Merchants in the Temple

 

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Chronology

2013

2014

2015

 

About This Book

The Wounds of the Vatican

It is the afternoon of September 12, 1978. Pope John Paul I, after only eighteen days of his pontificate, discovers that a powerful Masonic lobby with 120 members is active within the Curia. The news is disconcerting. Rather than abiding by the words of the Gospel, cardinals, bishops, and senior clerics are beholden to the vows of the Brotherhood of Freemasons—an intolerable situation. So on September 19, the new Pontiff starts to draft a plan for a radical reform of the Curia.

In the late afternoon of September 28, John Paul summons the Secretary of State, the powerful Cardinal Jean-Marie Villot, to inform him of the changes he wishes to implement. He has prepared a list of senior cardinals to be dismissed. At the top of the list are Paul Casimir Marcinkus, the Monsignor who directs the IOR (short for
Istituto per le Opere di Religione
, the Institute for Religious Works, often referred to as the Vatican bank), and his closest collaborators: Luigi Mennini and Pellegrino de Strobel. Similar measures will be taken with the Secretary of the IOR, Monsignor Donato De Bonis. These players are too closely associated with the bankers Michele Sindona and Roberto Calvi and as such, they have to be dismissed. They will be asked to leave the Curia the very next day.

Among the other prominent figures to be replaced are the Archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal John Patrick Cody, and the Vicar of Rome, Cardinal Ugo Poletti. Cardinal Villot himself is also slated to be leaving.

John Paul's talk with the Secretary of State lasts for more than two hours, until 7:30
P.M
. The next day, at dawn, Sister Vincenza Taffarel finds the Pontiff's lifeless body in his bed. John Paul I has left his last speech on his desk: he was supposed to deliver it to the Procurators of the Society of Jesus, as the Jesuit Order is known, with whom he had an audience the next day, September 30.

*   *   *

It is July 3, 2013, the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle. As he does every morning, Pope Francis wakes at dawn in Room 201, one of the few suites in Casa Santa Marta, the guest house where he has chosen to live since his election in March. He has refused to move into the sumptuous pontifical apartments, breaking immediately with papal formality. The day seems to be proceeding with absolute normality. In his homily during the celebration of the Mass in the Santa Marta chapel, the Pope uses a powerful metaphor: “We find Jesus's wounds in carrying out works of mercy … Let us ask of St. Thomas the grace to grant us the courage to enter into the wounds of Jesus with tenderness.”

After the Mass, he has a frugal breakfast. But this will be no ordinary day. Almost four months have gone by since the Conclave that elected him. The time has come to initiate the profound reform promised to Catholics throughout the world.

This is also the start of a war. A war that is still being waged today behind closed doors, in the secret rooms of the Vatican palaces. This book tells the story of that war—through documents that have never before been made public—offering proof of a gigantic, and seemingly relentless, malfeasance that the Pontiff is challenging with singular courage and determination.

A meeting has been called to discuss the finances of the Holy See. It is a confidential meeting attended, customarily, by the cardinals of the Council for the Study of the Organizational and Economic Problems of the Holy See, and chaired by the Secretary of State of the Vatican, Tarcisio Bertone. The Pope's presence is generally not required at this meeting, but Francis wants to be there. He has something urgent to say to the Church hierarchy, which is assembled in its entirety. At the meeting Francis will bring to light all the wounds of the Vatican, signaling an unprecedented break between the old and the new approach—a rupture whose consequences are still unpredictable.

This Investigation

A live recording was made of the Pope's words during that meeting. By listening to this recording, I became the first journalist ever to have access to what goes on at an insiders' meeting at the Vatican attended by the Pontiff. The investigation begins with the more recent and undisclosed secrets of the Holy See. I will follow the Stations of the Cross as they are contemplated in silence, one at a time, by the Jesuit Pope from Argentina. This is a true battle between good and evil, in which the Pope's men are lined up on one side, while on the other are his enemies, the defenders of the status quo, adverse to any and all change.

Seated around the table with Francis are the fifteen cardinals of the Council. Also in attendance are the leaders of the departments that control the finances of the Holy See: the
Administrazione del patrimonio della sede apostolica
(APSA, for short), essentially the central bank of the Vatican, which also manages the immense real estate holdings of the Holy Roman Church; the Governorate, the body in charge of the museums, commercial activities, contracts for normal and special maintenance of buildings and facilities, the post office, and telephone services; the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, which oversees all the Vatican offices; and the IOR, the bank that administers assets earmarked for religious works and charity. All the names that count are here.

My knowledge of this meeting is based both on the recording and on the testimony of some of the participants. Through their accounts I was also able to get a visual picture of the faces and expressions, the tensions and dismay. And I was able to ascertain—through this live recording—the resolute position of the Pope, so sweet and affable in public appearances, but steadfast and firm before his closest collaborators. Francis of the big smiles and kind words shows himself to be absolute in his goals and intolerant of the Curia's “human ambition to power,” which had also been criticized by his predecessor, Benedict XVI. His words attest to a truth that is quite different from the normal state of affairs described in dry official press releases and flattering news stories—a dramatic, unmentionable sin that was supposed to be kept secret in the Apostolic Palaces.

Exclusive, Never-Before-Published Documentation