Mea-Culpa

Copyright © 2006 by Ron C. Kimrey.

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Contents

Preface

MEA CULPA I

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

MEA CULPA II

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Endnotes

Preface

The 33 Day Pope

September 29, 1978: Rome’s Vatican City; in the popes private quarters the lights had been on all night. It was unusual, but no one was concerned. At 5:30 a. m., as she had every morning, Sister Vincenza placed a cup of coffee outside the pope’s bedroom. The coffee went untouched.

Two hours later the Vatican radio announced, "At approximately 5:30 this morning the pope’s private secretary entered the bedroom of his holy father, Pope John Paul the first; he discovered his holiness in bed, dead, and was able to establish that he passed away unexpectedly about 11 p. m. last night. The cause of death is said to have been a heart attack.

The faithful from all over the world called the telephone exchange at the Vatican to find out what had happened; how did the Pope die? Who found him? Did he die of natural causes? What was the Vatican concealing?

David Yallop, best selling author, stated: The Vatican, or people speaking in behalf of the Vatican, because at the end of the day The Vatican is not a brick wall, the Vatican is people, it is flesh and blood, it breaths, it talks, it lies. The Vatican lied about what time the Pope had been found, the Vatican lied about who found the Pope, the Vatican lied about what papers the Pope was holding, the Vatican lied, and continued to lie about the Pope’s health, the Vatican lied saying an autopsy couldn’t be permitted because it was banned,—that’s five lies before I start.

The Vatican remained silent—which fueled speculation. From the first day a terrible suspicion arose. Was Pope John Paul the first murdered? The strange thing about it was that it happened only 33 days after he was elected Pope. There seems to be a very probable connection to the Banco Ambrosiano’s Vatican dealings!

In London, in June of 1982, a jogger made a gruesome discovery under Black Fryers Bridge, the body of a dead man. The man had been the central figure in Italy’s largest bank scandal. He was a speculator who lost 1.6 billion dollars. He was Roberto Calvi, head of Italy’s Banco Ambrosiano. Investigations also included the Vatican. Behind the Saint Ann entrance to the Vatican is the IOR, the Institute for Religious establishment,—the Vatican Bank!

Some dealings within those walls were done with Banco Ambrosiono. Pierluigi Dell’Osso, the public prosecutor stated: The public prosecutors office examined in detail the relationship between the IOR and the Banco Ambrosiano. It was established that the head of the IOR was partly responsible for the Banco Ambrosiano going bankrupt.

The public prosecutor turned his attention to Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, the chief banker at the Vatican. In his book, published in 1984, British writer David Yallop took this a step further. He hypothesized that it led to the Pope’s murder! Clearly, there was a conspiracy. Banco Ambrosiano did collapse. 1.6 billion dollars did vanish, and that is why this man [Pope John Paul I] was murdered, because he was about to expose it. On the last day of his life, the Pope was removing Archbishop Paul Marcinkus from running the Vatican Bank, and he wrote many other changes as I recall… he planned to do. He [Pope John Paul I] discussed this with Cardinal Veto… !¹

What about Roberto Calvi? Was he the victim of a conspiracy too? Roberto Calvi’s widow brought about a lawsuit in order to claim her husband’s life insurance. Clara Calvi was successful in the lawsuit. Clara Calvi stated: There is no doubt at all the priests from the Vatican did it, my husband had explained it to us, (her son and her), they told him it isn’t a sin for them to kill someone, after all, they were just releasing a persons soul from their body, and said that afterward the Cardinals would simply retreat into their fortress and stay there until it had all blown over.

The public prosecutors office in Milan issued a warrant for the arrest of the chief banker of the Vatican because of his involvement in the bankruptcy, but Archbishop Paul Marcinkus never appeared before a court because the Vatican is a sovereign state, archbishops cannot be extradited. Marcinkus remained at his Vatican post until 1990. He was then relocated to a retirement paradise for wealthy retirees in Arizona, U.S.A., where he retired and was taking care of the spiritual welfare of retired millionaires.

Employing him was expensive for the Vatican; it paid two hundred and forty-one million dollars to the creditors of Banco Ambrosiano alone. This was not an admission of responsibility, but a voluntary payment; the banks creditors were bailed out by the faithful of the church!

MEA CULPA I

Chapter 1

The Smiling Pope

Albino Luciani, the smiling pope, some say he knew too much about the approaching financial scandal, and that he (The Pope) had to be disposed of! Some say simply that he was a sick man. Secrets surrounded the death of the Pope. Albino Luciani was born in 1912 in a poverty stricken part of Italy, and he was raised in poverty. He left home at the age 11 by his own choice; it was his desire to become a priest.

In the seminary the little boy was transformed into a quiet, hard working priest. It is said that he was humble, obedient, and industrious. His relatives said he had no desire to have a high position in the church, but that it was simply his dream to become a priest of the villages, and to have his mother to care for his home. Pope John XXIII took notice of him, and decided to promote him to bishop.

Luciani it is said, was concerned with spiritual welfare, and not bureaucracy. At one time, it was reported that Luciani stated, "that what mattered was not how one ruled, but how one served!" His mind was open to change in the church. He was later promoted to a cardinal and was required to become a Prince of the Church. He preached self-sacrifice rather than the pursuit of wealth. He said, The people of the world were suffering terribly and that he suffered with them.

In 1978 Pope Paul the 6th died, he had succeeded Pope John XXIII. It was then that the Cardinals elected Albino Luciani as the next pope. Pope Paul VI, whom he was replacing as pope, was said to be a political pope. The Cardinals wanted someone who would be the opposite, someone who would be quiet, and in the background, that’s why they chose Albino Luciani.

People liked him, he had a nice easy manner, and he was approachable. A priest of Rome, Vincent O’Keefe said, The new pope did away with things that seemed obsolescent, and made no sense to the church any more. Albino Luciani was the first pope in history to do away with the plural we to indicate superiority (meaning God and that Pope). He was the first pope to take a double name John Paul.

Pope John Paul did not want to be crowned, as much as that was possible in the Vatican, he wanted a simple ceremony. A mass was held, the wealthiest and most influential people in the world attended. He preached modesty and humility. At the Pontifical ceremonies when the Pope was inaugurated, popes would usually be crowned with a tri tiered shaped tiara, The Symbol of Power.

John Paul I changed all that, and he substituted what was called a stole or pallium, for a white woolen band—which meant pastoral authority which was a completely different thing. The old symbols of power were abandoned, only the bishops’ rook seemed to suit John Paul, he did not want to rule from the throne, but only wanted to be among the people. David Yallop, a writer, stated "Here is a man, who was unquestionably, going to bring about a situation where Roman Catholics could practice contraception. He was going to find a way of legalizing the Roman Catholic Faithful of this planet, which is a fifth of the planets’ population, which is over one billion people, a form of contraception.

Perhaps this was another motive for murder; the idea that a Jesuit would come down and be in favor of the pill, and against celibacy. Luciani’s opinion had not been made public before, would most probably cause immense confusion in the Catholic Church. It would mean massive reforms in the church. In Rome, the Pope rules as the highest figure in Christendom.

Albino Luciani was from a poverty stricken village in Italy where he was born, and now one of the biggest employers in the world. People sensed that he cared for them, he was the first pope to speak with children, this stilled people, and they listened to him as he taught lessons on humility. This was human drama going on before the people, and they listened.

He was called the smiling Pope, which was part of his simple approach to people, he wished to mingle with them as a pastoral father of his flock, and he loved mankind. The Vatican garden was his refuge when he wished to rest up and regain his strength. It was said that the Pope was so busy that he could not keep in touch with his family, and was lonely for them.

Chapter 2

Pope John Paul I

Albino Luciani made no secret that he had every intention of returning the church back to where it belonged, to honesty of its beginning, and to simplicity. As he expressed it, one free of political interests and of big business mentality, had corroded the original vision. The day after becoming pope he was having dinner with Cardinal Villot, his Secretary of State, the new pope told his secretary that he wished to have an immediate investigation, a review of the complete financial operations involving the Vatican, in detailed aspects. The new pope declared, no department, no congregation, no section was to be excluded.²

Little did the new pope realize by the act, that it has long been suspected that this would cut short his time as pope to a mere 33 days; ending in a very mysterious death, controversial to say the least. The Vatican’s wealth has always been a matter of secrecy, and many have speculated on it. At that time, the Vatican’s assets were considered as the owner of the largest private real estate on earth. The list was said to be staggering ranging from the world’s tallest skyscraper to the Roman Hilton.

The Vatican Incorporated owned shares in what seemed to be a non-stop list of corporations from General Motors to Shell Oil. John Paul I was aware of that from the beginning of Vatican City in 1929, as it was common knowledge, that Mussolini’s Fascist Government gave the Vatican as much as one and three quarters billion lire (Italian money), when a very severe economic depression had engulfed Europe. This was said to have been because the hierarchy gave up its Catholic controlled states, but a condition of the deal was that the Vatican would have tax exemptions, which as time passed proved to be very valuable.

Also it is known, as a historical fact that Adolph Hitler signed a concordat with the Vatican in 1934. By the church giving its rubber stamp of approval, Nazi Germany rewarded the Vatican with another very valuable asset as part of the concordat deal called, Kirchensteuer, meaning church tax. This meant that deductions that were taken from all wage earners in Germany, the tax represented some eight to ten percent of all income tax collected by the German Government. From this source, large sums of money were given to the Vatican during World War II.

In 1978 IL MONDO, Italy’s highly respected and leading economic periodical, sent an open letter to the new pope five days after his election. In the letter he asked John Paul I if he would investigate the Vatican’s dealings into these financial matters. The Periodical IL MONDO, used the terminology "speculation in unhealthy waters." Then in another supplement entitled Your Holiness, Is It Right? supplied a line of extremely embarrassing questions.³

Is it right for the Vatican Bank ⁴ to operate in certain ways, such as: a) illegal transfer of capital from one country to another, b) evading tax, c) and operating in stock markets like a commercial speculation?

Paolo Panerai, the financial editor of IL MONDO, named Bishop Paul Marcinkus of the Vatican Bank, as having dealings with very questionable financial dealers; Michele Sindona and Lougi Mennini were two of the names. The new pope read these articles and was very interested in them; he had become aware of the many complaints regarding Bishop Paul Marcinkus, and also the very questionable Michele Sindona.

Even more criticism was aimed at and against the commercial interests of the Vatican, which included buying shares in the company’s products, which were not consistent with church teachings, such as bombs, guns, tanks, and even contraceptives.⁵

John Paul became, in effect, chairman of the board of Vatican City Inc. Most assuredly he must have asked himself: Would the apostles appointed by Christ Jesus, or for that matter, Christ Jesus himself, concern themselves with the things of this passing world, such as the stock market? Most likely not, since Jesus said that it would be akin to, a rich man to entering the kingdom, as to a camel passing through the eye of a needle!⁶, or John 17:14 which states: They are no part of the world, just as I am no part of the world.

Those close to John Paul heard him express that great changes were to be made in the affairs of the church. John Paul was now convinced that, an investigation into the Vatican’s financial dealings was both correct and overdue. It was also known by those close to him that he had planned on distributing the church’s wealth where it was needed.

According to David Yallop’s book, In God’s Name, on page 165, John Paul stated: Most of the time I hear nothing but bad spoken about everything and everyone. To another friend he said, I have noticed two things that appear to be in very short supply in the Vatican—honesty and a good cup of coffee!

It is of note what a press agency had to say about John Paul’s feelings toward birth control in the Catholic Church. The Press Agency, U.P.I., discovered that the new pope had been in favor of a Vatican ruling which would allow artificial birth control. Italian newspapers also carried stories referring to the Luciani document sent to Pope Paul VI by Cardinal Urban of Venice, in which his strong recommendation in favor of the contraceptive pill had been made.⁷ It had also been revealed that John Paul was in favor of artificial birth control when he spoke in private with his colleagues.

The Great Vatican Lodge—P2

It had been brought to the attention of John Paul, which became a great concern to him, that there existed an inner circle within the Vatican of Freemasons, including Cardinals, Bishops, and also high-ranking churchmen. The Italian newspaper L’ OSSERVATORE POLITICO, referred to this paradox as The Great Vatican Lodge, or simply, P2.

Clement XII, in 1738, issued his bull In Eminenti in which the Roman Catholic Church outlawed the secret society of Freemasomy. So for John Paul, if this information was correct, there was only one action the new pope could take, excommunication for those involved was unavoidable! With a new pope changes were definitely in the offing.

One would have to be incredibly naïve not to correct all these forthcoming changes to John Paul’s timely, and short time as Pope, to a very mysterious death, and cover-ups surrounding his death. The powers at that time behind Vatican walls were just simply not going to allow the new pope to make the changes!

Details Surrounding John Paul’s Death

There exist certain details by eyewitnesses that the Vatican ordered to be suppressed, with a cover-up of what really happened on that Friday, September 29th on the discovery of John Paul’s death. As usual every morning at 4:30 a.m. Sister Vincenza knocked on his bedroom door to let John Paul know that his coffee was in the study. When Sister Vincenza returned at 4:45 a.m., she found the coffee was untouched. She knocked on the door again, when she had no response she opened the door and found John Paul sitting up in bed.

Sister Vincenza said he was wearing glasses and had sheets of paper in his hands. She felt for a pulse and found none. She went quickly to the rooms closest to the Pope’s and told those sleeping in them what had occurred. They at once telephoned Cardinal Villot, the Secretary of State, who was two floors below and by 5:00 a.m. the Cardinal was in the Pope’s room.

The Author

David Yallop had written a book on his investigative research concerning Pope John Paul I, and his death. In mid-year of 1984, his book was published. Mr. Yallop had earned a reputation as a seeker of justice. This is why there was a request that came from a concerned person at the Vatican for Mr. Yallop to investigate this seemingly mysterious death. Mr. Yallop accepted the challenge to find the true and accurate circumstances surrounding John Paul’s death.

After a very thorough and exhaustive research of some three years, in David Yallop’s words that he uncovered, "a chain of corruption linking leading figures in financial, political, criminal, and clerical circles. In his book, In God’s Name, are detailed accusations that are very comprehensive and highly acclaimed from other sources.

Mr. Yallop’s own opinion and also his conviction is that Pope John Paul I was murdered! The Vatican responded to this by saying that Mr. Yallop was taking fantastic speculation to new levels of absurdity… infamous rubbish. Mr. Yallop’s reply to the Vatican was that, If the Vatican can prove me wrong on just two simple questions of fact,—if they can prove that my account of the papers he was holding in his hands is incorrect, then I will donate every penny of my royalties from the sales of this book to cancer research.⁸ Interestingly, the Vatican has never responded!

So What Is This?

When David Yallop had arrived in Rome, the information surrounding John Paul’s death, as was related to him by the staff at the Vatican, was different from the Vatican’s official statement. According to the eyewitness accounts of those that Yallop interviewed, beside the bed of the Pope was the low blood pressure medicine he was taking. Also, he held in his hands the notes on the papal transfers that he intended to initiate. Cardinal Villot removed all these items, along with John Paul’s Will. Also, the slippers and glasses of the Pope were missing. None of these items, which were important, were ever recovered.

Completely inaccurate accounts of the circumstances were given to the staff members of the papal household concerning how John Paul’s body was found. The Vatican claimed his Priest, Secretary John Magee, had discovered the dead Pope. Cardinal Villot imposed a vow of silence on the household staff, to their admitted amazement. The household staff was stunned. Cardinal Villiot, in Yallops opinion, was part of a conspiracy to murder the Pope, or either he saw incriminating evidence, and made efforts to protect the Catholic Church from a scandal.

Who’s Lying

Dr.Buzzonetti, Papal physician, put the time of death for John Paul at 11:00 p.m. and after a brief examination of his body stated that the cause of death was myocardial infraction. Cardinal Villot had already taken steps to have the body embalmed without delay, even before Dr. Buzzonetti had examined the body at 6:00 a.m.

Within the time frame of approximately 12 hours after the discovery of the body, embalming had already taken place. The embalming technicians were Ernesto and Renato Signoracci. From the lack of rigor mortis and the body temperature in their opinion, death had taken place between 4:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. This is a serious contradiction from what Dr. Buzzonetti claimed.

David Yallop interviewed both of the embalmers three separate times. They were very sure on each occasion that death had occurred no earlier than 4:00 a.m. If the body were that of any other citizen of Rome, an autopsy would have taken place without negotiation on the matter. In this matter there was also the utter disregard for the law, which states that embalming of a body cannot take place until at least until 24 hours has passed, unless authority to do so has been given from a magistrate.

Autopsy Called For.

After the news media and the public were over the initial shock of a perfectly healthy person with no history of heart ailments suddenly dying, they wanted an autopsy performed. Because no autopsy was performed, many questions surrounding John Paul’s death go unanswered! Questionable also, Why did the Vatican insist that no organs be removed from the Pope’s body? When the news media questioned the Vatican representatives about this, the Vatican claimed that an autopsy was against protocol to be performed on a pope.

This statement was retracted at a later time when the diary of Prince Don Agostini Chigi was brought to their attention, which had recorded an autopsy performed on Pius VIII when suspected poisoning on him was recorded as far back as 1830.

The Vatican’s officials claimed that John Paul had no will and that it never existed. But when David Yallop spoke to Father Mario Senigaglia, he said that not only did he see it, but also that Pope John Paul had asked him to be the executor of his will. There has reportedly been international uneasiness and concern that no post mortem was held and up to this time no death certificate has ever been made public.

Motives and Suspects

In such a case as this, any good detective work would ask the question, Who would benefit from the Pope’s death? Mr. Yallop’s investigative probing skills exhumed six possibilities of persons.

1.)    Cardinal Villot was on the list for removal as Secretary of State. Not only did he retain his position after the Pope’s death, but also other positions including financial control.

2)    John Cody; Cardinal of Chicago, Illinois. His was another name on the Pope’s list for removal. In the United States, the U.S. Attorneys Office began proceedings that had been probing into allegations that John Cody channeled one million dollars of the churches funds illegally to his female friend Helen Wilson; this was now a government concern. The Federal Grand Jury had served a number subpoenas on Cardinal Cody demanding to look at his financial records. Cardinal Cody refused to cooperate with the request of the government to hand over his financial records of his diocese. If you or I or any other citizen of the U.S. had behaved in such a manner, it would have meant prison time for sure. Cardinal Cody went on record as stating: I don’t run the country, but I do run Chicago.⁹

3)    Bishop Marcinkus, President of the Vatican Bank, and David Yallop’s investigation showed Bishop Marcinkus to be involved in illegal movement of shares. For Bishop Marcinkus, he enjoyed having several secret numbered bank accounts in the Bahamas for his private and personal use. In 1973, FBI agents questioned Marcinkus in the Vatican. Marcinkus was reported to have puffed on a large cigar and answered their questions about his association with Michele Sindona by saying: Michele and I are very good friends, we’ve known each other for several years and then said my financial dealings with him however have been very limited. In time, these words of Bishop Marcinkus proved to be false.

In regard to Banco Ambrosiano, and its crash, David Yallop, on page 462 of his book accused Bishop Marcinkus of direct criminal involvement, as well as the disappearance of one billion dollars. Isn’t it interesting that the Roman Curia refused to accept judicial papers that the Italian Government attempted to serve on Bishop Marcinkus and others at the Vatican Bank?

The Vatican is an independent sovereign state, this fact made further investigation extremely difficult. Paul Collins, a Catholic Cleric, brought to light a similar account of Bishop Marcinkus: Through Roberto Calvi, the Vatican had become involved in the theft of 1.6 billion dollars from the Banco Ambrosiano. In late 1982, John Paul II appointed a committee of cardinals to investigate the fiasco. Marcinkus was eventually charged by local authorities but he was protected by Vatican diplomatic immunity and eventually retired to the United States.¹⁰

The Vatican denied any responsibility to the Banco Ambrosiano creditors, but in time made reparation by paying $250 million, the source of where the money came from has not been disclosed.¹¹

4)    Michele Sindona, financial advisor to the Vatican. In a secret meeting in 1969, Marcinkus introduced Paul VI to the Sicilian banker Michele Sindona. This was an extraordinarily foolish move for Sedona’s Mafia and criminal connections were well known.¹² During the time of John Paul’s death, Sindona was wanted for questioning regarding financial crimes.

In New York in 1980, Sindona was convicted on 65 counts, from misappropriation of bank funds, to fraud. On the 13 of June, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. As odd as it may seem, during the time Sindona was in prison in the U.S., the U.S. Justice Department returned Sindona to Italy to stand trial on more criminal charges there.

It became apparent that Sindona, according to David Yallop’s sources, intended to exchange information about the death of Pope John Paul, but on March 22, 1985, Michele Sindona died as a result of someone putting poison in a cup of coffee that Sindona drank. Why am I not surprised at this? Sindona had two indictments against him; one was that he had ordered the murder of Giorgio Ambrosoli. He was also charged with three Mafia families in a heroin trade scheme that netted 600 million dollars a year.

5)    Robert Calvi, Banco Ambrosiano owner. David Yallop wrote: "Until the end of his life he was laundering money for the Mafia, the role he had inherited from Michele Sindona. He was also recycling money for P2. These functions were carried out with the assistance of the Vatican Bank. He laundered money from kidnapping, drug sales, and arms deals. His criminal contacts ranged from what is known as high Mafia, to ordinary murders.¹³

If John Paul had lived, Roberto Calvi’s Banco Ambrosiano would have been exposed, as having a 1.6 billion dollar deficit. The Vatican Bank owned 16 percent of Banco Ambrosiano itself.

6)    Licio Gelli, The P2 Grand Master, and close associate with Michele Sindona, and Robert Calvi. In 1981, the extraordinary influence of the secret P2 organization was revealed as nearly 1,000 members were exposed.

There were several Italian Cabinet Ministers named as P2 members, which had led the Italian Government into collapse. During the first quarter of 1986 in Palermo, magistrates that were investigating officially confirmed in their findings that there were definite links between the Mafia and Freemasonry in Italy.

The opinion of the new Pope John Paul was that definitely the Freemasons Masonic Lodge was off limits for priests. David Yallop’s investigation revealed that the Pope had presented to him a list of 121 that were confirmed members of the Freemasons.

The members listed as belonging to the P2-Freemasons included, Cardinal Villot as Secretary of State, his Masonic name was Jeanni, his lodge number was, 041/3; President of the Vatican Bank, Bishop Marcinkus, and The Cardinal and Vicar of Rome, Monsignor Donato de Bonis. As the list went on it appeared like a who’s who of Vatican City.¹⁴

John Paul had resigned himself to the fact that further investigation would be necessary. Unfortunately for the new Pope, his life and office of pope had run out, quickly, too quickly. If a person had their mind in the right focus, with all the substantial wealth of information, and evidence, say death occurred by unnatural causes? The Vatican’s comment: infamous rubbish.

In summarizing an article by Umberto Siniscalchi in II Giornale of Milan, Word Press Review states: Italy’s highest Court of Appeals is under severe criticism because it nullified, in July 1987, the arrest warrants for three Vatican Bank officials involved in the Banco Ambrosiano corruption scandal. The decision based on an old treaty between the Vatican and the Italian government, granted immunity to the bank’s chairman, who is an archbishop, as well as the banks managing director and chief accountant.

The review added: Some critics, although they do not fault the judges for the decision, maintain that the pact flies in the face of the Italian constitution by granting immunity to those who have committed infractions on Italian soil. Some legislators pressed for an agreement permitting Italy’s justice system to prosecute the Holy See for crimes committed in Italy.

The Vatican’s Greedy Merchant

"Between 1929 and outbreak of World War II, Bernadino Nogara, the Vatican financial administrator assigned Vatican capital, and Vatican agents, to work in diversified areas of Italy’s economy, and particularly in electric power, telephone communications, credit and banking, small railroads, and the production of agriculture implements, cement, and artificial textile fibers. Many of these financial ventures paid off.

"Nogara gobbled up a number of companies including: La Societa Italiana della Viscosa: La Supertessile; La Societa Meridionale Industrie Tessili; and La Cisaraion. Fusing these into one company, which he named, CISA-VISCOSA, and placed under the command of Baron Francesco Maria Oddasso, one of the most highly trusted Vatican laymen; Nogara then maneuvered the absorption of the new company by Italy’s largest textile manufacturer, SNIA-VISCOSA. Eventually the Vatican interest in SNIA-VISCOSA grew larger and larger, and in time the Vatican took control, as witness the fact that Baron Oddasso subsequently became vice president.

Bernadino Nogara penetrated the textile industry. He penetrated other industries in other ways; Nogara had many tricks up his sleeves. This selfless man… . probably did more to infuse life into the Italian economy than did any other single businessman in Italy’s history. Benito Mussolini had never quite been able to achieve the empire of which he dreamed, but he enabled the Vatican and Bernadino Nogara to create a dominion of another kind.¹⁵

Unsavory Links with Big Business

In 1987 the Albany Times Union reported that the financial administrator of the Catholic Archdiocese of Miami, Florida, U.S.A., admitted to the churches owning stocks in companies that make nuclear weapons, r-rated movies, and cigarettes.

Chapter 3

Saint Peter’s Banker

They found Roberto Calvi’s body hanging under Black Fryers Bridge on June 18th 1982 in London, England. Police at first dismissed the case as an unsuspicious suicide by an Italian Banker who seemed to have had a few financial problems. But Roberto Calvi was no ordinary banker, and those financial problems were far from few. In thirty years Calvi had risen from bank clerk to become president of Italy’s largest private bank.

In the wake of his death, that bank, Banco Ambrosiano, went under, the largest bank failure since World War II in Europe. It wiped out shareholders, and left some two hundred and fifty banks holding a billion six hundred million dollars in bad debts.

Seven years after the first reported story, in Milan, Italy the trial opened. 35 people were charged with fraudulently bankrupting the Banco Ambrosiano. It was a trial that would uncover a tale of international financial intrigue that leads all the way to the Vatican, and shows that the death of Roberts Calvi was far from a simple suicide.

Friday the 18 of June, 1982—that morning the body of Italian banker Roberto Calvi was found hanging under Black Fryers Bridge in the heart of London’s financial district. It was a mysterious death, one that raised many questions, some of those questions still unanswered. Did the 62-year-old Calvi commit suicide, or was he murdered? What had he done with the money that was missing from his bank in Milan, Italy—the incredible sum of 1.6 billion dollars? What was his connection to the secret society of Free Masons known as P-2? And above all, what role does the Vatican play in Roberto Calvi’s life and in his death?

Dr Maliki Martin is a Jesuit Priest who served as a personal advisor to Pope John XXIII and who maintained close links with Vatican. Dr. Maliki Martin stated in an interview: I don’t think I can escape the conclusion that certain employee’s of the Vatican, lay, and or clerical, are involved, in that which caused the embezzlement of funds, and ultimately because of the result, the death of Roberto Calvi!

For more than ten years Roberto Calvi had been president of the largest private bank in Italy, Banco Ambrosiano, and for much of that time he was involved in a massive swindle, borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars on the international money market. That money was loaned to Latin American subsidiaries of his bank, which in turn loaned it to phony Panamanian Co’s. Some of that money was then illegally used to buy shares in Banco Ambrosiano as well as other Italian companies, often at inflated prices. Some of that money is still unaccounted for and who owned those non-existent Panamanian companies? Roberto Calvi and his financial partner, The Vatican Bank!

Isadoro Albertini, a stockbroker, had known Calvi since their college days together. When being interviewed he was asked: Is there any doubt in your mind that the Vatican Bank knew what was going on? Albertini replied, If they hadn’t known, they would have been absolutely gullible people, which I hardly believe.

The Vatican Bank was founded to handle the extensive investments of the Catholic Church, but the bank had been under pressure to increase profits, because the Vatican had a running deficit of about 20 million dollars a year. At its head is an American, who also at one time acted as a body guard to Pope John Paul II, the Chicago born Archbishop, Paul Marcinkus. Concerning Archbishop Marcinkus, Isodoro Albertini remarked: He knew many things, and he accepted them, and why did he accept them?—because there was money to be made on that.

When Arch Bishop Marcinkus spoke with a noted reporter on a popular one hour TV news program a year before the Calvi’s affair broke, he refused to comment on the Vatican’s business relationship with Italian financier Michele Sendona, who was at that time spending 25 years in prison in the United States for bank fraud. It was Sendona who introduced Calvi to Marcinkus, and when Sendona’s empire crashed, Calvi replaced him as financial advisor to the Vatican.

Over the years Calvi became in the words of the Italian press God’s Banker! Roberto Calvi’s problems really began in May 1981, when the P2 scandal was revealed in the Italian Parliament. P2, (P—means propaganda), was a secret lodge, a breakaway group of free masons. If in Italy the Mafia is considered to be the underworld, P2 is here described as the over world, with members more powerful and more ruthless. Italian authorities discovered a list with nearly 1,000 members of P2, and on that list was the name Roberto Calvi.

Maximo Theodori is a member of the Italian Parliamentary Commission investigating the P2 organization. He said that Calvi was a kind of financial division of P2, channeling some of the money he embezzled into the political activities of some of his friends in P2. When he was asked in an interview, what kind of person belonged to P2, he replied very high, the top of secret services to the top of the Army, and the top of other state institutions. He was asked, what do they want, what were they trying to do, and were they trying to over throw the government?

Theodori replied: Not to overthrow the government, to work within the institutions, in order to get more and more power. Theodori also said that even though the Catholic Church has officially always been opposed to any kind of Free Masonry, many of the members of P2 had close links with the Vatican.

When the existence to P2 was revealed some of Clavi’s illegal activities began the surface, Calvi was arrested and charged with a relative minor offense of smuggling currency; he was sentenced to 4 years in prison, but was released on bail pending an appeal. He told his wife it was a sentence he would never serve. His wife Clair Calvi later moved to Washington D.C., U.S.A., and she stated in an interview; he told me, I do not want to spend another day in prison, I want to speak, to say everything.

On Thursday, June 10, Roberto Calvi was at his apartment at a fashionable quarter of old Rome, but by then his problems began to close in on him, for one thing the Bank of Italy had demanded to know precisely what he had done with 1.6 billion dollars, and in two weeks he would face another court date, this time, the decision on his appeal which could cost him four years in prison. Archbishop Paul Marcinkus was not in Rome at the time, so Calvi made an appointment for the following day with Marcinkus’ second in command at the Vatican Bank, he never kept that appointment. When the driver arrived the next morning to pick him up he found the apartment empty, the bed had not been slept in, and Roberto Calvi had disappeared.

From Rome Calvi jumped bail and traveled on a forged passport to London. He stayed at an apartment in Chelsea. Clara Calvi said that during that time her husband called her several times without telling her his whereabouts, he said he was working on a deal that would solve all their problems. He told her to wait a little while longer and to be patient, and you will see me again. Meanwhile the bankers in Milan, the directors of Banco Ambrosiano, during Roberto Calvi’s absence, panicked.

Calvi had always assured them that the 1.6 billion dollar loans to the paper Panamanian companies were guaranteed by letters from the Vatican Bank, so called letters of comfort, dated Vatican City of Sept. 1 1981, Gentlemen: This is to confirm that we directly or indirectly control; then listed the Panamanian Companies by name, then it is signed by Marcinkus’ #2 and #3 deputies at the Vatican Bank. But the Vatican says those letters meant nothing—why? According to Dr. Lamberto Deni, Director General of the Bank of Italy, in the same letters that Calvi had written the Vatican requesting those letters of comfort; he had released the Vatican from any responsibility, privately. The Bank of Italy was furious with the Vatican Bank. Publicly, the Bank of Italy tried to put on a face of diplomacy about it, which was not, according to some, always easy to do.

When a reporter interviewed Dr. Lamberto Deni, the reporter said: That was a sham perpetrated on creditors by Calvi, and The Vatican Bank! Dr. Deni replied: On the face of it, it would look wrong, or very unusual, but what was the understanding between the two parties, I don’t know. The reporter then asked, "Could there be a satisfactory explanation? Could there be an explanation that