If anyone is interested in Catholic Church finances, I highly recommend the article “Karol Wojtyla and the secrets of Vatican finances” appearing in the new online English edition of the Italian newspaper, La Stampa, “Vatican Insider” website. (Note to those who will read the article: SpA is the Italian equivalent of Inc. or Ltd. The Democrats referred to in the article are the Christian Democrats, an Italian political party.)
Published in 2009, author Gianluigi Nuzzi’s book, Vatican SpA “reveals how a sort of ‘private affairs office’ inside the Vatican had worked to straighten or silence the most embarrassing and troubled financial affairs in the years of Karol Wojtyla.”
The book is based on “over 4 thousand documents that make up the archive of a privileged witness: Monsignor Renato Dardozzi” who “for twenty years was one of the few advisors of the cardinals who succeeded to the Secretary of State, from Agostino Casaroli to Angelo Sodano. Dardozzi wanted that after his death, in 2003, his endless archives be made public.”
The IOR or Vatican Bank “is a unique ‘off shore’ corridor for politicians around the world who want to keep their money away from legal controls – specifies Nuzzi. The IOR is like a credit card that ensures privileges to be granted in exchange for political backing, legal provisions and, business support” according to the author of the article.
“From the archives of Dardozzi emerges that a flow of money, including cash and bonds, was conveyed into a kind of parallel IOR, an off-shore web of screen deposits made out to charities and non-existent beneficial foundations with cynical names (‘Foundation for poor children’, ‘Fight against Leukemi’), a spider web built in secret for years by Bishop Donato De Bonis, former secretary and successor [Archbishop Paul] Marcinkus, appointed prelate of the IOR by Casaroli.”
It’s too lengthy to cut and paste but this is the URL. http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/the-vatican/detail/articolo/beatificazione-di-giovanni-paolo-ii-karol-wojtyla-giovanni-paolo-ii-marcinkus-finanza-86/
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Betty Clermont
colkoch
Jayden Cameron
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gaysurvivor
johnjmcneill
Michael Bayly
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Phillip Clark
Terence
William Lindsey
Betty, thanks for linking to this article. It’s deeply disturbing–gut-wrenching–to read.
One line that leapt out: T”he fall of communism leaves the Pope with a series of debts, because in the crucial struggle for the survival of the Church of the East Wojtyla had moved immense resources, through monetary triangular movements especially with the United States, according to the principle of the ‘lesser evil.’”
This strikes me for a number of reasons. First, it dovetails with something Matthew Fox has written: that a CIA-connected person has told him the CIA put John Paul II into the papal seat. He was a pawn of powerful conservative American economic and political interests, sitting in the chair of Peter.
And second, I’m not at all confident that in involving himself in “triangular movements” with American business and political interests as they laundered dirty money, JPII was cooperating with “lesser evil.” I’m afraid as I read this, I think, instead, of the devil tempting Jesus in the desert, and Jesus succumbing to the temptation.
No wonder JPII was so ruthless towards Oscar Romero. The current Vatican leaders have surely begun the canonization process for the wrong man, haven’t they?
Except that they, too, are so captive to the corporate leaders to whom they’ve sold their soul that they have no other choice . . . .
Thanks for taking the time to read this, Bill. It really is something the whole world should be reading since the Vatican’s ability to move hidden money is what keeps the transnational corporatists funding the Church and the Church, in turn, supporting the oligarchs.
As regards Fox’s assertion that the CIA placed JPII on the Throne of St. Peter, I also give several references in my book, The Neo-Catholics, to others who have said the same only that it was done with cooperation of Opus Dei and the Knights of Malta/P-2.
Yes, the Church keeps saying they are choosing the “lesser evil” as in their support for European fascism. But of course, if they were an “authentic” religion than the obvious choice would be to side with “no evil.” Betty
“[I]t was done with cooperation of Opus Dei and the Knights of Malta.”
It’s amazing how much behind-the-scenes power those two groups exert. And not only inside the Catholic church, but in the political sphere, too. The papal visit to the British Isles last year seemed to be entirely in the hands of an Opus Dei media machine that tried, in every way possible, to suppress any critical coverage of the papal visit. And they seem to have succeeded in making the secular media toe their line–a tribute to the money and power that lies behind this organization.
I first became aware of the maleficent influence of the Knights of Malta in a very personal way. When I met my Waterloo as a Catholic theologian while teaching at Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina, I appealed to the local bishop (William J. Curlin of Charlotte) for assistance. I told him I simply wanted to talk with him as the chief pastor of the diocese, because the injustice and lies doled out to me by a Catholic institution had badly shaken my faith.
Curlin refused ever to meet with me–ever even to see my face.
Then down the road in 2002, when the Boston abuse cases broke open and the legal discovery process forced disclosure of the diocesan personnel files, it turned out that the priest Belmont Abbey hired to replace me in their theology department, George Berthold, had an unsavory history of making inappropriate advances to seminarians. When this information became public, the abbot of Belmont Abbey, Placid Solari, and Bishop Curlin both tried to deny they had known of Berthold’s past when they hired him as my replacement.
Then Cardinal Law did a fast one on them and released documents showing he had informed Solari and Curlin both in writing and by phone of Berthold’s past when they hired him, and Solari and Curlin had to admit they had lied to the public.
And here’s the detail about the Knights of Malta, which first introduced me to their unsavory nature: the same Boston materials contain letters between Curlin and Law about how they would meet at the Knights of Malta meeting coming up several years before the Boston cases broke open. That detail told me a lot about who runs the Catholic church in the U.S., about the level of ethical commitment of these well-heeled dignitaries, and so forth.
Thanks, Bill. I have little to add since entire books have been written about the influence of these uber-wealthy and powerful men in the world’s political and financial arenas – the (modern) Knights since the French Revolution and Opus
Dei beginning in the Cold War era. I think its important that even non-Catholics grasp the extent of this power as it clearly has effected world history leading up to the present world financial collapse and the continuing efforts of the corporatists to financially enslave us. Betty
Simply amazing. As always, thanks for the post, the link, and your friendship, Betty.
Betty I am a third into your book.Loose ends and questions are being tied up. I have recommended it to several others.please read Marie Henrie article on this website
http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/03/opus-dei-mysteries-behind-most.html
I know Betty you will find this article very interesting
http://www.pagesofmary.com/2011/07/i-am-legion-we-are-many-marie-henrie.html