Rupert Murdoch, papal knight

As British authorities look into the cellphone
hacking scandal surrounding the global media empire of Rupert Murdoch,
questions have reappeared about the 1998 award of a papal knighthood to
Murdoch--and how his family may have used its riches to appear in a favorable
light with the Roman Catholic hierarchy.

Murdoch's selection for the honorary
knighthood--the highest honor the pope can bestow on laypeople--upset many
people at the time. Murdoch's News Corp. was long known for sensationalist
tabloid newspapers and titillating programs on the Fox Network.

The ceremony was celebrated by Cardinal Roger
Mahony in a suburban Los Angeles parish, and I covered it for the Los Angeles Times. Later reports said
that Murdoch contributed $10 million toward building the Los Angeles
archdiocese's large downtown cathedral, dubbed Taj Mahony by many.