To our left, was a small tree sporting apple blossoms. I thought, “Could this be a descendent of the one that started it all?”
Jack laughed, “Piccolo planted it when he first came here and everyone who sees it thinks the same thing you’re thinking. No, its parents were American. It is an American apple tree.
“He is fond of Americans. He’s proud of what they are doing. He is particularly proud of the Kennedys and the work they have done for the handicapped in introducing the Special Olympics. Last year, Piccolo held a mini-Special Olympics here in Vittorio Veneto.
“Ten years ago when he first arrived, Piccolo attended the winter festival and was disturbed not a single handicapped child was to be seen. Shortly afterwards, he set up a clinic, a kind of halfway-house, designed to take many of these children out of institutions and allowing them to live together with the general population.2
“Yet, Moses stood in his way. Parents didn’t want their children exposed to impaired children. They picketed our building of a ramp into the cathedral, the first one built into a Catholic church anywhere in the world. Their signs went so far as to quote the words of Moses barring the handicapped from the Lord’s altar. Nevertheless, Piccolo knows the future of the world depends on what Americans do. One reason I’m here. Of course, there is another reason why I’m here.”
“Another reason?” I followed.
“We’ll get to that later. Come on.” He motioned I follow him.
Baby pigeons
Two large rocks sat at the pond’s edge a conversation apart. He took one and I, the other. He paused a moment to give me one last chance to take in all the wonderment that was about us. He started, “The castle angels most likely do have ears and it is for this reason I have brought you here. Although we have never been able to find them, we are certain the house is bugged.
“Just before we left the office you said, ‘No one could prove Moses lied in what he had to say, as none of us were there. We don’t really know what God the Father told him.’
“Not true. If one could prove Moses was lying then one could rid the planet of bigotry once and for all. It would destroy the arsenal of weapons—those flimsy words from which the bigot draws his ammunition. When we speak of Moses we are dealing with that part of the Bible where the historical benchmark is exact.
“The foundation of what Moses had to say was the story of the four hundred thirty years the Israelites were in Egypt. If they had been in Egypt, then much of what Moses said would fall into place.
“Yet, if one could prove the Israelites were not in Egypt at that time, all of what Moses said would fall to ruin for all the stories he told took place in the four hundred thirty years the Israelites were in Egypt and the forty year wandering in the Sinai Desert.
“In the summer of 1966, Piccolo, I and Brother Amedore—a local monk—visited our mission in Burundi Africa where our priests are serving. On our return, we stopped in Egypt.
“The intent was to uncover evidence of the Israelites’ presence in Egypt during the Middle Kingdom Period—1750BC to 1320BC—the four hundred thirty years the Bible claims they were in Egypt—in Egyptologist terms, the twelfth through the eighteenth dynasties.
“According to the Bible, it was because of their great numbers—over two million of them—the Israelites were put into slavery during the last forty years of their alleged time in Egypt. ‘Pharaoh said, Behold the children of the people of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them lest they turn against us. So with hard bondage of mortar and brick the Israelites built for Pharaoh the treasure cities of Pithom and Ramesses.’”3
“What did you find?” eager to learn of this proof of the Bible.
He paused as a detective pauses before revealing the solution to his case. “Nothing, nothing at all. We proved the Israelites had never been in Egypt during Moses’ alleged time. We examined thousands of ancient graves in the cities of Pithom and Ramesses where the Bible contends the Israelites lived which date to the Israelites alleged time in Egypt. We couldn’t find a Hebrew marking on any grave.”
“Nothing?” I was astonished, as it was something I had always taken for granted. It would be like looking at a photograph of the Empire State Building after all these years and assuming all the time it had a first, second, third, fourth and fifth floor; floors, though concealed by lowlying buildings around it, were obviously there. It is obvious the Empire State Building has its first five floors otherwise one could have never added the other ninety-seven floors.
Although no one has ever seen one, it is obvious there are baby pigeons. Otherwise there would be no pigeons. It is obvious Christianity has a first, second, third, fourth and fifth floor—the five books of Moses—otherwise one could have never added the other sixty-two books of the Bible. One doesn’t have to see it to believe it. It is obvious the Israelites were in Egypt. No sound mind would question it. I shuddered at the magnitude of Jack’s revelation.
Jack answered my unasked question. “Yes, we found nothing at all. There is much more than just the graves. There is the vast volume of hieroglyphs in the tombs, palaces and monuments of Egypt, which if reduced to fine print would fill all the volumes of all the libraries in the world. Sixty thousand rooms have been opened and they are covered from floor to ceiling with hieroglyphs. What’s more, there are tens of thousands of tablets with more hieroglyphs.
“About a third of this volume pertains to the four hundred years the Israelites were said to be in Egypt. Over twenty million human figures have survived in the hieroglyphics. They spell out in great detail every major event that occurred during that time: the birth, period of reign and death of every pharaoh, every war waged, every battle fought, every famine, every plague, every invention, every advancement in civilization—but not a single trace of any of Moses tales. Though most are Egyptian, there are many Hyksos, Hittites and Nubians among them; the Hyksos ruled Egypt during the twelfth through the fifteen dynasties; two Hyksos kings were Nubians.
“Despite the biblical ‘fact’ more than half of its population was Israelite, there is not a single mention of the way of life of the Israelites in Egypt dating to Moses’ time. No mention of the Red Sea Miracle in which the Egyptian army and its Pharaoh perished which, if true, would be the greatest event in all of Egyptian history
“This is consistent with history books which place the earliest Jewish inhabitants in northern Egypt at about 650BC—six hundred years after the alleged Exodus.”
A body floating in the canal
“Yet, that is not why I brought you here.”
He waited for eye-to-eye contact. “Last month, Pasquale was found floating in the canal that runs behind your hotel.
“Pasquale…?” It was a new name to me.
“Brother Amedore. The inquest determined he had drowned. Piccolo had an autopsy performed. No water was found in the lungs; he was dead when thrown in the water. There was hemorrhaging in the brain; he had been clubbed. Piccolo’s suspicions were sound.
“You’re suggesting the Vatican took out Pasquale because the Israelites had never been in Egypt?” I hinted at the ridiculous. “It shouldn’t be that much of a surprise the Israelites were not in Egypt.
“Television takes us into scores of tombs exhibiting thousands of figures and never is there any hint of the Israelites. If there was any trace of the Israelites having been in Egypt, these entrepreneurs would capitalize on it as their market is a Judeo-Christian audience. It should be no surprise to the faithful Moses was telling lies.”4
“It’s not that. It’s something else.” He paused to emphasize the importance of what he was about to say. “The protestors, you passed on the train, are much more than union workers. They are trying to bring about a redistribution of wealth society here in Italy.”
“Yes, I saw their signs, ‘Equal Pay.’” I agreed.
“A redistribution of wealth society is much more than equal pay” he corrected me. “It is communism. Today, Italy is on a fast tra
ck to becoming a communist nation sitting in the middle of Europe. Despite that electoral progression is moving overwhelmingly toward communism and socialism, the work is going too slowly for much of Italy’s impatient youth. They have taken to the streets.
“Why doesn’t Piccolo stop them?” I challenged
“Stop them? He and some of his priests have been leading them. So much so, the newspapers have tabbed the movement, ‘the priest-worker revolution.’ He’s been encouraging them to stand up for their rights. The protestors are overwhelmingly street orphans who have survived to adulthood. Having been deprived of education, they are made to work almost as slaves for a small pittance of their worth.
“Piccolo wants to bring an end to Moses’ doctrine of bigotry—hatred of one’s fellowman. Yet, above all, he wants to bring about a world in which every child has an equal opportunity to a good life including higher education to enable them to contribute to society.
“Christ’s dictate of a redistribution of wealth society is the most explicit testimony of His ministry. He said it in so many different ways, if one could not get it in one way, one would be sure to get it in another way, ‘Sell all that thou hast and give to the poor.’5‘Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon this earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt. For where your treasure is, will be your heart also…’6‘It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven…’7 He rambled on and on until my eyes told him to stop.
“Like Marx, Christ condemned private property. So much so he required His disciples to give up all they owned and come follow Him. Peter gave up his fish nets. Christ dictated a redistribution of wealth society—communism—‘What is in this for others?’
“Yet, today, those who pretend to be Christians prefer to think He didn’t mean what He said. They prefer to think He had had too much wine the night before He said these things—things he said every day of His ministry. Christ was an alcoholic so to speak.
“They prefer to live in their world of capitalism. All they have to do is get down on their knees at night and go to church on Sunday.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “I have often thought of what would this first century man who preached ‘sell all thou hast and give to the poor’ think if He were to stroll into the Vatican today. If he were to take the first pew in St. Peter’s and watch a deranged madman dressed up in women clothes of silk and satin prancing about an altar of marble and gold drinking His blood from a diamond studded chalice? What would Christ think of a mob of ghoulish zombies lining up in a cannibalistic ritual to get a taste of His flesh? What would He think if he stopped in the Raphael bathroom with its magnificent trappings on the second floor of the Papal Palace on His way to meet the Pope if, God forbid, He had to relieve Himself? What would He think…?”
Jack retook the floor. “Ten years ago when the Communist Party in Italy reached double-digit electoral progression, Richard Nixon, then Vice President, established Operation Gladio—a covert army of former Nazis—to keep communism out of Europe. Communism in Italy was particularly dangerous to him as, unlike Russia, Italy is a free democratic society. The growing success of communism was the will of the people. If it were successful in Italy it would spread rapidly in Europe and eventually to the Americas—the world would become a redistribution of wealth society as Christ had instructed.
“Shortly afterwards, in 1960, Nixon lost the presidency to John Kennedy—a democrat—an advocate of a redistribution of wealth society. Kennedy was followed by Johnson—too, a firm believer in a redistribution of wealth society. Until recently, Operation Gladio—unsupported by American presidents—remained dormant. During this time, the Communist Party of Italy has grown to very much more than simply double-digit progression in the polls.
“But, today, Nixon is president. Someone who is convinced society can be driven only by greed. Someone who believes it is fair some children are born into immense wealth while others are born into immense poverty.
“He has stepped up his war against communism and supplied Operation Gladio with hundreds of millions of dollars and weapons and ammunition caches together with instruction to terrorize the Italian people and turn its mindset against communism.”
“You’re suggesting Nixon killed Pasquale?” I shivered.
Jack didn’t bat an eye. “Operation Gladio did the job.”
“But, why Pasquale …?” I started.
Jack cut in, “Pasquale was Piccolo’s man-on-the-job organizing youth in the Veneto country. He was becoming much too visible and a threat to American interests here. He had to be taken out. Colombo has lost several others…”
“Colombo?” My ears perked up.
“Giovanni Colombo,” troubled I’d never heard of him.
“When Paul—the Archbishop of Milan—became Pope in 1965, he replaced himself in the heart of industrialized Italy with Colombo together with the commission to lead Italy into a more just society.
“Paul’s commission was much more than a covert instruction to one man. Two years ago, Paul issued his decree Populorum Progressio.8 He established certain basic rights of man including the right to a just wage and the right to fair working conditions and the right to join a union. Paul ignited the priest-worker revolution.
“Italians remain among the most devout Catholics in the world and it has been Colombo and his lieutenants who have preached Christ’s message from the pulpit that the Italian socialist-communist parties have attained an overwhelming plurality in the polls.
“Piccolo is Colombo’s right-hand man. Together with Aldo Moro they are the driving force in Italy, actually in all of Europe, behind Paul’s encyclical to bring about a day when everyone has enough.
“More recently, Paul expanded his encyclical into Latin America and other impoverished parts of the Catholic world.
“There, the press has tabbed it Liberation Theology. Here, we call it the Priest-Worker Revolution. Both movements, led by clergy, are carrying out Paul’s encyclical to bring about a free communist society—a redistribution of wealth society as the will of the people.
“Nevertheless, Piccolo called Paul and told him of the autopsy findings. A half-dozen unwed mothers had been living in the castle bedrooms. Because of the impending danger he relocated them to other buildings. Now, the rooms are occupied by guards Paul sent up from the Vatican. One accompanied you on the train from Venice.
“Strange. I didn’t notice…”
He cut me off, “Another was the gardener in the castle courtyard.
“Gladio is likely to continue picking off those in the ranks. If Gladio were to take out Colombo or Piccolo, it would yield much more than a footnote in the world press. Yet, we are all in danger. Even Paul, himself, must taste his porridge suspiciously each day.”
He paused briefly and started up again, “Nevertheless, in case something happened to us, Piccolo feels someone should know. Someone who it is reasonable to believe will be around at the end of the century and could bring an end to the world of greed we live in as quickly as one turns off a faucet. That Piccolo, long after he is gone, perhaps, long after I am gone, will carry out his father’s order, ‘You must find the strength to do what you have to do to bring about a day when all men accept each other as equal.’
I stopped him, “But me? How could I possibly accomplish such a thing? I will probably be a ‘nobody’ at that time.”
He didn’t give up, “You will do it in the same way every other ‘nobody’ has accomplished his or her objectives. The same way Mark and his contemporaries accomplished their objectives.”
“Mark and his contemporaries?” I added a question mark.
“Yes, like the evangelists wrote of Christ generations after His time.” He paused and raised his voice, “You, too, will write a book.”
“But I don’t know how to write a book,” I told him.
“You will write a book, for each a
nd every one of them!”
My mind drifted back to yesterday, to that time I had taken the pledge in the cemetery at Milan, “… my solemn promise to carry out that sacred pledge for each and every one of them. That what they dreamed of, those things they willed to be, will come to be, for each of them, and for me, and for you, and for all humanity!”
The factory
Getting up, he patted me on the shoulder, “Enough said. Let’s go to lunch. Vittorio Veneto is smack in the middle of Italian wine country. I will take you to a sidewalk cafe where the food is terrible, but what counts most, the wine is marvelous.”
We wound down around the mountain and strolled along the seminary. “This is our crown jewel. It is what makes Vittorio Veneto such an important post. It was Piccolo who made it that way.”
We headed down a cobblestone street and passed a clock tower. At its base was one of those gelato stands one sees all over Europe. Jack said, “There are ten million of these stands in the world. This one is in first place. We will stop here on the way back.”
“Not many people,” I thought. Each one, some walking, some running, and a few on bicycles, had obviously been there all their lives; a hundred, perhaps two hundred Italians, and I.
As people looked at me, I relished my individuality. Each one said “Hi Jack” in perfect English despite that Jack could speak perfect Italian. Each of them had an expression of great respect and admiration and awe, as if Jack were some kind of a God.
1 Mathew 19
2 The story ‘The Shovel and the Ribbon’ in the author’s book of short stories ‘Let’s All Get Behind the Pope’ recreates Bishop Luciani’s effort to build the clinic.
3 Genesis
4 The last alleged apparition to Moses was the taking of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai on the Sinai Peninsula. Late in the twentieth century, when hundreds of archeological expeditions by the Vatican and other Christian churches confirmed the Israelites had never been in Egypt and the 40 year wandering had never taken place on the Sinai Peninsula, dozens of peaks in the Mid East were renamed ‘Mount Sinai.’ Preachers since claim the taking of the Commandments took place on these various mountains. The official position of the Catholic Church today: the taking of the Commandments took place on a mountain in Eastern Turkey and not on the Sinai Peninsula. Jack’s declaration “The Israelites were never in Egypt.” would not be as startling in today’s world where people of average intelligence know the Israelites were never in Egypt. There is not a Jew in Israel today who goes to Egypt to trace his or her heritage. All Bibles printed before 1881, specifically number the Israelites as six hundred thousand men and their women and children—generally placing the Israelite population that crossed the Red Sea at over two million. Most current Bibles drop the phrase ‘and women and children’ to reduce the number to six hundred thousand. The King James Bible drops the number entirely. Modern films reduce the number to a few dozen in order to get around the archeological fact the Israelites were never in Egypt. Book and films depict literally millions of hieroglyphs—not a single Hebrew symbol or figure has ever been found among them.
Murder in the Vatican Page 22
