A CIA lucky break? How the death of the 'Smiling Pope' helped Washington win the Cold War
Talk about some CT! This is like something from a Robert Ludlum novel. (I used to read his books just to see how outrageous his plots could get although my favorite ‘spy’ novelist is and always has been John Le Carre.) But this isn’t the first time someone wrote about nefarious doings surrounding the death of JP I.
A CIA lucky break? How the death of the 'Smiling Pope' helped Washington win the Cold War
The sudden death of Pope John Paul I, exactly 40 years ago today, stunned the world. The 'Smiling Pope' had only served for 33 days. His demise and replacement by John Paul II marked an important turning point in the old Cold War.
The year 1978, as I argued in a previous op-ed, was the year today's world was made.There was nothing inevitable about the ascendancy of Reagan and Thatcher, the rise of groups like Al-Qaeda and IS, and the downfall of the Soviet Union. The neoliberal, neoconservative world order and its associated violence came about because of key events and decisions which took place 40 years ago. The Vatican was at the heart of these events.
Cardinal Albino Luciani, the working-class son of a bricklayer (and staunch socialist), from a small town in northern Italy, was a Pope like no other. He refused a coronation and detested being carried on the sedia gestatoria – the Papal chair. He hated pomp and circumstance and pretentiousness. His speeches were down to earth and full of homely observations, with regular references to popular fiction. He possessed a gentle humor and always had a twinkle in his eye. He was by all accounts an incredibly sweet man.
But there was steel there, too. Luciani was determined to root out corruption, and to investigate the complex financial affairs of the Vatican's own bank, and its connection to the scandal-hit Banco Ambrosiano.
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David Yallop revealed that on the day of his death, the Pope had discussed a reshuffle of Vatican staff with Secretary of State Cardinal Jean Villot, who was also to be replaced. Yallop claimed that the Pope had a list of a number of clerics who belonged to the Freemasons, membership of which was strictly prohibited by the Church. The most sinister of these Masonic lodges was the fiercely anti-communist Propaganda Due (P2), which held great influence in Italy at this time, being referred to as a "state within a state." The murky world of P2, and its leaders' links with organized crime, the Mafia and the CIA is discussed in 'In God's Name'.
Another writer, Lucien Gregoire, author of 'Murder by the Grace of God', points the finger of blame squarely at the CIA. He notes a seemingly strange coincidence, namely that on September 3, 1978, just 25 days before the Pope himself died, Metropolitan Nikodim, the visiting leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, who was later revealed to have been a KGB agent, fell dead at John Paul's feet in the Vatican after sipping coffee. He was only 48. Gregoire says that the CIA dubbed John Paul I 'the Bolshevik Pope' and was keen to eliminate him before he presided over a conference the Puebla Conference in Mexico. "Had he lived another week, the United States would have been looking at a half a dozen mini-Cubas in its back yard," he writes.
The Catholic Church has ALWAYS been instrumental in the politics of the world. It may have lost a lot of its ‘luster’ here in the US, but it still has substantial influence in many countries. But back then it still had power to influence millions. A message from the Vicar of Christ regarding corruption in the Church would have had serious ramifications, particularly in poor Catholic nations.
The Church has always been a bastion of political intrigue. It’s a business. Any ‘religion’ that makes it past the cult stage is a business (IMO) and the Roman Catholic Church used to be the biggest in the world. It has the most cutthroat history of any organization ever formed. It’s a fascinating study.
Comments
That would be G.H.W. Bush at the helm of the CIA.
G.W. Bush was likely following his fathers suggestions in paving the way for a new world order outlined by PNAC through the creation of “new realities” in attacking Iraq for their involvement in 9/11.
Link
It’s hard to believe the level of depravity some humans stoop to in their thirst for money and power, isn’t it?
“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024
G.H.W. Bush and his role in 9/11
This is a very long and detailed article about the Bush family's Project Hammer program that started in 1991 and a very probable reason for the 9/11 event. As you mentioned he was the head of the CIA. His father had a important role in the events leading up to WWII and it's possible that IF Hitler didn't have all the support he had he might have just stayed a two bit hoodlum. Of course ole Prescott Bush wasn't alone in that. Look at all the players who have filtered in and out of government going back decades. People who have that much power don't give a rat's ass about any of us lesser plebes. If a few million people have to die so that they can achieve their objectives so be it.
Bush Family's Project Hammer
Hammering the USSR’s Economy
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
I used to think that the world of CT was full of insane people
and reprobates. I also used to believe what I saw and heard on the TV and what I read in my history books. That was a very long time ago.
Now I believe that if you do not question everything you read and hear, especially that which is promulgated by mainstream sources, politicians and the uber-wealthy, you are swallowing unknown quantities of complete and utter bullshit.
The “checks and balances” of our Constitution, are no longer functional, neither is the “Fourth Estate” or the “Representative” or “Democracy” parts of our government. The situation is dire.
And now, we have Iran and misssles in the air and the nearly complete PNAC plot to establish their New World Order.
But fuck all that, let’s go shopping!
[Edit: Fourth Estate (What was I thinking?)]
“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024
Great comment!
Everything we were taught, everything we see and hear is all a lie. We are living in a world of unreality because the true reality is far more evil than any of us could have ever imagined and we are disposable pawns in the game that they are playing.
And when you say this, you are totally correct.
I have never felt as helpless and hopeless about the state of the world as I have in recent months because the evil behind it is unfathomable and there is nothing any of us can do about it.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Extra points for invoking Project Hammer,
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Thank you. Black Eagle is the best CT I've ever heard!
I mean, I knew about Yamashita's Gold. Hell, Neal Stephenson wrote an entire novel based around it (Cryptonomicon). Everyone with an ounce of historical awareness knows that Imelda Marcos paid for those shoes with Imperial Japanese loot.
And every CT-er knows who Edward Lansdale was. Still, it had slipped though the cracks for me that Lansdale, who spent a lot of time in SE Asia, would be in charge of disbursing Yamashita's Gold for the CIA. So that's one new CT fact to add to my scrapbook.
But this whole Project Hammer thing is complete news to me. I always thought the Russian oligarchs did all their looting with paper stock certificates that were handed out to clueless Russians in lieu of money. The idea that someone needed to spend $240 Billion to loot a country that was absolutely powerless - down for the count, rife with oligarch swindlers - had never crossed my mind. In fact, I do not accept it simply because someone says its true.
This wanttoknow.info site has a large amount of details that I need to research before I buy into any of this.
The 9/11 Attacks and the Black Eagle Trust Fund
So many things that sound incriminating, but might turn out to be coincidental or even fabricated. For example, two firms with offices in the WTC - Cantor Fitzgerald and Eurobrokers - were the two largest brokers of government securities; and that the plane crashes were on floors adjacent to both firms in two different towers. For example, that the Federal Reserve suspended normal rules, thereby allowing hundreds of billions of dollars of questionable trades to go through in the days after 911.
Of course, I have heard of Buzz Krongard. His name was heavily floated immediately after 911, especially in regard to front-running stock trades.
In short, as a CT-er, I am intrigued by this massive pile of new information. But, also as a CT-er, I doubt anything compelling will ever come of it.
They are locking the internet down tighter than ever. They have enough black budget to spin up a hundred fake CT/disinfo sites to further muddy the waters.
Not to mention the fact that the architects and scientists providing scientific evidence are still being mocked and suppressed (Amazon disappeared all copies of a new book about 911).
Thanks for a most interesting post. And curse you for showing me this rabbit hole.
Here's the 58 page paper with 232 footnotes
Collateral Damage: U.S. Covert Operations and the Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001
Well, there goes several evenings.
Religion in general, and
the Catholic Church in particular are in their waning days. The recent pedo stuff is a yuuuge blow to the Church, but the evidence is everywhere that the Church has seen better days, likely on its last legs. Not that death is imminent, but it looms. Catholic schools and churches consolidating even as the population grows. But it's mostly that '60s "dawning of the Age of Aquarius" that has more people "woke," and many of those no longer buying that old time religion. We do indeed live in interesting times.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Amanda, thanks for remembering the 40th anniversary of the death
of the "Smiling Pope." The article you quote contains a couple of errors. Although its origin was as a Masonic lodge following WWI, by the time P2 was Italy's "shadow government" it no longer had connections to world-wide Freemasonry. When the list of members was finally revealed years later, the names of many Church hierarchs were included. Also, the Puebla Conference was held as scheduled in January 1979, not "a week" after Luciani's death. I also think the freedom movements in Latin America would have happened regardless of the Church and John Paul II partnered with Reagan in crushing them. However, the connection between JPII and the CIA is true. The best account is "Their Will Be Done:
Let the pope keep the kingdom and the glory — the CIA wants the power." https://www.motherjones.com/politics/1983/07/their-will-be-done/
Betty Clermont
Berlusconi was on that list. So was
Victor Emmanuel.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa