In God's Name

by David Yallop

  From Cardinal Villot down they all admired Papa Luciani’s way of working. His ability to get to the root of problems, to make decisions quickly and firmly. They were very struck with his ability to carry out his tasks. It was clear that he was a man who took decisions and stuck to them. He did not give way to pressure. In my own personal experience this ability to stick to his own line was a very remarkable feature of Albino Luciani.

  During the late afternoon of September 28th Jean Villot was given an extended demonstration of this ability that had so impressed him during the previous month. The first problem to be discussed was the Istituto per le Opere di Religione, the Vatican Bank. Luciani was by now in possession of a great deal of highly detailed information. Villot himself had already submitted a preliminary report. Luciani had also obtained further information from Villot’s deputy Archbishop Giuseppe Caprio, and from Benelli and Felici.

  For Bishop Paul Marcinkus, who had initiated the plan and played such an active helping role for Calvi in the takeover of the Banca Cattolica, that chicken and a great many others were now going to come home to roost. Villot advised the Pope that inevitably word had leaked on the investigation into the Bank. The Italian Press were becoming very curious and one major story had just been published.

  Newsweek magazine clearly had some excellent Vatican sources. It had learned that before the Conclave a considerable number of cardinals had requested a full report on the Vatican Bank from Villot. It had also, through its ‘knowledgeable source’, picked up the fact that there were moves afoot to oust Marcinkus. The magazine quoted its Curial source: ‘There’s some movement to get him out of there. He’ll probably be made an auxiliary bishop.’

  Luciani smiled. ‘Does Newsweek tell me with whom I am replacing Marcinkus?’

  Villot shook his head.

  As their conversation progressed, Luciani made it clear that he had no intention of leaving Marcinkus in Vatican City, let alone the Vatican Bank. Having personally assessed the man during a 45-minute interview earlier in the month Luciani had concluded that Marcinkus might be more gainfully employed as an auxiliary bishop in Chicago. He had not indicated his thinking to Marcinkus but the cool politeness he had shown to the man from Cicero had not passed unnoticed.

  Returning to his bank offices after the interview, Marcinkus later confided to a friend, ‘I may not be around here much longer.’

  To Calvi via the telephone and to his colleagues in the bank he observed: ‘You would do well to remember that this Pope has different ideas from the last one. There are going to be changes around here. Big changes.’

  Marcinkus was right. Luciani advised Villot that Marcinkus was to be removed immediately. Not in a week’s or a month’s time. The following day. He was to take leave of absence. A suitable post in Chicago would be found for him once the problem of Cardinal Cody had been resolved.

  Villot was told that Marcinkus was to be replaced by Monsignor Giovanni Angelo Abbo, secretary of the Prefecture of Economic Affairs of the Holy See. As a key figure in the financial tribunal of the Vatican, Monsignor Abbo would demonstrably be bringing to his new job a great deal of financial expertise.

  The inspiration of Pope John’s first 100 days had certainly galvanized Albino Luciani. The claws of the lion which his intimates had waited to see revealed, were on full display to Villot on the evening of September 28th. Luciani, a man so unassuming and gentle, had, before his Papacy, seemed much smaller than his 5 ft 9 ins. To many observers over the years he had seemed to melt into the wallpaper. His manner was so quiet and calm that after a large gathering many were unaware that he had been present. Villot was left in no doubt of his presence on this evening. Luciani told him:

  There are other changes within the Istituto per le Opere di Religione that I wish to be implemented immediately. Mennini, De Strobel and Monsignor De Bonis are to be removed. At once. De Bonis is to be replaced by Monsignor Antonetti. The other two vacancies I will discuss with Monsignor Abbo. I wish all of our links with the Banco Ambrosiano Group to be cut and the cut must happen in the very near future. It will be impossible, in my view, to effect this step with the present people holding the reins.

  Father Magee remarked to me, in terms of a general observation, ‘He knew what he wanted. He was very clear indeed about what he wanted. The manner in which he went about his aims was very delicate.’

  The ‘delicacy’ lay in his explanation to Villot. Both men knew that Marcinkus, Mennini, De Strobel and De Bonis were all men with inextricable links not only with Calvi but also with Sindona. What was not said could not be misquoted at a later date.

  Cardinal Villot noted these changes without much comment. He had been aware of a great deal over the years. Many within the Vatican considered him ineffectual but for Villot it had often been a case of deliberately looking the other way. In the Vatican village it was called survival technique.

  Luciani moved to the problem of Chicago and his discussion with Baggio concerning the ultimatum that was to be given to Cardinal John Cody. Villot voiced approval. Like Baggio he regarded Cody as a running sore in the American Church. That the problem was finally to be solved gave the Secretary of State deep gratification. Luciani stated that he wished soundings to be taken via the Papal Nuncio in Washington about a possible successor to Cody, and observed, ‘There has been a betrayal of trust in Chicago. We must ensure that whoever replaces His Eminence has the ability to win the hearts and minds of all within the diocese.’

  Luciani discussed Baggio’s refusal to accept the See of Venice and his continued determination that Baggio should go where he was told to go. ‘Venice is not a tranquil bed of roses. It needs a man of Baggio’s strength. I wish you to talk with him. Tell him that we all have to make some sacrifice at this time. Perhaps you should remind him that I had no desire for this job.’ The argument would have limited value for Baggio who himself had earnestly desired to be Paul’s successor but Villot diplomatically neglected to make this point.

  Luciani then advised Villot of the other changes he planned to make. Cardinal Pericle Felici was to become Vicar of Rome, replacing Cardinal Ugo Poletti, who would replace Benelli as Archbishop of Florence. Benelli was to become Secretary of State. He would take over Villot’s job.

  Villot considered the proposed changes that included his own ‘resignation’. He was old and tired. Further, he was also seriously ill. An illness not helped by the two packs of cigarettes he smoked daily. Villot had made it plain in late August that he sought early retirement. Now it had come somewhat sooner than he had bargained for. There would be a period of handover of course but to all intents and purposes his power was now ceasing. The fact that Luciani proposed to replace him with Benelli must have been particularly vexing to Villot. Benelli had been his number two in the past and it had not been the happiest of relationships.

  Villot studied the notes he had made of the proposed changes. Albino Luciani, placing his own handwritten notes to one side, poured out more tea for both of them. Villot said, ‘I thought you were considering Casaroli as my replacement?’

  ‘I did, for a considerable time. I think much of his work is brilliant but I share Giovanni Benelli’s reservations about some of the policy initiatives that have been made in the recent past towards Eastern Europe.’

  Luciani waited for some sign or word of encouragement. The silence grew longer. Never during their entire relationship had Villot dropped his formality; always there was the mask, always there was the coldness. Luciani had tried directly and also via Felici and Benelli to inject some warmth into his dealings with Villot, but the cold professional aloofness that was his hallmark remained. Eventually it was Luciani who broke the silence, ‘Well, Eminence?’

  ‘You are the Pope. You are free to decide.’

  ‘Yes, yes, but what do you think?’

  Villot shrugged. ‘These decisions will please some and distress others. There are cardinals within the Roman Curia who worked hard to get you elected who will feel betrayed. They will conside
r these changes, these appointments contrary to the late Holy Father’s wishes.’

  Luciani smiled. ‘Was the late Holy Father planning to make appointments in perpetuity? As for the cardinals who claim to have worked hard to make me Pope – understand this – I have said it many times, but clearly it needs saying yet again. I did not seek to become Pope. I did not want to be Pope. You cannot name one single cardinal to whom I proposed anything. Not one whom I persuaded in any form to vote for me. It was not my wish. It was not my doing. There are men here within Vatican City who have forgotten their purpose. They have reduced this to just another market place. That is why I am making these changes.’

  ‘It will be said that you betrayed Paul.’

  ‘It will also be said that I have betrayed John. Betrayed Pius. Each will find his own guiding light according to his needs. My concern is that I do not betray Our Lord Jesus Christ.’

  The discussion continued for nearly two hours. At 7.30 p.m. Villot departed. He went back to his own offices near by and, sitting at a desk, studied the list of changes. Then, reaching into a drawer, he pulled out another list – perhaps it was just coincidence. Every one of the clerical personnel whom Luciani was moving was on the list of alleged Masons. The list which the disenchanted P2 member Pecorelli had published. Marcinkus. Villot. Poletti. Baggio. De Bonis. While each of the clerical replacements so far nominated by Luciani was notably absent from the list of Masons. Benelli. Felici. Abbo. Antonetti.

  Cardinal Villot put the list to one side and studied another note on his desk. It was the final confirmation that the proposed meeting between the USA Committee on population control and Albino Luciani would take place on October 24th. A Government group which was seeking to change the Roman Catholic Church’s position on the contraceptive pill would in a few weeks meet a Pope who desired to make just such a change. Villot rose from his desk leaving the various papers carelessly in view. The lion had indeed revealed his claws.

  Immediately after his meeting with Villot had finished at 7.30 p.m., Albino Luciani asked Father Diego Lorenzi to contact Cardinal Colombo in Milan. A few moments later Lorenzi advised him that Colombo was not available until about 8.45 p.m. While Lorenzi returned to his desk, the Pope was joined by Father Magee. Together they recited the final part of the daily Breviary in English. At ten minutes to eight Luciani sat down to dinner with Magee and Lorenzi. Totally unruffled by the long session with Villot he chatted amiably while Sisters Vincenza and Assunta served a dinner of clear soup, veal, fresh beans and salad. Luciani sipped a little from a glass of water while Lorenzi and Magee drank red wine.

  At one end of the table, Father Lorenzi was struck by the thought that Luciani’s Papacy must have already passed the shortest on record. He was about to voice the thought when the Pope began to fuss with his new watch. It was a present from Paul’s secretary Monsignor Macchi after Felici had advised the Pope that some of the Curia considered his previous watch inadequate. A bad image apparently. In such a manner did the Curia seek to reduce the Pope to a second-hand-car salesman who took care that his trousers were always neatly pressed. The last time Luciani had seen his brother Edoardo he had offered him the old watch with the words, ‘Apparently the Pope is not allowed to wear an old battered watch that needs to be constantly wound. Will you be offended if I give it to you?’

  Eventually Luciani passed the new watch to Magee to reset when the television news began. It was one minute to eight.

  Shortly after a pleasant, uneventful supper, the Pope went back to his study to consider the notes he had used during his discussions with Villot. At 8.45 p.m. Lorenzi connected him with Cardinal Colombo in Milan. The Cardinal declined to be interviewed but other sources indicate that they discussed the changes Luciani intended to make. Clearly there was no dissension. Cardinal Colombo has gone as far as recalling, ‘He spoke to me for a long time in a completely normal tone from which no physical illness could be inferred. He was full of serenity and hope. His final greeting was “pray”.’

  Lorenzi noted that the phone call finished at about 9.15 p.m. Luciani then glanced over the speech he planned to make to the Company of Jesuits on Saturday the 30th. Earlier he had telephoned the Superior General of the Jesuits, Father Pedro Arrupe, and warned him that he would have one or two things to say about discipline. He underlined a part of the speech that was not without pertinence to the changes he had just made.

  You may well know and justly concern yourselves with the great economic and social problems which trouble humanity today and are so closely connected with the Christian life. But in finding a solution to these problems may you always distinguish the tasks of religious priests from those of the laymen. Priests must animate and inspire the laity to fulfil their duties, but they must not take their place, neglecting their own specific task of evangelization.

  Putting the speech to one side on his desk he picked up the notes on the dramatic changes he had earlier discussed with Villot. He walked to the door of his study and opening it saw Father Magee and Father Lorenzi. Bidding them both goodnight he said, ‘Buona notte. A domani. Se Dio vuole.’ (Good night. Until tomorrow. If God wishes.’)

  It was a few minutes before 9.30 p.m. Albino Luciani closed his study door. He had spoken his last words. His dead body would be discovered the following morning. The precise circumstances surrounding the discovery make it abundantly clear that the Vatican perpetrated a cover up. It began with a lie, then continued with a tissue of lies. It lied about little things. It lied about big things. All of the lies had but one purpose: to suppress the fact that Albino Luciani, Pope John Paul I, was murdered at some time between 9.30 p.m. on September 28th and 4.30 a.m. on September 29th, 1978.

  Albino Luciani was the first Pope to die alone for over one hundred years, but then it has been a great deal longer since a Pope was murdered.

  Cody. Marcinkus. Villot. Calvi. Gelli. Sindona. At least one of these men had decided on a course of action that was implemented during the late evening of the 28th or the early morning of the 29th. That course of action was derived from the conclusion that the Italian Solution must be applied. The Pope must die.

  We Are Left Frightened

  How and why did darkness fall upon the Catholic Church on September 28th, 1978?

  The ‘why’ has already been established. There was a plethora of motives. The ‘how’ also has an alarming number of possibilities. If Albino Luciani was murdered because of any of the reasons already recorded then a number of factors had to apply.

  1 The murder would have to be achieved by stealth. For that status quo of corruption which existed before Luciani’s election to continue, then the act of murder had to be masked. There could be no dramatic shooting of the Pope in the middle of St Peter’s Square; no public attack that would inevitably give rise to a full, searching enquiry as to why this quiet, holy man had been eliminated. The sudden death would have to be achieved in such a manner that public questions and anxiety would be reduced to a minimum.

  2 The most efficient way to kill the Pope was by poison – a poison that when administered would leave no tell-tale external signs. Research indicates that there are over two hundred such drugs which would fulfil the task. The drug digitalis is but one of this number. It has no taste. No smell. It can be added to food, drink or existing proprietary drugs without the unsuspecting victim becoming alerted that he has taken a fatal dose.

  3 Whoever planned to murder the Pope in such a manner would have to have an intimate knowledge of Vatican procedures. They would have to know that no matter what indications remained after the act, there would be no autopsy. Given that they could be confident of that one fact then any one of two hundred drugs could be used. A drug such as digitalis would kill in such a way that upon an external examination of the body the Vatican doctors would conclude that death had been caused by a heart attack. The conspirators would be fully aware that there was nothing within the Apostolic laws directing that an autopsy should be carried out. Further, the conspirators would kno
w that even if suspicions were aroused at the highest levels within the Vatican it would be virtually certain that Vatican officials and examining doctors would content themselves with an elementary examination of the body. If a drug such as digitalis was indeed administered to an unsuspecting Luciani in the late evening then there was the virtual certainty that the Pope would retire to his room for the night. He would go to bed and then to his final sleep. Death would occur between two to six hours after consumption of the fatal dose. The Pope kept beside his bed, on the small table with his battered alarm clock, a bottle of Effortil, a liquid medicine that he had been taking for some years to alleviate low blood pressure. A fatal dose of digitalis, half a teaspoonful, would be undetectable if added to the medicine.

  The only other medicines the Pope was taking were vitamin pills three times a day with his meals and a course of injections for the adrenal cortex, drugs to stimulate the gland that secretes adrenalin. Again these were taken to assist the low blood pressure. Courses of these injections were given twice yearly, in the spring and in the autumn. The proprietary drugs varied. One of them frequently used was Cortiplex. These injections were administered by Sister Vincenza. Luciani was taking a course of them during his Papacy, hence the need for Vincenza in the Papal Apartments. The drugs used for the injections, like the Effortil by the bedside, could have been tampered with easily. No special precautions were made about the storage of these drugs. Access to them would not have presented any problem to a person with murder in mind. Indeed, as will be demonstrated, access to any part of the Papal Apartments presented no problem to anyone determined to end the life of Albino Luciani.