Murder in the Vatican
Page 37
It was that the guards had made this discovery in the adjoining cellar and that the bodies of the Estermanns were warm but that of Tornay was cold that caused them to believe there had been foul play in Tornay’s death; one of their finest had been framed
They demonstrated their conviction of Tornay’s innocence two days after the murders at the annual assembly of the Swiss Guard. In his honor they left the place, where Cedric Tornay would have otherwise stood, vacant.9
Highest ranking Opus Dei member and Cardinal Secretary of State, Angelo Sodano took charge of the case. He refused the offer of investigating teams of both the Italian police and Scotland Yard. He placed a gag order on all Vatican personnel and channeled all communication through the former roommate of Josemaria Escriva, Navarro-Valls—Director of the Holy See Press Office.
Valls, the second ranking Opus Dei member, issued an immediate statement, “a fit of madness caused Tornay to commit the murder-suicide.” This remains the official Vatican position today.
Vatican release L’ Osservatore 5 May 78 “At about 4pm last evening a triple murder was discovered in the flat of the commander of the Swiss Guard. Estermann’s wife was the first to be discovered. She had been shot. Further inside, in the sitting room, Estermann was found shot through the cheek and the neck. Nearby Lance Corporal Cedric Tornay was found slumped over the gun that had killed all three. After having killed the Estermanns, he had put the gun in his mouth and fired. A neighbor upstairs heard shouting and came downstairs to investigate. Cedric Tornay’s revolver was empty No other weapon was found in the apartment.”10
Vatican release L’ Osservatore 8 May 78 “Tornay arrived at the Estermann apartment early the evening of May 4, 1998. Enraged over having been left off the list of those to receive the Benemeriti medal, he shot Commander Estermann twice while he was on the telephone. He then turned the gun on Estermann’s wife Gladys Romero and fired a third shot which missed and killed her with the fourth shot. He then knelt down and turned the gun on himself.”11
The Vatican has no in-house homicide or forensic expertise. If there had been an intimate relationship between Estermann and Tornay—though the strongest of dozens of rumors not known fact—lovers do tell each other secrets. It may be Estermann told Tornay something he knew of John Paul I’s death endangering both their lives. Many people have fallen victim to murder for nothing more than they knew too much about murders and related events.
The extreme closeness of Tornay and Estermann is demonstrated in that Tornay was the officer assigned by Estermann to the post closest to John Paul II. It could be his own familiarity with the Papal Apartment may have prompted Tornay to pester Estermann with questions of the 33-day Pope’s mysterious death.
Yet, what is important here is: Was Alois Estermann the rookie guard assigned to the post closest to John Paul I the night of his death? Did his influence with John Paul II end in his own demise?
In that, ranking Opus Dei officers refused to take the Italian police and Scotland Yard up on their offer and instead sealed the case from the public raises some questions.
Was Opus Dei involved in the Estermann and Tornay murders?
Was the CIA involved in the Estermann and Tornay murders?
Were both Opus Dei and the CIA involved in the Estermann and Tornay murders?
Were Opus Dei and the CIA involved in John Paul’s murder?
Shall we see? We shall see. Yes, we shall see.
Autopsy
The Vatican has a record of not ordering independent autopsy12 in the case of mysterious deaths within its walls.
This was true of the Swiss Guard murders and it was also true of John Paul I. One might understand this in the case of John Paul where there were no physical signs of violence and one may have wanted to cover up the possibility of murder. Yet, it staggers the imagination, Sodano and Valls would not want to get at the truth in the case of the Swiss Guard murders which were obviously murder.
One might wonder why it follows this practice particularly in that it invariably leads to rumors which otherwise would never arise.
In connection with the Swiss Guard murders the only conceivable explanation seems a Scotland Yard investigation would lead to Opus Dei or the CIA or both had called the shot.
In the case of John Paul, if Villot was certain the Pope had not been murdered, he certainly would have ordered an independent autopsy for this would have brought an end to the rumors. Villot either knew foul play had been involved or at the very least suspected it. One has to wonder for what other reason an autopsy was not performed in the case of John Paul I. Particularly, in that ranking cardinals led by Benelli and Felici demanded it.
Except perhaps, that an autopsy was also not performed on Paul VI, who had died just a month earlier, also presumably of a ‘heart attack.’ Although Pope Paul, unlike John Paul, had some health problems, including having had a prostate operation ten years earlier, he had no history of heart disease, none whatsoever.
One would wonder what were the circumstances of his death—the mysterious death of Pope Paul VI. To best understand the circumstances of Paul’s death, one must first understand the circumstances of his best friend’s death—Aldo Moro.
1 Poteri Forti by Ferrucio Pinotti
2 Alois Estermann Wikipedia and other biographies
3 La Repubblica 5 May 98
4 La Repubblica 5 May 98
5 La Repubblica 4 Apr 05
6 Biel Bienne 9 Jan 05
7 Swiss Guard Code
8 La Repubblica 11 May 98
9 L’ Osservatore 8 May 78
10 L’ Osservatore 5 May 78
11 L’ Osservatore 8 May 78
12 According to the Vatican autopsies were performed on the Estermanns and Tornay which determined they died of gunshot wounds. The autopsy of Tornay’s body ordered by his mother was possible when she stole the body from a Swiss morgue
Photo John Paul assassination attempt Associated Press
Photo John Paul prays over Alois Estermann’s coffin Associated Press
Chapter 31
The Murder of Aldo Moro
The opening and closing bits of satire in the following chapter is used only to demonstrate how the CIA operates under its charter.
9:00AM January 30, 1976. McLean Virginia1
It was his first day on the job. He swung around and looked up,
Mission
We are the nation’s first line of defense.
We go where others cannot go and accomplish what others cannot accomplish.
We carry out our mission by conducting covert operations at the direction of the president to preempt threats against the United States of America.2
“There is something wrong here.” He read it again. “Something wrong.” He scratched his forehead, “Something very wrong.”
“Yes…” his eyes caught the phrase, “…at the direction of the president…” He laughed.
Footsteps crept up behind him. Robin carried a small box. Placing it on the desk with one hand, she laid a small white card in front of him with the other. She gave him a glancing smile as she disappeared out of the room. He read the card,
George Herbert Walker Bush
Director of National Security
The United States of America
Turning, he looked back up at the wall. “…at the direction of the president…” He laughed again.
“Threats,” the word caught him.
There were hundreds of them.
What’s more, there were hundreds of niches in the CIA scattered around the globe that took care of them. People, who he, much less the president, would never know who they were, or for that matter where they were, let alone know what they were doing.
Each of them going about their sacred trust conducting ongoing covert operations to preempt threats against the United States, endless myriads of independent death squads commissioned by various directors and presidents all the way back to when Harry Truman had first established the CIA in 1947.2
Except for the appointment of a few at the top, the CIA is not a partisan organization. When a new president takes office he usually appoints his choice to the director position. The director, in turn, might appoint a few to the top jobs. But the buck stops there.
A newly appointed director does not clean house. As a matter-of-fact, according to its charter imposed upon it by Congress, a newly appointed director can’t clean house lest he imperil the security of the nation. Actually, he wouldn’t know where to begin. No one, including its leader, has any idea how many employees are in the CIA. This is the authority of Congress and a matter of national security. The number is usually placed between twenty and forty thousand, but, as a matter-of-fact, no one knows—a reason why the CIA is funded by two dozen other government organizations and lacks an identifiable budget.2
Again, he looked back up at the wall, “…at the direction of the president…” and laughed again.
His eyes focused once again on the word “threats.”
There were only two which he, himself, would ever have to deal with. There was the emerging threat of the Arab world and there was the ongoing threat of communism.
He had important partners in each of these jobs. In the case of the Arabs, Israeli Intelligence headed the list. Then there were the French, British, German, Australian intelligence operations and dozens of others scattered around the globe.
When it came to communism, the list was shorter. As long as he would sit at this desk, he would have ongoing communications primarily with two people. There was the Director General of the United Kingdom’s Secret Intelligence Service, Michael Hanley. More than any other nation, the United Kingdom most closely shares the capitalistic convictions of the United States.
More importantly, was the Vatican—the world’s greatest enemy of communism and the redistribution of wealth society it demands. The Vatican is the most powerful force on earth driving a rich and poor society. The Roman Catholic Church thrives on poverty.
The common fundamental mission of communism, from Christ to Marx and Lenin to postwar Italy and Central America to modern day China, has been to annihilate poverty in the world. If this were to happen, the Church would lose most of its congregation.
The closer one is to the ground, the more vulnerable one is to vendors of the supernatural. The closer one is to starvation, the more vulnerable one is to vendors of the supernatural. The closer one is to death, the more vulnerable one is to vendors of the supernatural. The Roman Catholic Church is the Wal-Mart of the Supernatural World.
Poverty stricken people are uneducated and will believe most anything one tells them. Prosperous people are educated and will not believe anything that does not make rational sense. As one knows, today, very little of what the Vatican has to say makes sense. That is, in first world countries.
Yet, in third world countries, all the Vatican has to say makes sense. In the most heavily AIDS infected areas of Africa, believers won’t use a condom despite the inevitable risk of spreading AIDS and inviting a pregnancy which will invariably produce an AIDS child, born to suffer an unbearable life and die an unspeakable death.
On this frigid January morning as he gazed out toward the frozen Potomac, George Bush’s concern was not so much what was going on in Russia, as what was going on in the Vatican, particularly as it concerned itself with America’s neighbors to its immediate south.
One could ask why the poor in Central America, who outnumber their ruthless dictators ten-thousand-to-one, have never overthrown them to bring about a more equitable society? Why have they stood aside for years and allowed their children to literally starve to death?
The answer lies in Rome. Popes of the twentieth century have historically fed them faith rather than food. Priests and bishops traditionally allied themselves with the rich, often wining and dining in their mansions; actually, they lived in mansions themselves.
Priests, monks and nuns, if caught sympathizing with the poor, were quickly defrocked by the ruling pontiff. The message from Rome: “that your children starve to death is God’s will.”
However, the newly appointed CIA Director was confronted by a new kind of pope. From the start, Paul had been sympathetic with the poor. His doctrine Liberation Theology—feed them food rather than faith—was beginning to take hold in Central America. Paul’s Marxist principles were threatening the stability of those countries neighboring the United States endangering the security of the nation.
To make matters worse, Paul had, just the month before, made the renegade priest, Oscar Romero, bishop of Santiago de Maria. There were rumors Paul would soon make him an archbishop and perhaps even Primate of Central America. If that were to happen, only God knew what would follow.3
Nevertheless, in Paul, the poor now had a Pope who was telling them to share in God’s wealth is His will. Embers of communism were glowing in America’s backyard. Paul was becoming more and more dangerous to the security of the United States.
“My God,” he dreaded the thought. “If the poor overthrow the rich in Central America, it will soon spread to all of Latin America and eventually back to the United States.”
Bush was equally concerned with what was going on in Italy. The objective of the recent union of Moro’s Christian Democratic Party and the Italian Communist Party was a society that affords every child an equal opportunity to make its contribution back to society.4
Moro would tax the rich to educate the poor through the college years. He would force the rich to help the poor. In Bush’s mind, Moro, not the Soviet Union, was the world’s greatest threat to the free capitalistic tenet on which the United States had been founded.
“Worst of all,” he dreaded the thought, “Moro and the Italian Communist Party have a clear fidelity to free elections. Recent polls have them all but wiping out the opposition in the upcoming election. More dangerous, they embrace emerging social movements including contraception, planned parenthood, feminism, controlled abortions, divorce, remarriage, single parenthood, gay liberation and a general trend away from a Vatican controlled state.”4
His mind drifted back to the days, his father, Prescott Bush, Managing Director of the Harriman Bank, had financed Hitler’s rise to power—going so far as to continue to finance the German Army after the United States entered the war. George was eighteen when the feds seized his father’s bank under the Aiding the Enemy Act.5
In order to avoid being drafted as a foot-soldier against his father’s ally on the Western front, George enlisted. Through his father’s influence, he got into Naval Aviation School and served in the Eastern Theater. Two years later, he would ignore the sacred marine code—the captain is the last to leave the ship—and bail out of his TBM Avenger and leave his crew behind to perish in the sea.6
He thought of Hitler’s New World Order declaration the day he became Chancellor of Germany, “The National Government must preserve and defend those Christian principles upon which our nation has been built which define our morality and family values,” which had been adopted as its primary mission by his Republican Party in the United States.7
“My God,” he thought to himself, “if the polls are right and the Communist Party achieves a majority in the Italian Parliament, it will spread rapidly through all of Europe. It will be the beginning of the end of all family values in the Western Hemisphere.”
He knew how the success of the Communist Party in Italy had come about. Paul had done nothing to stop it. In fact, at times, he had done much to encourage it. His decree of Populorum Progressio in 1967 had ignited the priest-worker revolution led by Lu
ciani in Venice and Colombo in Milan, men who had been reared by atheist social revolutionary fathers. Together they had led the revolution of the workers which had evolved into the socialist movement in Italy which had eventually given rise to the Communist Party in the polls.
What’s more, two years earlier, in December 1973, the American Psychiatric Association adopted the resolution homosexuality is a matter of instinct and not a matter of mental illness.8 Paul not only failed to condemn the declaration, he accepted it. So much so, rumors flourished as to his own sexual orientation.9
“Yes,” he gazed down at the plain white card on his desk. “It will be the end of all family values in the Western Hemisphere. Paul is becoming more and more dangerous to the security of the United States of America. It is my duty, my sworn duty, to stop him.”
The equivalent of the CIA Director in the Vatican is the Vatican Foreign Minister. Like the CIA Director in the United States, he has a similar mission—stamp out communism.
At the time, Agostino Casaroli, Bishop Agostino Casaroli, was the Vatican Foreign Minister.
9:35AM Jan 30, 1976. Papal Palace, Rome
Casaroli swiveled around in his chair and looked up at the wall,
We are the Vatican’s first line of defense.
We go where others cannot go and accomplish what others cannot accomplish.
We carry out our mission by conducting covert operations at the direction of the pope to preempt threats against the Sovereign State of the Vatican.10
“A two-headed eagle,” he thought. The one on the left keeping a watchful eye on the West and the other keeping a watchful eye on the East—each one knowing exactly what it was looking for.
On that chilly morning in January 1976, the eagles didn’t have to look far. The greatest threat of communism in the Western world loomed just outside the Vatican walls. Italy was about to become a communist state.
Casaroli’s eyes focused on the phrase, “… at the direction of the pope…” He laughed.