip Vujanovic] any
time he wishes – Eugenio will call him.
‘Eugenio
will also introduce Hezi to the man who looks after all arms for the
region of Serbia, Montenegro and the Balkans in general – he is a friend
of Eugenio – my side of deal is done – Eugenio will entertain Hezi in
Belgrade. We must act quickly as Eugenio might be going on vacation in a
week or so to his family in Italy, near Genoa, till early December.
Papal knighthood is also agreed.’
The following day Fr Seed sent an
email to Mr Bezalel couched in more formal language.
In
it, he said he understood from Mr Sporn that ‘you are seeking a meeting
with the President of Montenegro and I am only too happy to facilitate
that for you whenever you wish’.
Fr
Seed added: ‘I have spoken with the Archbishop and he is only too happy
to assist you in any way you wish. I have told him of your particular
interests and he is again familiar with the specific people (at the
highest level) you wish to meet. As he has been in the region for nine
years he is very well known and trusted by all.’
Although
he made no mention of a papal knighthood at this point, Fr Seed raised
the matter in an email to Mr Sporn later that day. He included advice on
how to court their target.
He told Mr Sporn: ‘We must wait and see
now – my email says it all – no mention of Papal Knighthood though – you
can do that.’
He advised Mr Sporn to stress how ‘good’ the honour has
been for two British philanthropists.
One was made a Knight of the
Pontifical Order of Pope Saint Sylvester in 2004. Archbishop Sbarbaro
gave him the award for his support for ‘inter-faith initiatives’ in the
Balkans.
In the 2008 email to Mr Sporn,
Fr Seed said of the papal knighthood nomination process: ‘We have time –
he can submit even as late as April 09 if necessary.
[Archbishop
Sbarbaro retired in late 2009.] He [the Archbishop] is submitting names
next in January.
‘Hezi
could be on that list and be invested in February, perhaps at the Ritz
hotel, London. I can get the grand rooms free of charge – or wherever he
wishes. Eugenio would come over for it.’
Mr
Bezalel was unmoved by Fr Seed’s offer, though he told him on November
21 that his representative in the Balkans ‘will approach you should we
need’.
Undeterred, Mr Sporn told Mr Bezalel next day: ‘I don’t think you
understand the context and nature of Father Seed’s recommendation; so I
will spell it out for you. If you Hezi Bezalel make a sizeable
contribution to the charitable efforts of His Excellency Eugenio
Sbarbaro in Belgrade; then on a diplomatic level you will be introduced
to certain heads of state in both Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia. A
sizeable contribution is more than $75,000 [£47,000]. The Vatican can
open certain doors for you ...’
Mr
Sporn tried again soon after. Accusing Mr Bezalel of being
‘short-sighted’, he told him: ‘Within days you could be sitting with the
Presidents of Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro selling them technologies
they want and need. To achieve direct access... surely 75,000 is a small
fee.’
Later that day, Mr
Bezalel replied by email: ‘I don’t like this approach. When I give to
charity it’s because I want and not under instruction. I’m trying to be
as polite as possible. So please let’s forget about it.’
Fr Seed was a student at the Catholic
University of America when he met Archbishop Sbarbaro in Washington in
the early Eighties.
The Archbishop was charge d’affaires at the Vatican
embassy.
This January, the
Archbishop flew to London to conduct a Mass at the Church of the
Immaculate Conception, in Mayfair, marking Fr Seed’s 25 years as a
priest.
At a party afterwards at the Pigalle Club in Piccadilly, known
for its racy floor shows, many were taken aback when men appeared on
stage wearing nuns’ habits.
Party guests ranged from Westminster diocese clerics to millionaire benefactors who had flown in by private jet.
His order exclaustrated Fr Seed, meaning he is suspended indefinitely but is bound by his religious vows.
Last
night Fr Seed said he was introduced to Mr Bezalel by Mr Sporn, a New
Yorker who keeps a blown-up photo in his apartment of himself with Tony
Blair.
Admitting the emails
were ‘extremely damaging’, Fr Seed said: ‘I regret the language used.
It was because I was dealing with Kalman Sporn, who is very blunt. I had
to use language that he understood.’ When it was put that he was
effectively trying to facilitate a potential arms deal, he replied: ‘I
can’t deny that ... it’s terrible.’
But
he said all the funds he solicited helped charity in the Balkans. He
said donations went to Archbishop Sbarbaro, who then distributed them as
he saw fit. ‘At the heart of this is goodness,’ he said.
Asked if he thought donors he
recruited were motivated more by a papal knighthood then helping good
causes, he laughed: ‘I can’t answer that.’
He admitted he is living in a
London flat owned by Gregory King, a Glaswegian corporate money lender
whose fortune is estimated at £200 million.
Fr Seed claimed that Mr
King, who could not be contacted last night, received a papal knighthood
after donating to Archbishop Sbarbaro’s charity.
Archbishop
Sbarbaro said yesterday: ‘Fr Seed is a very good man. When I was
ambassador I met a lot of people and I awarded papal knighthoods but
this was a secondary part of my work.’
He
could not remember discussing Mr Bezalel with Fr Seed but said: ‘The
Church rewards people who are charitable. I still work for the
foundation and we are completing two works in Serbia which came about
through kind donations.’
Mr Bezalel did not respond to calls last week. He has many other business interests.
The
Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, based in New York, stressed they
were unaware of Fr Seed’s ‘involvement with soliciting funds for any
charitable organisation’.
They were ‘most definitely not aware of any
promises or implied promises of a papal knighthood’.
Mr Sporn said the emails
referred to helping Mr Bezalel with introductions to politicians who
could faciliate Balkans technology deals.
He
said: ‘Hezi was involved in the arms trade but for five years he has
been a distributor for security technology for software companies.
‘Sometimes
when you are raising money for charity, the language may sound
heavy-handed but the overall result is beautiful. Fr Seed and I were
raising money for Path to Peace, which brings Jews, Muslims and
Christians together in the former Yugoslavia. Hezi already had business
interests there and the approach was that he should use them to support
this charity.’
He said he and Fr Seed would not have been remunerated if Mr Bezalel had agreed to their proposal.
Riddle over the £34,000 he gave to Tory donor
A Chinese businesswoman is at the centre of a mystery over why Fr Seed gave her £34,000 from his order’s charity bank account.
Xuelin Black, 47, has lived in London since the late Nineties ‘developing business and political interests’.
In
the run-up to last year’s Election she donated £50,000 to the Tories
and was later invited to their summer ball.
She now advises Mr Cameron’s
Big Society ‘Tsar’ Lord Wei.
Last
night the Franciscan order was investigating why Fr Seed gave her the
£34,000 cheque drawn from its charity account.
She held on to it for two
months before paying it into Fr Seed’s personal account.
Fr Seed described it as a ‘loan’ when questioned by The Mail on Sunday but declined to elaborate.
Miss
Black, who runs an import business was made a papal dame by Pope
Benedict XVI.
She insisted yesterday that Fr Seed had inherited money
following an elderly relative’s death.
‘He
didn’t have a bank account so I held on to it for a couple of months
while he opened one,’ she said. She added that she was introduced to
Archbishop Eugenio Sbarbaro by Fr Seed at a party ‘years ago’.She
said: ‘He [the Archbishop] told me about his good work and asked if I
could help. I made a donation a few years later. I didn’t expect to be
made a papal dame. I do loads of work for charity.’
She said the
Archbishop flew to London to present her with the honour at the Ritz
hotel.
Fr Seed was also there.
Elite band of 400 Britons
Britain now has 400 papal knights – an award that Popes have been making since the early Middle Ages.
Originally they were conferred to the nobility.
But today the Papal Orders of Chivalry are a means for the Holy See to distinguish all those who have served the Church well.
British papal knights are traditionally members of the Pontifical Orders of Saint Gregory the Great and Pope Saint Sylvester.
Most are Catholics but some come from other faiths.
Knights and dames wear their badges suspended from a ribbon on their left breasts at ceremonies.
They are entitled to wear a uniform of their order. Dames wear capes.
The
uniform of St Gregory is dark green, with silver buttons and braiding;
that of St Sylvester is black, with gold buttons and braiding.
The uniform is accompanied by a cocked hat and dress sword.
Those honoured do not have specific obligations.
But it is customary to take part in major diocese events like consecrating bishops and ordinating priests.
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