by David Yallop
When, finally, in 1989 the Pope reluctantly approved the appointment of a group of laymen to run the bank Marcinkus blithely carried on as if nothing had changed. It was only when the lay group insisted that Marcinkus must vacate the premises before they were prepared to take over that both he and the Pope accepted the inevitable. He finally left in March 1990, secretly departing for the United States and ultimately Phoenix, Arizona, where according to the Vatican he engaged ‘in unspecified work on behalf of the Diocese’. Namely saying the occasional Mass and attempting to improve his golf handicap.
Licio Gelli
In July 1984, it was established by an Italian parliamentary commission that the list of P2 members referred to within this book was authentic. Italian Budget Minister and P2 member Pietro Longo was forced to resign from the Italian Government. For the Puppet Master himself it appeared that the day of reckoning was near. But Gelli is a master of illusion.
From his luxurious hideaway on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil, Gelli offered to repay $8.5 million to the creditors of Banco Ambrosiano. Like the Vatican, Gelli denied any liability in billion-dollar theft. My accusation of criminal links between Italian freemasonry and the Mafia was officially confirmed in March 1986 by investigating magistrates in Palermo. In the same week the interior Minister Oscar Scalfaro told Parliament: ‘Until Licio Gelli is arrested he will continue to be a threat to Italian democracy’.
And not only Italian democracy. Evidence continued to repeatedly confirm how close Gelli’s links remained with various members of the late Argentinean junta. On instructions of P2 member Admiral Emilio Massera, five false passports were created for Gelli during his brief stay in a Swiss prison. Gelli subsequently utilized several of these passports after escaping. In May 1986, a bomb was discovered at the Cordoba headquarters of the Argentinean Third Army Corps, just prior to a visit from President Raul Alfonsin. The assassination attempt was planned by P2 members in the Army. During the last week of January 1987, P2 member General Suarez-Mason was arrested in San Francisco. Extradition proceedings began to return him to Argentina where he was wanted on several counts of torture and torture resulting in death.
Within the book I accuse Gelli’s P2 of the bombing of Bologna railway station. This atrocity, in which 85 people were murdered and 182 injured occurred in 1980. Since this book was first published, P2 member General Pietro Musumeci the former head of the internal section of SISMI, the Italian military intelligence, has been arrested and subsequently charged with perpetrating a cover-up. Fellow P2 members Francesco Pazienza and Giuseppe Belmonte and the Puppet Master himself, Licio Gelli, were also charged. After a series of trials and appeals all four were finally found guilty and sentenced to terms of imprisonment.
On April 16, 1992, in a Milan court, 33 men were found guilty of criminal fraudulent conspiracy relating to the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano. Among those to be sentenced was Umberto Ortolani, to 19 years’ imprisonment, and Licio Gelli to 18 years and six months’ imprisonment. Needless to say, none of the 33 men actually commenced serving their prison sentences; they were all granted bail pending appeals.
Having enjoyed a further six years of freedom Licio Gelli’s sentence was reduced on appeal in April 1998 to 12 years but again Gelli was disinclined to sample prison food. He negotiated with the authorities and it was agreed that instead of languishing in prison he would serve his sentence in his villa under constant police surveillance. He also surrendered his passport. For most people to hand over such a document means that they are unable to leave the country. Gelli merely took another passport out of his safe. The authorities acting under great secrecy began to prepare another attempt to apply Italian justice to Licio Gelli. Yet again his friends, including the doyen of Italian politics, Giulio Andreotti, came to his assistance. Advised that further charges against him were imminent, the Puppet Master yet again vanished. He was subsequently arrested at a residence on the French Riviera. Three days later the police searched his villa in Tuscany and discovered one hundred and fifty gold bars hidden in the flowerpots on the patio: minimum value at the time was £1.5 million. The following May after serving just a few months of his sentence he was released from prison on ‘health grounds’.
On July 19, 2005, Gelli was finally indicted for yet another crime that I had first accused him of in 1984. The murder of Roberto Calvi. Yet again the Puppet Master worked his magic. When the case came to trial the indictment against Gelli had melted away leaving five defendants.
During the first week of June 2007 the trial of Pipo Calo, Flavio Carboni and the other three defendants finally reached a conclusion. Fittingly the verdict was inconclusive. A court in Rome decided there was insufficient evidence to show that any of the five had played a part in the death of Calvi. Yet again the Italian judiciary had demonstrated a marked reluctance to establish the truth.
P2. The immortal lodge
In February 1993, nine years after I had originally accused Bettino Craxi, the leader of the Italian Socialist Party, of receiving from Roberto Calvi and Michele Sindona some of the plundered funds of Banco Ambrosiano, Craxi, who in the interim had been for a substantial period of time Prime Minister of Italy, was forced to resign from party leadership when Italian magistrates finally decided to act upon my accusations.
Italy continued to stagger from political crisis to political crisis. Again and again the source of this turmoil can be traced to P2 elements. In early 1994 a ‘new’ personality entered the political ranks. The multi-media mogul Silvio Berlusconi ran for election on an anti-corruption platform. He was swept to power in March 1994 and became Prime Minister. Silvio Berlusconi is a member of P2. In December 1994 Berlusconi was forced to resign his office after charges of corruption were brought against him. P2 members are resilient people; in 2001 Berlusconi was again elected Prime Minister, a post he held until his election defeat in April 2006. Berlusconi grudgingly departed from office.
Some three months earlier Archbishop Paul Marcinkus had departed from all earthly office. He died in Phoenix, Arizona, in February 2006. He had resisted to the end all attempts by the Italian Courts to have him returned to Rome to testify in the trial of the five accused of the murder of Roberto Calvi. The death of Marcinkus left unresolved the accuracy of an extra-ordinary allegation made during the lifetime of the Archbishop by a member of the Mafia that Marcinkus had been present at a meeting when the decision was taken to ‘suicide’ Calvi in a Masonic manner.
Over the decades the real identity of the ultimate head of P2 was a question that exercised many. A repeated whisper invariably settled on one particular man, Giuilo Andreotti. But surely the figurehead of Italian politics for over fifty years, seven times Prime Minister and Life Senator could not possibly also be the real Puppet Master? The sceptics suffered a severe jolt when in 2002 Andreotti was found guilty of complicity in the murder of the investigative journalist Mino Pecorelli. The Italian magistrates also had abundant evidence that linked Andreotti to a world of illicit financing. The magistrates established that people ‘close to Andreotti’ had met with Pecorelli shortly before his murder in an attempt to persuade him not to publish further ‘embarrassing material’. The former Prime Minister was sentenced to twenty-four years’ imprisonment. Because of his age, he was 83 years old at the time, it was decided that he would not serve the sentence. After a series of appeals Andreotti was cleared of having connections with the Mafia and in October 2003 he was cleared of complicity in the murder of Pecorelli the man who had ensured that a list of senior members of the Roman Catholic hierarchy who were allegedly also members of the Masonic lodge P2 had been sent to Albino Luciani.
Pope John Paul I
Described by the Vatican as ‘a fantasy’ this book continued to be vindicated by further realities. One of my allegations that had particularly infuriated the Vatican was the assertion that the body of the murdered Pope John Paul I had been discovered by Sister Vincenza. It was an assertion that many within the Church condemned as a wicked lie. Among their number
was Father John Magee, who continued to claim that it had been he who had found the Pope’s body. In 1985, I was flying back to London from Dublin, and chanced to find that I was sitting next to Father Magee’s brother. He assured me that he had questioned his brother closely on this aspect and that Father Magee had insisted that I was wrong and his version was correct.
In September 1988, Father John Magee finally admitted that he had lied, not only to his brother, but along with his fellow Papal secretary Father Diego Lorenzi and numerous other Vatican officials, to the world since 1978. He confirmed that it had indeed been Sister Vincenza and not he that had found the body of the dead Pope. Magee had therefore, by such admittance, finally confirmed the first crucial stage of the Vatican cover-up.
This aspect had in fact been confirmed, albeit grudgingly and very obliquely by the Vatican, four years earlier in June 1984. Within weeks of the initial publication of this book apart from denouncing it as ‘infamous rubbish’ a memorandum created by the Commission for Social Communications, the media and public relations arm of the Vatican, was distributed to Episcopal Conference. It attempted in typical Vaticanese to address several of the many issues raised within this book. One of these concerned the identity of who had found the body of Pope John Paul I.
The memorandum while aspiring to minimize the issue admits that it was Sister Vincenza.
While it makes no difference whether the Pope was found by a sister, or as the Vatican communiqué said, by the private secretary of the Pontiff, in fact, the secretary instantly ran to the bedside of Pope John Paul I when he was summoned by the sister who suspected that something might be wrong. The secretary touched the Pope to awaken him and discovered that he was dead. The secretary then called Cardinal Villot.
If, as the Vatican memorandum asserts, ‘it makes no real difference’ then why where the Papal secretaries obliged to take a vow of silence on this and other issues? Why did both secretaries continue to lie for years? Lie both before the Vatican Memorandum and for years afterwards. If those responsible for the Vatican Memorandum had questioned the author Camilo Bassotto, a close personal friend of Pope John Paul I for many years, they would have received confirmation that the account within this book describing how Sister Vincenza discovered the body of the Pope is entirely accurate. Prior to her death in 1983 Bassotto had twice interviewed the nun. The account she gave Bassotto of her grim discovery is the same as that previously given to me. The various reforms detailed within this book that Pope John Paul I had been planning to implement was another aspect which that Vatican Memorandum addressed. ‘Pope John Paul I did not have in mind to make revolutionary changes in the Vatican hierarchy, as can be seen from the following facts’.
The ‘facts’ including his re-appointment of Cardinal Villot, his confirmation of the various Cardinal heads of departments and Secretaries of the Curia are not in dispute and are recorded within this book. The Memorandum’s comments about the late Pope’s prudence, his habit of reflecting, meditating and allowing his thinking to mature before taking decisions could well have been taken directly from my text, as could the comments on his ability after that process had been completed of acting ‘firmly and decisively’. The evidence within this book that details fact after fact that led to the various reforms that were about to be implemented at the time of Albino Luciani’s death is not addressed or considered. Also ignored is the fact that the late Pope’s decisions had not been based merely upon a one-month investigation but on knowledge acquired over a six-year period.
The only aspect of this section of the Memorandum, which is in conflict with this book concerns the heated discussion that Luciani had with Cardinal Baggio regarding the Pope’s desire to send Baggio to Venice as his successor. In June 1984 six years after the confrontation Baggio denied being asked and declared that if he had been he ‘would have gone there – flying’.
I only became aware of this Vatican Memorandum while preparing this postscript. Not only are both Luciani and Baggio dead but so are my primary sources. It is the only proposed change that is specifically challenged. It is reasonable therefore to assume that those responsible for the Vatican Memorandum were unable to find anyone or any evidence that refuted the many other changes that Albino Luciani planned to make that are recorded within this book.
The Memorandum then turns to the question of the papers found in the dead Pope’s hands ‘The pages found in the hands of Pope John Paul I after his death could not, therefore, have been lists of the prelates to be transferred’. It would have immeasurably assisted the Vatican’s position if they had then identified the precise content of these pages. This they fail to do. They quote Father Magee ‘indicating’ that it was the ‘Pope’s custom to review points of sermons and meditations for Wednesday audience discourses and Angelus talks on Sundays’. Demonstrably Magee had no knowledge of what the Pope was reading on that fatal evening or what happened subsequently to those documents.
The most glaring deficiency in this exercise conducted by the Vatican was their failure to talk to others still alive in June 1984 who knew the truth concerning the ‘revolutionary changes’ that Pope John Paul I was about to implement. The failure to talk to these crucial witnesses or if they were spoken to, the failure to report what they said is highly significant.
Father Germano Pattaro brought from Venice by Pope John Paul I as an adviser has stated that among the documents that the Pope was studying were his notes covering the range of changes he had discussed with Cardinal Villot a few hours before retiring for the night. The previously mentioned Camilo Bassotto, is also on record as having discussed with Luciani the various changes he was proposing to make. Then there were others. Men such as Archbishop Giuseppe Caprio who had taken a leading role in the investigation ordered by the late Pope, or Monsignor Giovanni Angelo Abbo, the man chosen by the Pope to replace Marcinkus, or Cardinal Ugo Poletti, the man that the Pope planned to place in charge of the Florence archdiocese.
Archbishop (later Cardinal) Caprio was at the time of Luciani’s death the deputy head of the Secretariat of State and as such if asked he would have been able to make available to the Vatican spin doctors responsible for the Memorandum a copy of the crucial dossier that the late Pope was studying shortly before his death. If there was ever within this entire affair a smoking gun it is the Vagnozzi dossier.
As of September 1978 Cardinal Egidio Vagnozzi knew more about the inner workings of Vatican finances than anyone else in or out of the Vatican. From 1967 he had been in control of the Prefecture of the Economic Affairs of the Holy See. His role was comparable to that of the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the United Kingdom or the Auditor General in the United States. Vagnozzi had intimate knowledge of the Sindona and Calvi relationships with the Vatican and their various dealings with the Holy See. As recorded earlier within this book in 1968/69 Vagnozzi was still struggling to prise out many of the Vatican’s financial secrets that lay buried but long before Pope John Paul I was elected he had the answers.
When Albino Luciani sought an urgent investigation the information that Vagnozzi had acquired over a decade ensured that a highly detailed dossier was soon in the Pope’s hands. Immediately after the discovery of the Pope’s body the Vagnozzi report along with the papers covering the various changes were removed by Cardinal Villot, whose deputy Caprio was most certainly aware of the contents of that report. An indication of just how explosive the contents were can be gauged by the fact that Roberto Calvi subsequently became aware of the Vagnozzi report and its contents and after being offered a copy by a Vatican contact for three million dollars haggled the price down to one point two million dollars then kept the copy close to himself for the rest of his life.
Finally the first two paragraphs of the Vatican Memorandum of June 1984 deserve to be quoted in full. They have assisted immeasurably in the growth of a myth that is still vibrant twenty-eight years later.
‘While the death of Pope John Paul I came as a great surprise only a month after his election to the pa
pacy, the Cardinals who gathered in daily meetings in preparation for the (next) Conclave saw no reason to question the report of Dr Renato Buzzonetti, Director of Vatican Health Services, that the death of Pope John Paul I was attributable to natural causes.
In addition, there was the fact that the Pope’s health had been rather frail. Some time previously, he had complained of swollen ankles. His close relatives did not have any doubts regarding the naturalness of his death, but cited no less than three cases of similar deaths of relatives.’
Dr Buzzonetti had never been Albino Luciani’s doctor. His sole medical experience of the late Pope had been to establish cause of death. His conclusion that the Pope died from myocardial infarction – a heart attack – has been dismissed not only by members of the medical profession in Italy, the US, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom but also by other Vatican doctors including the man who had co-signed Luciani’s death certificate, the Head of the Vatican Medical Service Professor Mario Fontana who subsequently observed ‘If I had to certify under the same circumstances, the death of an ordinary, unimportant citizen. I would quite simply have refused to allow him to be buried’.
Albino Luciani’s condition was far from frail as a study of his factual medical history would have confirmed. Buzzonetti was offered that medical history by Dr Da Ros, the Pope’s physician for more than twenty years. Astonishingly the Vatican medical staff refused to consider that history, a course of action that would have resulted in a very severe medical censure in a great many countries. Quite a number of Cardinals did indeed question Buzzonetti’s ‘report’ including Cardinals Benelli, Felici, Willebrands, Pironio Lorscheider, and there were others. Confronted with the implications of this book in 1984 ‘close relatives’ of the dead Pope recalled three relatives who had ‘similar deaths’ events that lay forgotten in 1978 and again between 1980-1984 when I was engaged in active research. For example the Pope’s brother Edoardo’s response in 1978 when asked if Albino had ever had heart trouble was ‘As far as I know absolutely none’.