2001-7-20 04:41:00
My Friends:
The best and virtually only book investigating the murder of Pope John Paul I is called "In God's Name," written by David A. Yallop, and copyrighted in 1984.
I am amazed that I have not heard of this considering it has sold over six million copies worldwide. Even so, it is not currently in print in most countries.
I checked with Amazon.com and they say they can get it in 4-6 weeks. I would guess this is because they order it from abroad somewhere.
I was fortunate enough to find a copy in my city library. I scanned the jacket and prologue into my computer and thought I would share this with you as it gives
a good overview of the book. I would imagine that the author would not mind me sharing this with you since it may promote book sales.
On an interesting note, guess who has bought the movie rights to this book?
None other than Elton John.
This story would indeed make a great movie. I hope Elton is able to find some backers.
As I study this man (John Paul I) I am inclined to favor the idea that he was overshadowed,
especially considering how he mentioned feeling the presence of Jesus on a regular basis. This would explain how the Master Jesus could have been in a
Syrian body in 1922 -- and could yet be in that body. If He is working through overshadowing then it is possible another attempt could be made as early as
the next pope. This will be interesting to watch as events progress.
However the Masters worked with John Paul I, it was indeed a gutsy attempt. The Masters are actually more adept on their own plane than they are on the
human plane just as we are better at doing human things than animal things such as building a beaver dam. It takes a lot of sacrifice on their part to work
with us and success does not always materialize in the first attempt as they are usually dependent on us frail humans. But they have a supernatural persistence
and will keep at their goals until they are reached. Thus we can still expect a spiritual revolution in the Catholic Church sometime between now and 2030.
When there is a window, we may rest assured it will be used.
"This extraordinary book, product of more than three years intensive investigation unfolds a story so powerful in its revelations so persuasively argued, so shocking its inescapable conclusions that it is certain to make a stunned world take note. For, in this detailed and meticulously researched document, product, published simultaneously in 8 languages, the world will learn that on September 28, 1978, a murder was committed 'In God's Name' -- the murder of Albino Luciani, Pope John Paul I
"Not long after he became the 263rd successor to St. Peter, Pope John Paul I threw open the windows and shutters in the papal apartments that had been closed since the death of Pope Paul VI. And he decreed that they should stay open.
"It was an act that seemed to symbolize the, papacy of the man the press called the 'Smiling Pope.' He was the world's pastor, not its prince.
"When he died suddenly just thirty-three days after his reign had begun, he had written no encyclicals, given no major speeches and made no important appointments. There simply had not been enough time. Or had there been?
"As David Yallop reveals, Pope John Paul I had, by the evening of September 28, 1978, decided on startling changes that would affect the doctrine, finances and hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. These changes would be opposed by many, among them six powerful men who knew that the Pope's decisions could mean the end of their careers, if not their lives. Unless of course, they acted first.
"Early on the morning of September 29, Albino Luciani was found dead.
"No official death certificate has ever been issued.
"No autopsy was performed.
"The cause of death, referred to by the Vatican in the vague terms, 'possibly related to myocardial infarction, in fact remains unknown.
"When at 7:27 a.m. on that fateful September day, Vatican Radio announced to 800 million grief-stricken Catholics that John Paul I had succumbed to a heart attack sometime the previous evening, the cover-up of the true circumstances surrounding his death had been already underway for crucial hours -- while a vow of silence was imposed on members of the Papal household, and critical evidence disappeared.
"Now, in this fully documented minute-by minute account of John Paul I's last hours and the events that followed, David Yallop reveals how the intricate web of Vatican lies was fabricated and explores the motives and opportunities of the six powerful men who stood at the center of a deadly conspiracy.
"David A. Yallop is the author of four previous investigative works: 'To Encourage The Others' (which caused the British government to reopen a murder case which had been closed for over twenty years); 'The Day The Laughter Stopped' (the definitive biography of Fatty Arbuckle); 'Beyond Reasonable Doubt?' (which led directly to the freeing of a man serving a life sentence for murder); and most recently, 'Deliver Us From Evil,' an investigation into the identity of the Yorkshire Ripper. It was during that investigation that Mr. Yallop's work came to the attention of the highly-placed, secret sources within the Vatican who first convinced the author of the need for an examination of the circumstances surrounding the death of Albino Luciani. Three years of intensive investigation followed and led the author from Rome to New York, South America to London and to sources as diverse as cardinals and criminals, Mafiosi, monsignors and government agents; from private, confidential interviews to the exhaustive search through thousands of pages of previously overlooked public documents. The result is 'In God's Name' -- a work of monumental research and importance."
"On September 28,1978, while Pope John Paul I sat down to a frugal dinner in the third-floor dining room of the Apostolic Palace within Vatican City, other men in other places were deeply anxious about the activities of the newly elected pope....
"In the Vatican Bank, the lights still burned. Word had reached its head, Bishop Paul Marcinkus, that the new pope had quietly begun an investigation into the Vatican Bank and the methods Marcinkus used to run it. Paul Marcinkus was about to be removed....
"At his desk, Cardinal Jean Villot, Vatican Secretary of State, studied the list of appointments, resignations, transfers, that the pope had handed him one hour previously. In Villot's mind there could be no doubt that there was to be a dramatic change-one that would constitute a betrayal of Paul VI....
"In Buenos Aires, banker Roberto Calvi consulted his protector, Licio Gelli, the formidable head of the secret organization, P2. Calvi had been beset by problems even before the election of John Paul 1. Now he faced total ruin....
"In New York, Sicilian banker Michele Sindona was fighting extradition to Italy. If John Paul I continued to dig into the web of corruption at the Vatican Bank, the trail would lead back to Michele Sindona....
"In Chicago, Cardinal John Cody received a phone call from Rome: the pope had decided that Cardinal Cody was to be replaced....
"Sometime during the late evening of September 28, 1978 and the early morning of September 29, 1978, thirty-three days after his election, John Paul I died. Time of death: Unknown. Cause of death: Unknown.
"On September 28, 1978 these six men-Marcinkus, Villot, Calvi, Gelli, Sindona, Cody had a great deal to fear if the papacy of John Paul I continued. One of these six men applied the Italian Solution: The pope must die!"
"The spiritual leader of nearly one-fifth of the world's population wields immense power. Yet any uninformed observer of Albino Luciani at the beginning of his reign as Pope John Paul I would have found it difficult to believe that this man truly embodied such power. The diffidence and humility emanating from this small, quiet, sixty-five-year-old Italian had led many to conclude that his papacy would not be particularly noteworthy. The well informed, however, knew differently: Albino Luciani had embarked on a revolution.
"On September 28, 1978, he had been pope for thirty-three days. In little more than a month he had initiated various courses of action that, had they been completed, would have had a direct and dynamic effect on us all. The majority in this world would have applauded his decisions, a minority would have been appalled. The man who had quickly been labeled 'the smiling pope' intended to remove the smiles from a number of faces on the following day.
"That evening Luciani sat down to dinner in the third-floor dining room of the Apostolic Palace within Vatican City. With him were his two secretaries, Father Diego Lorenzi, who had worked closely with him in Venice for more than two years when, as a cardinal, Luciani had been patriarch there, and Father John Magee, newly acquired since the papal election. As the nuns who worked in the papal apartments hovered anxiously, Albino Luciani ate a frugal meal of clear soup, veal, fresh beans, and a little salad. He sipped occasionally from a glass of water and considered the events of the day and the decisions he had made. He had not wanted the job. He had not sought or canvassed for the papacy. Now as head of state the awesome responsibilities were his.
"While Sisters Vincenza, Assunta, Clorinda, and Gabrietta quietly served the three men as they watched on television the events that preoccupied Italy that evening, other men in other places were being caused deep anxiety by the activities of Albino Luciani.
"One floor below the papal apartments the lights were still on in the Vatican Bank. Its head, Bishop Paul Marcinkus, had other more pressing problems on his mind than his evening meal. Chicago born Marcinkus had learned about survival on the streets of Cicero, Illinois. During his meteoric rise to power, he had survived many moments of crisis. Now he was confronted with the most serious challenge he had ever faced. In the past thirty-three days his colleagues in the bank had noticed a remarkable change in the man who controlled the Vatican's millions. The 6-foot, 3-inch, 224-pound extrovert had become moody and introspective. He was visibly losing weight, and his face had acquired a gray pallor. Vatican City in many respects is a village, and secrets are hard to keep in a village. Word had reached Marcinkus that the new pope had quietly begun a personal investigation of the Vatican Bank and specifically of the methods Marcinkus was using to run that bank. Countless times since the arrival of the new pope, Marcinkus had regretted that business in 1972 concerning the Banca Cattolica del Veneto....
"The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Jean Villot, was another who was still at his desk on that September evening. He studied the list of appointments, resignations to be asked for, and transfers the pope had handed him one hour previously. He had advised, argued, and remonstrated, but to no avail. Luciani had been adamant.
"It was by any standards a dramatic reshuffle. It would set the Church in new directions that Villot, and the others on the list who were about to be replaced, considered highly dangerous. When these changes were announced there would be millions of words written and uttered by the world's media, analyzing, dissecting, prophesying, explaining. The real explanation, however, would not be discussed, would not be given a public airing. There was one common denominator, one fact that linked each of the men about to be replaced. Villot was aware of it. More important, so was the pope. It had been one of the factors that had caused him to act, to strip these men of real power and put them into relatively harmless positions. It was Freemasonry.
"The evidence the pope had acquired indicated that within the Vatican City State there were over one hundred Masons, ranging from cardinals to priests. This despite the fact that Canon Law stated that to be a Freemason ensured automatic excommunication. Luciani was further preoccupied with an illegal Masonic lodge that had penetrated far beyond Italy in its search for wealth and power. It called itself P2. The fact that it had penetrated the Vatican walls and formed links with priests, bishops, and even cardinals made P2 anathema to Albino Luciani.
"Villot had already become deeply concerned about the new papacy before this latest bombshell. He was one of the very few who was aware of the dialogue taking place between the pope and the State Department in Washington. He knew that on October 23 the Vatican would be receiving a congressional delegation and that on October 24 the delegation would be having a private audience with the pope. The subject: artificial birth control.
"Villot had looked carefully at the Vatican dossier on Albino Luciani. He had also read the secret memorandum that Luciani, then bishop of Vittorio Veneto, had sent to Paul VI before the papal announcement of the encyclical Humanae Vitae, an encyclical that prohibited Catholics from using any artificial form of birth control. His own discussions with Luciani had left him in no doubt where the new pope stood on this issue. Equally, in Villot's mind, there was no doubt what Paul's successor was now planning to do. There was to be a dramatic change of position. In Villot's view such a change would constitute a betrayal of Paul VI....
"In Buenos Aires, another banker, Roberto Calvi, had Pope John Paul I on his mind as September 1978 drew to a close. In the preceding weeks he had discussed the problems posed by the new pope with his protectors, Licio Gelli and Umberto Ortolani, two men who could list among their many assets their complete control of Calvi, chairman of Banco Ambrosiano. Calvi had been beset with problems even before the election that placed Albino Luciani upon St. Peter's throne. The Bank of Italy had been secretly investigating Calvi's Milan bank since April. It was an investigation prompted by a mysterious poster campaign against Calvi that had erupted in late 1977. The posters had given details of some of Calvi's criminal activities and hinted at a worldwide range of criminal acts.
"Calvi was aware of exactly what progress the Bank of Italy was making with its investigation. His close friendship with Licio Gelli ensured a day-by-day account of it. He was equally aware of the papal investigation into the Vatican Bank. Like Marcinkus, he knew it was only a matter of time before the two independent investigations realized that to probe one of these financial empires was to probe both. He was doing everything within his considerable power to thwart the Bank of Italy and protect his financial empire, from which he was in the process of stealing over $1 billion.
"Careful analysis of Roberto Calvi's position in September 1978 makes it abundantly clear that if Pope Paul had been succeeded by an honest man, then Calvi faced total ruin, the collapse of his bank, and certain imprisonment. There is no doubt whatever that Albino Luciani was just such a man....
"In New York, Sicilian banker Michele Sindona had also been anxiously monitoring Pope John Paul's activities. For over three years Sindona had been fighting the Italian government's attempts to have him extradited. The Italian government wanted him brought to Milan to face charges involving fraudulent diversion of $225 million. Earlier that year, in May, it appeared that Sindona had finally lost the long battle. A federal judge had ruled that the extradition request should be granted.
"Sindona remained free on a $3 million bail while his lawyers prepared to play one last card. They demanded that the United States government prove that there was well-founded evidence to justify extradition. Sindona asserted that the charges brought against him by the Italian government were the work of Communist and other left-wing politicians. His lawyers also asserted that the Milan prosecutor had concealed evidence that would clear Sindona and that if their client were returned to Italy he would almost certainly be assassinated. The hearing was scheduled for November.
"That summer, in New York, others were equally active on behalf of Michele Sindona. One Mafia member, Luigi Ronsisvalle, a professional killer, was threatening the life of witness Nicola Biase, who had earlier given evidence against Sindona in the extradition proceedings. The Mafia also had a contract out on the life of Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kenney, who was chief prosecutor in the extradition proceedings. The fee being offered for the murder of the government attorney was $100,000.
"If Pope John Paul I continued to dig into the affairs of the Vatican Bank, then no amount of Mafia contracts would help Sindona in his fight against being returned to Italy. The web of corruption at the Vatican Bank, which included the laundering of Mafia money through that bank, went back beyond Calvi, back to Michele Sindona....
"In Chicago another prince of the Catholic Church worried and fretted about events in the Vatican-Cardinal John Cody, head of one of the richest archdioceses in the world. Cody ruled over 2 1/2 million Catholics and nearly 3,000 priests, over 450 parishes with an annual income that he refused to reveal in its entirety to anyone. It was, in fact, in excess of $250 million. Fiscal secrecy was only one of the problems that whirled around Cody. By 1978 he had ruled Chicago for thirteen years, and the demands for his replacement had reached extraordinary proportions. Priests, nuns, lay workers, and people from many secular professions had petitioned Rome in the thousands for the removal of the man they regarded as a despot.
"Pope Paul had agonized for years about removing Cody. The pope had on at least one occasion actually steeled himself and made the decision, only to revoke the order at the last moment. The complex, tortured personality of Paul was only part of the reason for the vacillation. Paul knew that other, secret allegations had been made against Cody, with a substantial amount of evidence that indicated the urgent need to replace the cardinal of Chicago.
"During late September, Cody received a phone call from Rome. The Vatican City village had leaked another piece of information well paid for over the years by Cardinal Cody. The caller told the cardinal that where Pope Paul had agonized, his successor, John Paul, had acted. The pope had decided that Cardinal John Cody was to be replaced....
"Over at least three of these men lurked the shadow of another, Licio Gelli. Men called him "Il Burattinaio"--the puppetmaster. The puppets were many and were placed in numerous countries. He controlled P2, and through it he controlled Italy. In Buenos Aires, the city where he discussed the problem of the new pope with Calvi, the puppetmaster had organized the triumphant return to power of Juan Peron - a fact that Peron subsequently acknowledged by kneeling at Gelli's feet. If Marcinkus, Sindona, or Calvi were threatened by the various courses of action planned by Albino Luciani, it was in Licio Gelli's direct interests that the threat be removed....
"It was abundantly clear that on September 28, 1978, these six men-Marcinkus, Villot, Calvi, Cody, Sindona, and Gelli-had a great deal to fear if the papacy of John Paul I continued. It is equally clear that all of them stood to gain in a variety of ways if Pope John Paul I should suddenly die.
"He did.
"Sometime during the late evening of September 28, 1978, and the early morning of September 29, 1978, thirty-three days after his election, Albino Luciani died.
"Time of death: unknown. Cause of death: unknown.
"I am convinced that the full facts and the complete circumstances merely outlined in the preceding pages hold the key to the truth of the death of Albino Luciani. I am equally convinced that one of these six men had, by the early evening of September 28, 1978, already initiated a course of action to resolve the problems that Albino Luciani's papacy was posing. One of these men was at the very heart of a conspiracy that applied a uniquely Italian 'solution.'
"Albino Luciani had been elected pope on August 26, 1978. Emerging from the conclave, the English Cardinal Basil Hume said to the press, 'The decision was unexpected. But once it had happened, it seemed totally and entirely right. The feeling he was just what we want was so general that he was unmistakably God's candidate.'
"Thirty-three days later, 'God's candidate' died.
"What follows is the product of three years' continuous and intensive investigation into that death. I have evolved a number of rules for an investigation of this nature. Rule One: begin at the beginning. Ascertain the nature and personality of the dead subject. What manner of man was Albino Luciani?"
(End of quoted material.)
-- End Of Lesson Two, Part 19 --
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