So severe was the rivalry between Wojtyla and Filipiak, John Paul II struck Filipiak’s record from the Catholic Encyclopedia, the official record of the Roman Catholic Church. Filipiak is the only twentieth century cardinal not mentioned in the volume.
At the far end of the vast room, Metropolitan Nikodim and Oscar Romero sat at a massive desk. Off by themselves, they were deeply immersed in their own bit of intrigue.
What is known today—not known at the time—the youthful leader of the Marxist movement within the Orthodox Church was a secret agent for the KGB—the Soviet Union’s counterpart of the CIA. So much so, his every move was tracked by the CIA. He had spent much of the trip from Leningrad looking over his shoulder.
Though the effort to bring Christ/Marx ideology into society “Sell all thou hast and give to the poor” had met with autocracy in the Soviet Union, he was determined a redistribution of wealth culture could succeed in a free democratic society.
Romero, Archbishop of El Salvador, was witness to the epitome of a rich and poor society; his people were literally dying in poverty. Like Gandhi, before him, at first he thought he could bring an end to oppression via peaceful protest backed up by the teachings of Christ.
It had been a year since he found out it didn’t work. Immediately after Paul had made him Archbishop of San Salvador a long line of priest and nun assassinations followed. Within a few months, among dozens of others, his dear friends Fathers Rutilio Grande Garcia and Alfonso Grande Oviedo had been cut down by death squad bullets.
Shortly after Oviedo’s death, he abandoned peaceful protests and spoke out in support of the guerillas and, many times, pointed his finger at the CIA for assassinations of priests and nuns.
One might suspect Romero sought Nikodim’s intercession with the Soviets for arms assistance for revolutionaries operating in El Salvador and neighboring Nicaragua. One will never know.
Nevertheless, the primates of the world pockets of poverty were gathered together. Not, for the first time, for they had been here before, and would be here again. At least, that is what they thought.
What’s that? Africa? We all know what goes on there or maybe we don’t want to know what goes on there. Regardless, you’re right, Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, Primate of Africa, was not there.
There was a reason he was not there. He was an enemy of Paul’s Liberation Theology—the reason all the others were there. He did not believe in revolution. He did not believe society could be driven by people helping other people. He believed society could only be driven by cash. He did not believe Christ is “What is in this for others.” He was convinced Christ was a piece of bread in a cup.
Yet, it could be he didn’t want to give up his palace in Benin or his posh apartments in Paris and Rome. One will never know.
The politicians
Enrico Berlinguer, leader of the Italian Communist Party was gathered together with the communist mayors of Italy’s largest metropolises, Giulio Argan of Rome and Vittorio Korach of Milan. With them sharing a white marble coffee table, was Aldo Moro.
Off to one side, Cardinal Giocomo Violardo knelt at a prayer station in a darkened corner of the huge room lightened only by the flickering of candles.
He thought back a few years to the time he had caused an uproar when he had been caught distributing Holy Communion to a group of Protestants and Communists. He explained to his adversaries, “This is what Communion is all about—Communism—Christ.”3
Regardless, Paul answered the demands of Curia cardinals for his excommunication by making Giocomo Secretary for the Discipline of the Sacraments and at the same time made him a cardinal.4
One would wonder what the Secretary for the Discipline of the Sacraments does. Not much. Paul filled in his time as the Vatican’s chief lobbyist in the Italian Parliament. Other than Paul, the astute lawyer was the closest person in the room to Aldo Moro. He was looking forward to the upcoming Thursday morning when Moro would move communist ministers into control of Parliament.
Giocomo was not a lobbyist in the common sense of the term. He didn’t spend his time wining and dining politicians in classy restaurants or working hotel lobbies. He lobbied them the same way all preachers lobby their prey—from the pulpit.
When a particular bill was on the table, Moro would furnish Giocomo with a list of Parliamentary members together with where they lived. The local parish would be privileged to have a Vatican cardinal give the Sunday sermon— Giocomo would cleverly lean his message toward the issue at hand and win over the votes.
It was fortunate he was praying to his God. He was about to meet Him. His body would be found beneath a stairway in a dark corner of the Palace of the Holy Office on that coming Friday morning; as the Vatican explained, “In his seventies, the cardinal undoubtedly stumbled and slipped over the balustrade late last evening.”5
Moro would never learn of the loss of his dear friend. He would never be privileged to give the eulogy at the funeral of Cardinal Giocomo Violardo. By the time Giocomo lay in his coffin, Moro, himself, had already been kidnapped and readied for his own coffin.
The ringleaders
Eight men were gathered on the other side of the room.
As leader of its largest church, Paul was the most influential man on the planet. Yet, he sat at the head of the table nervously wiggling his toes in his shoes. He seemed more immersed in himself than what was going on around him. Yet, he was much more concerned with the order of the day than he was with his impending doom.
Cardinal Egidio Vagnozzi, Prefect of Economic Affairs of the Holy See, sat next to Paul as he held the purse strings of Paul’s war on poverty—the Vatican bank reported to his office. One cannot fight a war—particularly a war on poverty—without money.
To Paul’s other side sat his legal counsel Cardinal Pericle Felici, Prefect of the Tribunal of the Holy See, and next to Felici was the man who was always next to Felici—Cardinal Giovanni Benelli. The two were bounded together in a driving cause to destroy Opus Dei, the clandestine cult which ruled the opposing force in the Church.
Albino Luciani sat chatting in French, so fluent one would never believe he had rarely traveled outside of Italy. His audience was Leon Joseph Suenens. Suenens? Who’s he?
Suenens was the leader of human fairness in the Church.
When John XXIII had created a second party in the College of Cardinals, which for a thousand years had known only one party, he gave it a leader. He explained when he named Suenens a cardinal, “He will open the window and let in the fresh air.”6
John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul I had been fluent in French.
It was no mystery in John’s case, as he had spent much of his ministry in France. It was no mystery in Paul’s case either, as he had the French cardinal Jean Villot at his side. But, how did Luciani, who rarely traveled outside Italy, become so fluent in French?
The reason was Cardinal Suenens. Scarcely a day would go by in his twenty years as a bishop and as a cardinal Luciani would not pick up the phone and run an issue or two by the Belgian cardinal. This was also true of both John and Paul. Scarcely a day would go by they would not pick up the phone and ask Suenens’ advice.
When Luciani rose to the papacy he was fluent in Italian, English, French and Spanish and could converse with limitation in Russian, German, Chinese, Portuguese and a few African dialects.
Pericle Felici had served as apostolic nuncio to Africa and Giovanni Benelli had served as apostolic nuncio to western Africa and Albino Luciani had run missionary operations in Africa for many years. Even though its primate was not one of those scattered about the room, Africa was well represented here at the summit.
Cardinal Colombo of Milan and Cardinal Villot, who had set up the summit, rounded out those at the top.
The bystanders
There were, of course, the eavesdroppers.
There was the host, Antonia Cunial, presiding bishop of Vittorio Veneto. Then there was my friend Jack, the only person without rank other than a dozen inter
preters and aides strategically placed here and there throughout the great room.
So there were some snitches in the room and my friend Jack was one of them, lest I could not bring you this accounting. There may have also been some snitches in the room that eventually caused the common dream of these men to fade into obscurity.
There were thirty-three in all.
Thirty-three men surrounded by thirty-three angels. Each one in Byzantine fashion, each one in individual color, each one bearing a shield with coat-of-arms, each one armed with a weapon of medieval times, each one topped off with a golden halo, each one standing in a carved mahogany panel. Each one watching, each one listening…
Early the next morning, a few ran off to Belluno and Venice to catch planes, while the others stayed on for the day.
Wine at the corner-wedge café
On the afternoon of March 13, 1978, fifteen men sat around a table in a sidewalk café in the mountain village of Vittorio Veneto in northern Italy. In casual clothes they went unnoticed though one was the reigning Pontiff, and the others his Secretary of State, his Chief Counsel, the Patriarch of Venice, the Archbishop of Gniezno, the Archbishop of Florence, the Metropolitan of Leningrad, the Primates of China, India, Eastern Asia, Eastern Europe and the South Pacific. Next to the Curia Cardinal Violardo was the man who picked up the check, Aldo Moro. Yes, there was one more, my friend Jack.
It was the composition of these men that was the great enemy of Opus Dei, the clandestine cult which sought to control the papacy and the moral pulse of the world. More so, it was the great enemy of the capitalistic world led by the United States. They left at four o’clock and Aldo reserved the table “for this time next year.”
On the morning of March 13, 1979, Benelli and Felici awoke. They had decided not to travel to Vittorio Veneto that day. After all, all the others were dead. Unaware of their impending doom, they, too, were as good as dead.
So what do we have?
We Have the remarkable coincidence Cardinal Gantin, the only primate of a world pocket of poverty to survive would spend the rest of his days annihilating Paul’s concept of Liberation Theology.
We have the remarkable coincidence the boy Luciani and the boy Rotov had a common upbringing by atheist fathers, Luciani having once made the acquaintance of Rotov’s father.
We have the remarkable coincidence the youthful leader of the Russian Orthodox Church Metropolitan Rotov Nikodim was the first foreign dignitary granted an audience with John Paul I and dropped dead at his feet.
We have the remarkable coincidence Yu Pin who would have locked up the election for Luciani dropped dead at Paul’s funeral
We have the remarkable coincidence the unexplained deaths of Paul VI, John Paul I and Jean Villot in rapid consecutive order made possible the rise to the papacy of John Paul II, Agostino Casaroli and Giuseppe Caprio to the most powerful positions in the Church.
We have the remarkable coincidence two of these had free access to each of these victims the night they died.
We have the remarkable coincidence Karol Wojtyla’s long time adversary Cardinal Boleslaw Filipiak died of undisclosed causes the day before the conclave that elected the Polish Pope opened.
We have the remarkable coincidence Aldo Moro was abducted and subsequently murdered on the very morning he was scheduled to move communist ministers into control of Parliament.
We have the remarkable coincidence Paul’s ‘voice’ in the Italian Parliament, Giocomo Violardo, was murdered on the same day.
We have the remarkable coincidence Egidio Vagnozzi was found dead on his apartment floor while in the midst of the bank audit.
We have the remarkable coincidence John Paul’s proclamation, “It is the inalienable right of no man to accumulate wealth beyond the necessary while other men starve to death because they have nothing,” was followed immediately by his sudden death.
We have the remarkable coincidence of eleven people who could have known of the Vatican bank scandal transactions, only four were alive when the case was tried in the Italian courts and they happened to be the four ranking men in the Roman Catholic Church.
We have the remarkable coincidence the timing of the money flow from the Vatican to Central America paralleled precisely the time of the rising of the Contras during the Carter administration.
We have the remarkable occurrence the same cardinals elected a liberal in one election and elected a conservative the next election.
We have the toll,
April 4, 1919 Francisco Marto arsenic poison (1)
February 20, 1920 Jacinta Marto arsenic poison (1)
September 5, 1968 Pasquale Amedore blunt object
March 16, 1978 Aldo Moro kidnapped
March 16, 1978 Cardinal Violardo fell over banister
May 9, 1978 Aldo Moro shot to death
August 6, 1978 Paul VI arsenic poison (2)
August 11, 1978 Cardinal Yu Pin lethal poison
August, 17, 1978 Cardinal Suenens attempt on life
August 17, 1978 Cardinal Benelli attempt on life
September 5, 1978 Archbishop Nikodim cyanide
September 11, 1978 Cardinal Gracias arsenic poison (2)
September 21, 1978 Cardinal Suenens attempt on life
September 27, 1978 Edoardo Calo fell off terrace
September 29, 1978 John Paul I lethal injection
September 30, 1978 John Champney hit-and-run
October 14, 1978 Cardinal Filipiak arsenic poison (2)
November 27, 1978 Cardinal Trinh-Khue arsenic poison (2)
January 29, 19794 Cardinal Delargey arsenic poison (4)
March 13, 1979 Jean Villot arsenic poison (2)
March 29, 1979 Carmine Pecorelli shot to death
March 24, 1980 Archbishop Romero shot to death
December 26, 1980 Cardinal Vagnozzi never disclosed
March 22, 1982 Cardinal Felici poison wine
June 17, 1982 Roberto Calvi hanging
June 17, 1982 Teresa Corrocher fell out window
September 12, 1982 Giuseppe Dellacha fell out window
June 9, 1983 Michel Sindona poisoned
October 26, 1982 Cardinal Benelli Vatican order
June 17, 1984 Sister Vincenza Taffarel unknown
March 18, 1996 Cardinal Suenens unknown
May 4, 1998 Alois Estermann shot to death
May 4, 1998 Gladys Meza Romero shot to death
May 4, 1998 Cedric Tornay shot to death
February 20, 2005 Archbishop Marcinkus not disclosed
November, 19903 Avro Manhattan hanging
(1)It is not possible to determine the cause of Francisco’s death as he was confined at home and deprived of medical attention. What is known is that he and his sister did not die of the 1918 Flu for had they suffered Flu symptoms—easily diagnosed—they would have been confined to a sanitarium by law. What little is known of his symptoms suggests he suffered from the same malady as did Jacinta as they were both stricken at the same time—a week after the media declared the visions a hoax as Lucia’s—the Lady’s—prediction her co-visionaries would die had not come true. Francisco suffered six months and Jacinta lasted over a year during the late stages of which she was hospitalized—hospital records though mystifying are consistent with arsenic poisoning. Unless Lucia actually saw the Lady, the evidence points solely at her as the Vatican had denounced the visions and her mother had repeatedly told the press Lucia was a pathological liar. She had powerful motive and opportunity—free access to her cousins on a daily basis.
(2) death consistent with-not proved. Four cardinals, not mentioned in this book, also died in 1978-1979. To the best of the author’s knowledge they died of natural causes. Their average age 77 as compared with the average of those above of 56.
(3) His body was discovered by his wife Nov 26th upon returning from London.
(4) Currently under investigation by a criminology class at an America university:
Cardinal Delargey
Perha
ps, the most puzzling death was that of Cardinal Delargey of Wellington. So much so, rumors spread requiring books written to explain it. Clergy’ books claim his deterioration so dramatic whispers of cancer were widespread in the 1978 conclaves, “He looked dreadful…wasted away to skin and bones…it was obvious he was in the final stages of cancer in the first conclave…many were surprised when he showed up at the second conclave…”
The most proliferate of these claims fired by the Vatican clergy is that melanoma spread rapidly to stomach cancer.
This supposition is based on his visit to an outpatient clinic in a Wellington hospital in September 1978 in which he had a mole removed from his shoulder. The hospital confirms the mole benign which established clearly Delargey did not suffer from melanoma or any other kind of skin cancer at the time.
When confined to the Auckland hospital in December, doctors were unable to diagnose his condition. It was that severe restrictions were placed on visitors and the diocese refused to disclose the nature of his illness which triggered rumors.1 Those closest to him who felt they had the right to visit him were turned away.
His death certificate states ‘inoperable adenocarcinoma of stomach area.’ The Church has often—as clear in the case of the thirty-three day pope—influenced what goes on a death certificate in cases in which the dying process is clandestine in nature and shielded from the public—a practice facilitated in a Catholic hospital. Delargey died in the Sisters of Mercy Mater Misericordiae Hospital.
By chance, the identical wording ‘inoperable adenocarcinoma of stomach area’ also appears on the death certificates of Valerian Gracias and Trinh Nhu Khue other eastern cardinals who fell victim to the 1978 conclaves. Gracias died in a Catholic hospital in Bombay and Khue died in a Catholic hospital in Hanoi.
Delargey had been the closest confidant of Cardinal Yu Pin and the loudest voice calling for an autopsy when the Grand Chancellor of Eastern Affairs keeled over at Paul’s funeral. He had occupied the adjoining room to Yu Pin on the ground floor of St. Damascus the night before Yu Pin dropped dead.
Villot tells the story of the progressive Delargey’s visit to the papal apartment after Luciani was elected. He asked, “We are good men. Why is it we have so many enemies?” John Paul didn’t hesitate, “We were born before our time.”
Murder in the Vatican Page 48
