Infiltration
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Bea, Augustin. 1881–1968. Cardinal. German. Jesuit. First president of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity. He was highly influential in the drafting of the Second Vatican Council’s declaration Nostra aetate, concerning non-Christian religions, and was an advocate for Catholic-Jewish relations.
Bergoglio, Jorge Mario. 1936–present. Argentinian. Jesuit. He was elected to the papacy in 2013, taking the name Francis. Has been subject to open criticism within the Church for the ambiguity of his moral teachings and his stance on Church doctrine and, especially, for possible complicity in the cover-up of clergy sexual abuse. A letter published in August 2018 by former papal nuncio Carlo Maria Viganò accused the pontiff of having had knowledge of Theodore Cardinal McCarrick’s decades of sexual misconduct. The letter called for Pope Francis to resign. The pontiff has refused to comment on Viganò’s accusations.
Bugnini, Annibale. 1912–1982. Prelate and archbishop. Following the Second Vatican Council, he served as secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship, which was charged with the implementation of the Council’s Constitution on the Liturgy. In 1976, Italian writer Tito Casini published a report from an anonymous source who claimed that incriminating documents had been discovered in Bugnini’s briefcase, indicating the archbishop’s intimate involvement in Freemasonry.
Calvi, Roberto. 1920–1982. Financier. Italian. Chairman of the Italian bank Banco Ambrosiano. When the bank collapsed in 1982 amid charges of fraud, the president of the Vatican Bank, Paul Marcinkus, was accused of sharing in Banco Ambrosiano’s illegal activity. Calvi, who was a member of Propaganda Due (P2), an illegal Masonic lodge, was found hanged by the neck from a bridge over the River Thames in a ritualized killing just days after the scandals broke.
Casaroli, Agostino. 1914–1998. Cardinal secretary of state. Italian. Appointed secretary of state by Pope John Paul II in 1979. He was the key architect of the Vatican’s efforts to end Communist aggression against the Church.
Congar, Yves. 1904–1995. Cardinal and theologian. French. Dominican. He is recognized as one of the most important theologians of the twentieth century, specifically in the realm of ecclesiology. He is considered possibly the most influential contributor to the declarations of the Second Vatican Council.
Danneels, Godfried. 1933–2019. Cardinal. Belgian. Advocate for the “modernization” of the Church. He was accused in 2010 of covering up the sexual-abuse case of Bishop Roger Vangheluwe. Having learned of Vangheluwe’s guilt, Danneels concealed the information and urged the bishop’s victim not to make the case public. Danneels was also a known member of the Sankt Gallen “Mafia,” a secret group of high-ranking, liberal clergy who actively attempted to prevent the election of Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 and are believed to have influenced the conclave in 2013 to ensure the election of Pope Francis.
de Chardin, Pierre Teilhard. 1881–1955. Priest, philosopher, paleontologist. French. Jesuit. His writings on evolution and the destiny of man earned him disapproval from the Church. The Vatican banned several of his works, requiring that Catholic bookstores remove them and any books supporting de Chardin’s ideas, and he was forbidden to teach. Henri de Lubac wrote three books in support of de Chardin’s ideas in the 1960s, and de Chardin was later praised by both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II.
de Lubac, Henri. 1896–1991. Cardinal, theologian, and writer. French. Jesuit. In 1950, controversy regarding several of his books arose due to the Vatican’s judgement that they contained dogmatic errors. In the following years, he continued to write and publish under the censorship of the Vatican and became one of the Second Vatican Council’s theological experts. Later, along with Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger and Hans Urs Von Balthasar, he founded the conservative theological journal Communio.
Dziwisz, Stanisław. 1939–present. Prelate and cardinal. Polish. Private secretary of Pope John Paul II. He served as Archbishop of Kraków from 2005 to 2016. He supported Legion of Christ founder Father Marcial Maciel, who was revealed to have abused minors and fathered several illegitimate children. Dziwisz is alleged to have blocked an investigation into the sexual misconduct of Hans Hermann Cardinal Groër, who was credibly accused of abusing multiple young boys and monks. Dziwisz is also reported to have been involved in the appointment of Theodore Cardinal McCarrick as archbishop of Washington, D.C., and to have regularly accepted cash donations from McCarrick.
Guérard des Lauriers, Michel-Louis. 1898–1988. Priest and theologian. French. Dominican. Confessor of Pope Pius XII. He was the theologian for Pope Pius XII’s Munificentissimus Deus, which dogmatized the Assumption of Mary and the chief ghostwriter of the Ottaviani Intervention. He was a strong proponent of the sedevacantist movement, believing Pope Paul VI to have been guilty of heresy. In 1981, he was consecrated bishop without the Vatican’s approval by the sedevacantist former archbishop Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thuc. Guérard des Lauriers was subsequently excommunicated.
König, Franz. 1905–2004. Cardinal. Austrian. He served as Archbishop of Vienna from 1956 to 1985. He emphasized ecumenism and made significant contributions to the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on relations with non-Christian religions, Nostra aetate. He served as a Vatican diplomat to Communist countries. Köenig was instrumental in securing the pontifical election of Pope John Paul II in 1978, but he later criticized the pontiff for rejecting the progressive spirit of the Second Vatican Council.
Küng, Hans. 1928–present. Priest, theologian, writer. Swiss. In 1960, he was appointed by Pope John XXIII as a theological expert for the Second Vatican Council. In 1979, his public rejection of the doctrine of papal infallibility caused him to be officially stripped of his license to teach Catholic theology. He is known also for his work toward creating a common “global ethic” among world religions and for his controversial liberal opinions on euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Lefebvre, Marcel. 1905–1991. Archbishop. French. Founder of the Society of Saint Pius X and superior general of the Holy Ghost Fathers. Lefebvre was a member of the conservative Coetus Internationalis Patrum during the Second Vatican Council. He was a critic of the Novus Ordo Missae of Paul VI, promulgated in 1969 and a promoter of the traditional Latin Mass of 1962. He also remained critical of Vatican II on matters of religious liberty and ecumenism. Lefebvre was notified of latae sententiae excommunication in 1988 for consecrating four bishops without papal mandate.
Luciani, Albino. 1912–1978. Italian. He served as head of the Catholic Church with the name Pope John Paul I from August 1978 until his death, thirty-three days later. Contradictory reports at that time regarding the cause of the pontiff’s death have given rise to suspicions of foul play. David Yallop’s 1984 book, A Thief in the Night: Life and Death in the Vatican, asserts that Archbishop Paul Marcinkus and Jean-Marie Cardinal Villot, along with Italian financiers Roberto Calvi, Michele Sindona, and Licio Gelli, conspired in the murder of the pontiff.
Maffi, Pietro. 1858–1931. Cardinal. Italian. He served as archbishop of Pisa from 1903 until his death. He was a leading candidate in the papal conclave of 1914, which elected Pope Benedict XV. He also participated in the conclave of 1922 and was instrumental in securing the election of Pope Pius XI.
Marcinkus, Paul. 1922–2006. Archbishop. American. He served as president of the Vatican Bank from 1971 to 1989. He was implicated in major financial scandals in 1982, when the Italian bank Banco Ambrosiano, of which the Vatican Bank was a main shareholder, collapsed amid charges of fraud. The bank’s chairman, Roberto Calvi, was a member of an illegal Masonic lodge and was murdered days after the scandals broke. Marcinkus was revealed to have been involved in illegal transactions carried out by Banco Ambrosiano. He had also been implicated in earlier scandals surrounding Italian financier Michele Sindona, a Freemason with connections to the Mafia.
Martin, Malachi. 1921–1999. Priest, exorcist, and writer. Irish. Jesuit. He served as secretary to Augustin Cardinal Bea during the Second Vatican Council. He was released from his Jesuit vows in 1965 at his own request. The
re remains controversy over whether he was officially laicized or remained bound to his vow of chastity. His works of fiction gave insider accounts of several pontificates. Notably, his novel Windswept House tells the story of high-ranking members of the Church hierarchy making blood oaths to corrupt the orthodoxy of the Faith and to destroy the Church from within.
Martini, Carlo Maria. 1927–2012. Cardinal. Italian. Jesuit. He was known as a liberal member of the Church’s hierarchy. He held progressive views on matters concerning same-sex unions, the ordination of women to the diaconate, and some bioethical issues, including contraception. In his final interview, published just hours after his death, he notoriously called the Church “200 years out of date.”
McCarrick, Theodore. 1930–present. Defrocked bishop. American. Former prelate and cardinal. From 2001 to 2006, he served as archbishop of Washington, D.C., where he was connected to several prominent politicians. After retiring in 2006, he continued to serve as a diplomat on behalf of the Vatican and the U.S. State Department. He was removed from public ministry by the Vatican in July 2018 due to credible allegations of sexual misconduct with adult male seminarians over the course of decades, as well as sexual abuse against male minors.
Merry del Val, Rafael. 1865–1930. Cardinal secretary of state. Spanish. He served as the secretary of the papal conclave of 1903, in which Austria vetoed the election of Mariano Cardinal Rampolla del Tinarda, and which, in four days, elected Pope Pius X. He was appointed secretary of state by Pius X at only thirty-eight years old, aiding the pontiff in his efforts to remove the Church from political affairs and to combat the rise of Modernism among clergy.
Montini, Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria. 1897–1978. Italian. He served as head of the Catholic Church with the name Pope Paul VI from 1963 to 1978. He continued the Second Vatican Council (which had begun with his predecessor, Pope John XXIII) until its close in 1965. With the conclusion of the council, the pontiff took charge of the implementation of its reforms. He published his most widely known encyclical, Humane vitae, in 1968, reinforcing the Church’s teachings on the marital union and condemning artificial birth control. In 1970, he promulgated the Novus Ordo Missae, a revised order of the liturgy according to the mandates of Vatican II which was to be celebrated in vernacular languages. He was canonized in October 2018.
Pacelli, Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni. 1876–1958. Italian. He served as head of the Catholic Church with the name Pope Pius XII from 1939 to 1958. Contrary to accusations concerning public silence and even cooperation with Nazi Germany during the Holocaust, the pontiff is known to have rescued thousands of persecuted Jews during the Second World War. He also strongly opposed Communism, approving the Church’s 1949 Decree against Communism, which declared that Catholics professing Communist ideology are to be excommunicated.
Rahner, Karl. 1904–1984. Priest and theologian. German. Jesuit. He is recognized as one of the foremost Catholic theologians of the twentieth century. He worked alongside Henri de Lubac and Yves Congar. In 1962, he was appointed by Pope John XXIII as a theological expert for the Second Vatican Council, and he had a major impact on the work of the Council, especially the development of the declaration Lumen gentium.
Rampolla, Mariano. 1843–1913. Cardinal. Italian. He was a chief candidate during the 1903 papal conclave. His candidacy, however, was opposed by the Austrian emperor, who imposed a veto against him. Giuseppe Melchiorre Cardinal Sarto was subsequently elected, becoming Pope Pius X. One of Pius’s first acts as pope was to abolish the emperor’s veto right, making Rampolla the last man in a papal conclave to be vetoed by an emperor.
Roncalli, Angelo Giuseppe. 1881–1963. Italian. He served as head of the Catholic Church with the name Pope John XXIII from 1958 to 1963. He called the Second Vatican Council to session in 1962, opening the Church up to dramatic changes, but the pontiff remained conservative in terms of doctrine. As pope, he emphasized the pastoral role of the Church and her involvement in political affairs. He was canonized in April 2014.
Ratzinger, Joseph. 1927–present. Pope emeritus. Theologian. German. He served as head of the Catholic Church with the name Pope Benedict XVI from 2005 to 2013, when he resigned from the office due to his advanced age and declining physical condition. As pope, he defended orthodoxy and Church doctrine on topics such as birth control and homosexuality, he reaffirmed Christianity as a religion in accord with reason, and he spoke pointedly against the evil of relativism. As pope emeritus, he now resides at a monastery in the Vatican Gardens, where he continues to study and write.
Schillebeeckx, Edward. 1914–2009. Priest and theologian. Belgian. Dominican. He was one of the most active theological advisers to clergy participating in the Second Vatican Council. He argued that Catholic ecclesiology placed too much emphasis on hierarchy and papal authority. Along with Yves Congar, Karl Rahner, Hans Küng, and others, Schillebeeckx founded the progressive theological journal Concilium.
Schweigl, Joseph. Died in 1964. Priest. Jesuit. In 1952, he was charged by Pope Pius XII to interrogate Sister Lúcia de Jesus Rosa dos Santos (one of the three child visionaries at Fátima) about the details of the Third Secret of Fátima.
Sindona, Michele. 1920–1986. Financier. Italian. He was a known Freemason and was connected to the Sicilian Mafia. He became associated with the Vatican Bank in 1969, dealing with large amounts of the bank’s money. In 1974, his banking empire collapsed amid revelations of fraud, bribery, and murder. The president of the Vatican Bank at the time was accused of sharing involvement in these crimes. Sindona was poisoned with cyanide while serving his prison sentence.
Sodano, Angelo. 1927–present. Dean of the College of Cardinals. Italian. He served as secretary of state from 1991 to 2006. Multiple reports accuse him of having blocked investigations into sexual abuse by both Hans Hermann Cardinal Groër and Legion of Christ founder Father Marcial Maciel, from whom Sodano regularly accepted large monetary donations.
Viganò, Carlo Maria. 1941–present. Archbishop. Former apostolic nuncio to the United States. Italian. On 25 August 2018, he released an eleven-page letter describing multiple warnings to the Vatican over several years regarding the sexual misconduct of Theodore Cardinal McCarrick that were ignored until Pope Benedict XVI finally placed severe restrictions on McCarrick’s public ministry. The letter also accused Pope Francis of later removing these restrictions and making McCarrick a trusted adviser, having full knowledge of the cardinal’s decades of grave sexual misconduct. Several other high-ranking Church officials were also implicated.
Villot, Jean-Marie. 1905–1979. Prelate and cardinal. French. He served as cardinal secretary of state from 1969 to 1979. He was the subject of claims that Pope John Paul I’s death was a homicide. David Yallop’s 1984 book, A Thief in the Night: Life and Death in the Vatican, named Villot as a leading suspect in the alleged murder, which Yallop claims may have been motivated by personnel changes within the Vatican that the pontiff was on the verge of making.
Wojtyła, Karol. 1920–2005. Polish. Served as head of the Catholic Church with the name Pope John Paul II from 1978 to 2005. He was elected to the papacy immediately after Pope John Paul I, who reigned only thirty-three days before his death. Wojtyła is recognized for the critical role he played, as pope, in bringing an end to Communist rule in Europe. While he supported the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, he was generally seen as doctrinally conservative, and he upheld the Church’s traditional teachings. He was canonized in April 2014.
Timeline of Popes in This Book
Gregory XVI (1831–1846)
Blessed Pius IX (1846–1878)
Leo XIII (1878–1903)
Saint Pius X (1903–1914)
Benedict XV (1914–1922)
Pius XI (1922–1939)
Pius XII (1939–1958)
Saint John XXIII (1958–1963)
Saint Paul VI (1963–1978)
John Paul I (1978)
Saint John Paul II (1978–2005)
Benedict XVI (2005–2013)
Francis (2013–)
Vatican Secretaries of State by Papacy and Dates
Under Pope Pius IX
Giacomo Antonelli (29 November 1848–6 November 1876) (second time)
Giovanni Simeoni (18 December 1876–7 February 1878)
Alessandro Franchi (5 March–31 July 1878)
Under Pope Leo XIII
Lorenzo Nina (9 August 1878–16 December 1880)
Luigi Jacobini (16 December 1880–28 February 1887)
Mariano Rampolla (2 June 1887–20 July 1903)
Under Pope Pius X
Rafael Merry del Val (12 November 1903–20 August 1914)
Under Pope Benedict XV
Domenico Ferrata (4 September–10 October 1914)
Pietro Gasparri (13 October 1914–7 February 1930)
Under Pope Pius XI
Pietro Gasparri (13 October 1914–7 February 1930)
Eugenio Pacelli (9 February 1930–10 February 1939) then elected Pope Pius XII
Under Pope Pius XII
Luigi Maglione (10 March 1939–22 August 1944)
Domenico Tardini (15 December 1958–30 July 1961)
Under Popes John XXIII and Paul VI
Amleto Giovanni Cicognani (12 August 1961–30 April 1969)
Under Pope Paul VI, John Paul I, and John Paul II
Jean-Marie Villot (2 May 1969–9 March 1979)
Under Pope John Paul II
Agostino Casaroli (1 July 1979–1 December 1990)
Under Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis
Angelo Sodano (29 June 1991–22 June 2006)
Tarcisio Bertone (15 September 2006–15 October 2013)
Under Pope Francis