146 “Metzger, Herman Joseph (1919–1990),” Encyclopedia.com.
147 Aleister Crowley’s Sexmagical System described in Zagami, “Evidence of the Collaboration between the St. Gallen Mafia and the Ordo Templi Orientis.”
148 Zagami, “Evidence of the Collaboration.”
149 Aleister Crowley, Magical Diaries of Aleister Crowley (York Beach, ME: Weiser Books, 1979), 241.
150 Chuck Conconi, “The Man in the Red Hat: With a Controversial Catholic in the Presidential Race, the Cardinal Is Seen by Many as the Vatican’s Man in Washington and He May Play a Big Role in the Selection of the Next Pope,” Washingtonian, 1 October 2004.
151 Ibid.
152 Ibid. He is fluent in Spanish, German, French, and Italian.
153 Ibid.
154 Kerry Kennedy, Being Catholic Now: Prominent Americans Talk about Change in the Church and the Quest for Meaning, (New York: Crown Publishers, 2008), 196.
155 Otto Edelmann apparently sold his company around 1971.
156 “The Presidency,” Consilium Conferentiarum Episcoporum Europae.
157 The ashes of Aleister Crowley are buried in an urn next to a tree on the property of Crowley’s successor or “caliph” Karl Germer in Hampton, New Jersey. Theodore McCarrick was the first bishop of Metuchen, New Jersey.
28
Ratzinger versus Bergoglio in the Papal Conclave of 2005
Pope John Paul II died on 2 April 2005. His death signaled global mourning for the man who was truly the first televised pope. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, as dean of the College of Cardinals, preached at the pope’s funeral and was considered as a likely candidate for pope in the following conclave. The papal conclave met from 18 to 19 April 2005. John Paul II had relaxed the rules for the conclave so that the cardinal electors could move freely, dine, and sleep in the air-conditioned individual rooms of Casa Santa Marta, the five-story hotel built in 1996 for visiting clergy.
There were at the time 183 cardinals, but only 117 cardinal-electors under the age of eighty. Two were absent on account of bad health — Jaime Cardinal Sin of the Philippines and Adolfo Antonio Cardinal Suárez Rivera of Mexico — bringing the number of electors to 115. Of these, only two electors (Cardinal Ratzinger and Cardinal Baum) had not been appointed cardinals by John Paul II due to the rule change made by Paul VI that only cardinals under eighty may vote. With 115 cardinal electors, the two-thirds majority required would be 77 votes.
One ballot was counted in the afternoon of the first day of conclave and then three more ballots on the next day. An anonymous cardinal provided his diary to an Italian journalist in September 2005. If it can be trusted, it gave the following votes for the first ballot:158
Joseph Ratzinger — 47 votes
Jorge Bergoglio — 10 votes
Carlo Maria Martini — 9 votes
Camillo Ruini — 6 votes
Angelo Sodano — 4 votes
Oscar Maradiaga — 3 votes
Dionigi Tettamanzi — 2 votes
Giacomo Biffi — 1 vote
Others — 33 votes
Notice Jorge Bergoglio in second place. These ten votes are undoubtedly the Sankt Gallen Mafia members.
The second ballot on the following morning:
Ratzinger — 65 votes
Bergoglio — 35 votes
Sodano — 4 votes
Tettamanzi — 2 votes
Biffi — 1 vote
Others — 8 votes
Twenty-four new votes appear for Bergoglio in this second ballot. Note well that all the votes for Cardinal Martini (9 votes), Cardinal Ruini (6 votes), and Cardinal Maradiaga (3 votes), tallying up to 18 votes, have been withdrawn and given to Cardinal Bergoglio. This shows that at this point, these three men had instructed their followers to rally to Bergoglio.
The third ballot, also in the morning, counted as follows:
Ratzinger — 72 votes
Bergoglio — 40 votes
Darío Castrillón Hoyos — 1 vote
Others — 2 votes
Bergoglio managed to gain another 5 votes, but the great majority rallied to Ratzinger to block Bergoglio. After this third ballot, it became clear that Ratzinger would need only 5 more votes, or a compromise candidate would need to emerge to break the gridlock (there were only 3 votes still up for grabs) between Bergoglio and Ratzinger. As the votes moved toward Cardinal Ratzinger, he recalled, “I prayed to God ‘Please don’t do this to me.’ Evidently, this time He didn’t listen to me.”159
That afternoon, the fourth and final ballot counted as follows:
Ratzinger — 84 votes
Bergoglio — 26 votes
Biffi — 1 vote
Bernard Law — 1 vote
Christoph Schönborn — 1 vote
Others — 2 votes
Surprisingly, at least 14 cardinals retreated from Bergoglio in this fourth ballot when it became clear that Ratzinger had the most support. Ratzinger won easily with 84 votes, 7 more than he needed to capture the two-thirds majority. The Sankt Gallen Mafia failed in their goal to elect Cardinal Bergoglio.
158 Andrea Tornielli, “Il diario segreto dell’ultimo conclave,” La Stampa, 27 July 2011.
159 Allen Pizzey, “Benedict: I Prayed Not to Be Pope” CBS News, 11 February 2009.
29
Infiltration and the Plot against Benedict XVI
It is the role of the dean of the College of Cardinals to ask the elected candidate if he accepts the papacy. Since Cardinal Ratzinger was the dean of the College, that task fell to the vice dean, Angelo Cardinal Sodano. The cardinal protodeacon, Jorge Medina emerged on the balcony of Saint Peter’s Basilica and announced the election of Cardinal Ratzinger and that he had chosen the name Benedict XVI, in honor of both Pope Benedict XV and Saint Benedict of Nursia.
Pope Benedict XVI’s reputation as a scholar endured when he wrote three encyclicals Deus caritas est, Spe salvi, and Caritas in veritate, rooted in the theological virtues. He ruffled liberals by returning to the papal dress and ceremonies not seen since the days of Pope Pius XII, such as the red shoes, the camauro, and the red cappello romano.
Two years into his pontificate, Benedict XVI issued his controversial motu proprio Summorum pontificum, which stated that the traditional pre—Vatican II Latin Mass (commonly known as the Tridentine Mass) had never been abrogated or forbidden. He clarified that all Catholic priests can and may celebrate the traditional Latin Mass according to the Missal of 1962. He explained that the 1969 Novus Ordo Mass of Paul VI remained the “ordinary form” of the Roman Rite and that the 1962 Mass would be the “extraordinary form” of the Roman Rite — and that these two “forms” should mutually enrich each another. This document was met with relief and praise from traditionalists who had avoided the gaze of non-accommodating bishops for forty years.
In a way, Summorum pontificum exonerated the now deceased Archbishop Lefebvre, who had insisted that the Missal of 1962 was never formally abrogated when Paul VI issued the Novus Ordo Missae in 1962.
To substantiate this further, Pope Benedict XVI formally remitted the excommunications of the four bishops of Lefebvre’s Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) on 21 January 2009. This remission was made without the four bishops repenting of their consecrations in 1988 at the hands of Archbishop Lefebvre without papal mandate from John Paul II. It seemed that Ratzinger was now untying a knot that had been tied in May 1988, when communications between Lefebvre and him broke down.
Most bishops of the world did not favor Benedict’s remission of the SSPX excommunications. Six months later, Pope Benedict XVI issued his motu proprio Ecclesiae unitatem, in which he explained his reason for lifting the excommunications and clarified the status of the SSPX:
The remission of the excommunication was a measure taken in the context of ecclesiastical discipline to free the individuals from the burden of conscience constituted by the most serious of ecclesiastical penalties. However, the doctrinal questions obviously remain and until they are clarified the Society has no canonical
status in the Church and its ministers cannot legitimately exercise any ministry.160
Benedict XVI seemed intent on bringing the spiritual children of Lefebvre into regular canonical status. He handwrote a note to their superior, Bishop Bernard Fellay, in June 2012, assuring him of the canonical structure of a personal prelature (such as Opus Dei) if he and the Society of Saint Pius X would recognize the documents of Vatican II. Bishop Fellay responded that it was impossible for them to affirm the Council’s doctrine on religious freedom. Communications between the SSPX and Benedict XVI seemed to have completely broken down by the end of the year.
160 The final line in Latin reads: “et eius ministri nullum ministerium legitime agere possunt.” Some critics of the SSPX have wrongly translated this as “and its ministers have no legitimate ministry.” But the Latin legitime is an adverb, so it means: “and its ministers cannot legitimately perform any ministry.” This means that the SSPX still lacks canonical status licitly, not that its ministry is invalid or illegitimate, in the English sense of the term.
30
Infiltration of the Vatican Bank and the Butler of Pope Benedict XVI
Meanwhile a plot had been hatched against Pope Benedict to pressure him to resign the papacy. All this would climax by the end of 2012 with money laundering at the Vatican Bank, the revelation of homosexual predators among the cardinals and Vatican staff, and the freezing of funds. But the story begins in 2007, when Paolo Gabriele was hired as the personal butler of Pope Benedict XVI. For reasons unknown, he would leak important confidential documents to the public, creating the scandal known as Vatileaks. Paolo Gabriele’s mysterious action publicized a plot to humiliate, frame, and remove Pope Benedict XVI from the Chair the Peter.
Pope Benedict XVI soon began to be aware of financial discrepancies in the Governorate of Vatican City State — the executive authority over the Vatican City State. Giovanni Cardinal Lajolo was the president of the Governorate at this time. The president serves as head of Vatican City and answers to the cardinal secretary of state and then the pope. He is second in line, administratively, under the pope.
On 16 July 2009, Pope Benedict appointed Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò as secretary-general of the Vatican City Governorate. This placed Viganò as third in line administratively under the pope. Archbishop Viganò immediately insisted on a centralized accounting procedure and full financial accountability. His new policies turned a negative U.S. $10.5 million deficit for Vatican City into a surplus of U.S. $44 million in just one year.161 Viganò was not a savvy stockbroker. Instead, his new accounting policies uncovered millions of dollars in hidden accounts. The accounting books had shown a deficit of $10.5 million in the primary checking account, but by revealing the many accounts off the books, Viganò flushed out $55 million in only twelve months. No doubt, Pope Benedict was delighted to have financial clarity (and funds) but was disappointed in his leadership at the Vatican City Governorate.
In January 2012, a leaked document emerged regarding homosexual and financial scandals within the Vatican. Among them were two letters from Viganò to Pope Benedict XVI and to the cardinal secretary of state, Bertone, complaining of continued corruption in the Vatican finances. The very next month, Viganò’s direct superior, the president, Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, along with Giuseppe Bertello, Giuseppe Sciacca, and Giorgio Corbellini retaliated against Viganò and issued a joint statement on behalf of the Governorate of the Vatican:
The unauthorized publication of two letters of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the first addressed to the Holy Father on March 27, 2011, the second to the Cardinal Secretary of State on May 8, for the Governorate of Vatican City is a source of great bitterness. . . . The allegations contained in them cannot but lead to the impression that the Governorate of Vatican City, instead of being an instrument of responsible government, is an unreliable entity, at the mercy of dark forces. After careful examination of the contents of the two letters, the President of the Governorate sees it as his duty to publicly declare that those assertions are the result of erroneous assessments, or fears based on unsubstantiated evidence, even openly contradicted by the main characters invoked as witnesses.”162
Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone was Viganò’s superior and was also unhappy with the leaked letters to him and the pope.
Months before the accusations had been made public, Cardinal Bertone told Viganò that he would be transferred away from the Governorate of Vatican City. Viganò is rumored to have resisted this change in assignment. On 19 October 2011, Pope Benedict reassigned Viganò as apostolic nuncio to Washington, D.C., the pope’s ambassador to the United States. Many saw this as a demotion, but it is more likely that Pope Benedict wanted an honest man in Washington whom he could trust to investigate. Of particular importance was the fact, later made public, that Pope Benedict had learned of the homosexual predatory deeds of Cardinal McCarrick in Washington and wanted Viganò to maintain restrictions against the public ministry of Cardinal McCarrick that had been in place since 2006.
As mentioned above, the Vatileaks scandal spilled out beginning in January 2012, revealing financial corruption, international money laundering, and schemes of blackmail against homosexual clergy. Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi published the two letters of Archbishop Viganò describing corrupt practices that cost the Holy See millions of dollars. One leaked letter revealed a potential death threat against Pope Benedict XVI, wherein Cardinal Romeo of Palermo of Sicily predicted that the pope would be dead within twelve months.163 In May 2012, Nuzzi published a book entitled His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI consisting of confidential letters and memos between Pope Benedict and his personal secretary. The book documented a subculture of Vatican jealousy, discord, and party infighting. Nuzzi revealed details of Pope Benedict XVI’s personal finances and showed how bribery gained a special audience with the pope.
Vatican police arrested the pope’s personal butler, Paolo Gabriele, on 23 May 2012 after confidential letters and documents addressed to the pope and other Vatican officials were discovered in his apartment. He was accused of being the mole that leaked copies of the documents to Nuzzi, since the documents found in Gabriele’s apartment matched the documents that had been leaked over the previous five months. One week later, the pope publicly acknowledged the scandal: “The events of recent days about the Curia and my collaborators have brought sadness in my heart. . . . I want to renew my trust in and encouragement of my closest collaborators and all those who every day, with loyalty and a spirit of sacrifice and in silence, help me fulfill my ministry.”164
At his trial, Gabriele pleaded guilty to stealing the papal documents but claimed he had done so in order to expose and fight the corruption within the Church. On 6 October, Gabriele was found guilty of theft and received a sentence of eight years in prison, which was then commuted to eighteen months along with fines.
In the midst of the Vatlileaks scandal, the embarrassed Pope Benedict secretly commissioned three of his trusted cardinals to investigate the Vatileaks and report back to him on financial irregularities, rumors of blackmail, and sexually immoral cardinals and curial staff. The three-man commission was led by Julián Cardinal Herranz Casado of Opus Dei and included Jozef Cardinal Tomko and Salvatore Cardinal De Giorgi. On 17 December 2012 (the birthday of Cardinal Bergoglio), the three cardinals presented a three-hundred-page dossier to Pope Benedict XVI in strict secrecy. This detailed dossier (allegedly contained in one or two red binders) described Vatican hierarchs dressed in drag with lewd details about them by Italian male prostitutes. It also confirmed rampant financial irregularities throughout the Vatican. Pope Benedict has cited 17 December 2012 as the day on which he formally decided to resign. The contents of the red binder were just too much for the aging pontiff. Pope Benedict personally visited his butler, Paolo Gabriele, and pardoned him on 22 December 2012. Did Pope Benedict XVI now see that the Vatileaks scandal via Gabriele was a blessing in disguise?
On 1 January 2013, ATM machines in Vatican Cit
y ceased working, as Deutsche Bank had closed its accounts with the Vatican Bank on 31 December 2012. The Sistine Chapel could only process cash for ticket receipts.165 On 11 February 2013, Pope Benedict XVI announced that he would formally resign the papacy. That night, an omen appeared when lighting struck the dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica.
The next morning, 12 February 2013, the Swiss Aduno Group took over operation of Vatican cash machines, avoiding Italian and EU regulation. The timing of the pope’s announcement and the new role of Aduno cannot be coincidental, given the scandal and intrigue of the preceding months. Something happened between 17 December 2012, when the pope received the red-binder dossier, and 1 January 2013, when the Vatican cash machines ceased working.
On 28 February 2013, the unimaginable happened: Pope Benedict XVI resigned the papacy and flew off in a helicopter as the world watched, baffled. Benedict was the first pope to resign since Pope Gregory XII in 1415, almost 598 years before. Unlike Pope Gregory XII, this pope indicated that he would be called Papa Emeritus, and he would continue to wear the white cassock and red shoes and ring of a pope.
161 John L. Allen Jr., “Vatican Denies Corruption Charges attributed to U.S. Nuncio,” National Catholic Reporter, 26 January 2012.
162 “Dichiarazione della Presidenza del Governatorato dello Stato della Città del Vaticano,” 4 February 2012.
163 Michael Day, “Vatileaks: Hunt is on to find Vatican Moles,” Independent, 28 May 2012.
164 Associated Press, “Pope Breaks Silence over Vatileaks Scandal,” 30 May 2012.
165 Rachel Sanderson. “The Scandal at the Vatican Bank: An 11-Month FT Investigation Reveals the Extent of Mismanagement at the €5bn-Asset Bank,” Financial Times, 6 December 2013.
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