Pope John Paul I conspiracy theories
Encyclopedia
Pope John Paul I
died alone in September 1978 only a month after his election to the Papacy. The suddenness of the death, and the Vatican
's difficulties with the ceremonial and legal death procedures (such as issuing a legitimate death certificate
) have resulted in several conspiracy theories.
could be carried out — produced a number of conspiracy theories
, many associated with the Vatican Bank
, which owned many shares in Banco Ambrosiano
.
Some conspiracy theorists connect the death of John Paul (in September 1978) with the image of the "bishop dressed in white" said to have been seen by Lucia Santos
and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto
during the visitations of Our Lady of Fátima
in 1917. In a letter to a colleague, John Paul had said he was deeply moved by having met Lucia and vowed to perform the Consecration of Russia
.
's book In God's Name
proposed the theory that the pope was in "potential danger" because of corruption in the Istituto per le Opere Religiose (IOR, Institute of Religious Works, the Vatican's most powerful financial institution, commonly known as the Vatican Bank), which owned many shares in Banco Ambrosiano
. The Vatican Bank lost about a quarter of a billion dollars.
This corruption was real and is known to have involved the bank's head, Paul Marcinkus
, along with Roberto Calvi
of the Banco Ambrosiano
Calvi was a member of P2
, an illegal Italian Masonic
lodge. Calvi was found dead in London, after disappearing just before the corruption became public. His death was initially ruled suicide, and a second inquest – ordered by his family – then returned an "open verdict".
Upon publication of his book, Yallop agreed to donate every penny he made from sales to a charity of the Vatican's choice if they agreed to investigate his central claim, that when the body of the pope was discovered, his contorted hand gripped a piece of paper that was later destroyed because it named high ranking members of the curia who were to be handed over to the authorities for their role in numerous corruption scandals and the laundering of mafia drug money. One of the names believed to be on the paper was that of bishop Paul Marcinkus
, who was later promoted by Pope John Paul II to Pro-President of Vatican City, making him the third most powerful person in the Vatican, after the pope and the secretary of state. None of Yallop's claims have thus far been acknowledged by the Vatican.
priests in the Vatican, along with a number of his proposed reforms and devotion to Fátima.
This discovery would be problematic if it were true, since the Catholic Church states that it is incompatible to be a freemason and a Catholic.
, British historian and journalist John Cornwell
examines and challenges Yallop’s points of suspicion.
Yallop’s murder theory requires that the pope’s body be found at 4:30 or 4:45 a.m., one hour earlier than official reports estimated. He bases this on an early story by the Italian news service ANSA that garbled the time and misrepresented the layout of the papal apartments. Yallop claims to have had testimony from Sister Vincenza Taffarel
(the nun who found the Pope's body) to this effect but refused to show Cornwell his transcripts.
Gregoire's investigations continue the work of Avro Manhattan, who also died in allegedly strange circumstances, whilst visiting his familial home in South Shields
, County Durham, in the United Kingdom. Manhattan's death is one of the deaths allegedly associated with those who were close to, or supportive of, John Paul I. The list of approximately thirty deaths includes his predecessor Paul VI, the great Belgian Primate Leon Joseph Suenens, Nikodim the youthful Orthodox Patriarch of St Petersburg, and numerous senior members of the Swiss Guard.
's book Vatican: A Novel is a novel based on recent papal history. Although officially a work of fiction, Martin proposes the theory that the pope was murdered by the Soviet Union
because he would abdicate the benign policy of his two predecessors, John XXIII
and Paul VI
, towards accommodating communism
, and once again condemn it as an atheistic totalitarian ideology. Martin believed that the church structure was infiltrated for decades by illuminati agents who reached positions of high influence and rank, such as Jean-Marie Villot, at that time Cardinal Secretary of State
.
Lead singer of The Fall, Mark E. Smith
wrote a play entitled Hey, Luciani
, about the purported murder conspiracy, which was produced and performed in London. Several songs from the play were released as Fall singles.
Australian comedian Shaun Micallef
wrote a one-act play entitled "The Death of Pope John Paul I". In it the pope is found in bed, sitting upright, unable to be woken. Two cardinals
attempt to perform the ritualistic tapping with the silver hammer but no-one can locate the proper instrument, so they use a claw hammer
instead.
The film The Pope Must Die
takes its title from a passage in Yallop's book. The film's plot - a poor country priest becomes a reforming Pope, pitched against a corrupt and Mafia-riddled Vatican - is a parody of Luciani's career, ending in comedy rather than tragedy.
The Last Confession
is a play written by Roger Crane. It is a thriller that tracks the dramatic tensions, crises of faith, and political manoeuvrings inside the Vatican surrounding the death of Pope John Paul I. The play toured the UK in the spring of 2007, before being transferred to the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, with a cast including David Suchet
. It was subsequently broadcast on BBC Radio 4
on 4 October 2008. In October 2010 the play was brought to continental Europe by the Antwerp Theater Group "De Speling".
The 1990
motion picture The Godfather Part III
featured a story element depicting Società Generale Immobiliare
, the largest real estate
company in the world whose former largest shareholder was the Holy See
, and the Vatican Bank
involved in organized crime
during and after the death of the old pope and the election of a fictional Cardinal
named Lamberto to the papacy. Lamberto takes the papal name "John Paul I" and, like the real Pope John Paul I, he mysteriously dies.
A storyline in the comic book series Warrior Nun Areala
features a flashback back to John Paul I's pontificate. Shortly after being elected to the papacy John Paul discovers a conspiracy of demon worshiping freemasons in the Vatican and works to root them out. Discovered, the Masons kill him in order to continue their goal to destroy the Catholic Church. While John Paul does die, the Warrior Nuns manage to avenge him.
In The Company: A Novel of the CIA
by Robert Littell
, Pope John Paul I is murdered by a KGB
hired killer.
Pope John Paul I
John Paul I , born Albino Luciani, , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and as Sovereign of Vatican City from 26 August 1978 until his death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal history, resulting in the most recent Year of Three Popes...
died alone in September 1978 only a month after his election to the Papacy. The suddenness of the death, and the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
's difficulties with the ceremonial and legal death procedures (such as issuing a legitimate death certificate
Death certificate
The phrase death certificate can describe either a document issued by a medical practitioner certifying the deceased state of a person or popularly to a document issued by a person such as a registrar of vital statistics that declares the date, location and cause of a person's death as later...
) have resulted in several conspiracy theories.
Rationale
Discrepancies in the Vatican's account of the events surrounding John Paul I's death — its inaccurate statements about who found the body, what he had been reading, when and where he had been found and whether an autopsyAutopsy
An autopsy—also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction—is a highly specialized surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...
could be carried out — produced a number of conspiracy theories
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
, many associated with the Vatican Bank
Vatican Bank
The Institute for Works of Religion , commonly known as the Vatican Bank, is a privately held institute located inside Vatican City run by a professional bank CEO who reports directly to a committee of cardinals, and ultimately to the Pope...
, which owned many shares in Banco Ambrosiano
Banco Ambrosiano
Banco Ambrosiano was an Italian bank which collapsed in 1982. At the centre of the bank's failure was its chairman, Roberto Calvi and his membership in the illegal Masonic Lodge Propaganda Due...
.
Some conspiracy theorists connect the death of John Paul (in September 1978) with the image of the "bishop dressed in white" said to have been seen by Lucia Santos
Lúcia Santos
Lúcia de Jesus dos Santos – Sister Mary Lucy of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart, better known as Sister Lúcia of Fátima – was a Roman Catholic Discalced Carmelite nun from Portugal...
and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto
Jacinta and Francisco Marto
Francisco Marto and his sister Jacinta Marto , also known as Blessed Francisco Marto and Blessed Jacinta Marto, together with their cousin, Lúcia dos Santos were the children from Aljustrel near Fátima, Portugal, who said they witnessed three apparitions of an angel in 1916 and...
during the visitations of Our Lady of Fátima
Our Lady of Fatima
Our Lady of Fátima is a famous title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary as she appeared in apparitions reported by three shepherd children at Fátima in Portugal. These occurred on the 13th day of six consecutive months in 1917, starting on May 13...
in 1917. In a letter to a colleague, John Paul had said he was deeply moved by having met Lucia and vowed to perform the Consecration of Russia
Consecration of Russia
The Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a belief in the Roman Catholic Church that a specific act of consecration on the part of the Pope has been required by the Virgin Mary in return for which there would be world peace....
.
David Yallop's book
David YallopDavid Yallop
David Anthony Yallop is an agnostic British author who writes chiefly about unsolved crimes. In the 1970s he also contributed scripts for a number of BBC comedy shows...
's book In God's Name
In God's Name
In God's Name: An Investigation into the Murder of Pope John Paul I is a book by David A. Yallop on Pope John Paul I conspiracy theories. It was published in 1984 by Bantam Books.-Potential danger:...
proposed the theory that the pope was in "potential danger" because of corruption in the Istituto per le Opere Religiose (IOR, Institute of Religious Works, the Vatican's most powerful financial institution, commonly known as the Vatican Bank), which owned many shares in Banco Ambrosiano
Banco Ambrosiano
Banco Ambrosiano was an Italian bank which collapsed in 1982. At the centre of the bank's failure was its chairman, Roberto Calvi and his membership in the illegal Masonic Lodge Propaganda Due...
. The Vatican Bank lost about a quarter of a billion dollars.
This corruption was real and is known to have involved the bank's head, Paul Marcinkus
Paul Marcinkus
Paul Casimir Marcinkus was an American archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church. He was best known for his tenure as President of the Vatican Bank from 1971 through 1989.-Early life:...
, along with Roberto Calvi
Roberto Calvi
Roberto Calvi was an Italian banker dubbed "God's Banker" by the press because of his close association with the Holy See. A native of Milan, Calvi was Chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, which collapsed in one of modern Italy's biggest political scandals...
of the Banco Ambrosiano
Banco Ambrosiano
Banco Ambrosiano was an Italian bank which collapsed in 1982. At the centre of the bank's failure was its chairman, Roberto Calvi and his membership in the illegal Masonic Lodge Propaganda Due...
Calvi was a member of P2
Propaganda Due
Propaganda Due , or P2, was a Masonic lodge operating under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of Italy from 1945 to 1976 , and a pseudo-Masonic or "black" or "covert" lodge operating illegally from 1976 to...
, an illegal Italian Masonic
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
lodge. Calvi was found dead in London, after disappearing just before the corruption became public. His death was initially ruled suicide, and a second inquest – ordered by his family – then returned an "open verdict".
Upon publication of his book, Yallop agreed to donate every penny he made from sales to a charity of the Vatican's choice if they agreed to investigate his central claim, that when the body of the pope was discovered, his contorted hand gripped a piece of paper that was later destroyed because it named high ranking members of the curia who were to be handed over to the authorities for their role in numerous corruption scandals and the laundering of mafia drug money. One of the names believed to be on the paper was that of bishop Paul Marcinkus
Paul Marcinkus
Paul Casimir Marcinkus was an American archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church. He was best known for his tenure as President of the Vatican Bank from 1971 through 1989.-Early life:...
, who was later promoted by Pope John Paul II to Pro-President of Vatican City, making him the third most powerful person in the Vatican, after the pope and the secretary of state. None of Yallop's claims have thus far been acknowledged by the Vatican.
Abbé George de Nantes
Traditionalist theologian Abbé George de Nantes spent much of his life building a case for murder against the Vatican, collecting statements from people who knew the Pope before and after his election. His writings go into detail about the banks and about John Paul I's supposed discovery of a number of FreemasonFreemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
priests in the Vatican, along with a number of his proposed reforms and devotion to Fátima.
This discovery would be problematic if it were true, since the Catholic Church states that it is incompatible to be a freemason and a Catholic.
John Cornwell's book
In his book A Thief in the NightA Thief in The Night (John Cornwell)
A Thief in The Night is a 1989 book British historian and journalist John Cornwell on Pope John Paul I conspiracy theories in which the author challenges previous writings on the subject by David Yallop.-Discovery of the body:...
, British historian and journalist John Cornwell
John Cornwell (writer)
John Cornwell is an English journalist and author, and a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. He is best known for various books on the papacy, most notably Hitler's Pope; investigative journalism; memoir; and the public understanding of science and philosophy. More recently he has been concerned...
examines and challenges Yallop’s points of suspicion.
Yallop’s murder theory requires that the pope’s body be found at 4:30 or 4:45 a.m., one hour earlier than official reports estimated. He bases this on an early story by the Italian news service ANSA that garbled the time and misrepresented the layout of the papal apartments. Yallop claims to have had testimony from Sister Vincenza Taffarel
Sister Vincenza Taffarel
Sister Vincenza Taffarel was the Catholic nun who found the body of Pope John Paul I. She was brought in as his housekeeper in one of his very first papal acts, and was the first to find him dead...
(the nun who found the Pope's body) to this effect but refused to show Cornwell his transcripts.
Lucien Gregoire's book
Lucien Gregoire's investigations into the sudden death of John Paul I derive considerable authority from the fact that he personally knew Albino Luciani, through his own friendship with Luciani's personal assistant, whilst Luciani was Bishop of Vittorio Veneto. This same personal assistant was, himself, killed in a mysterious 'hit-and-run' accident, outside St Peter's, a few days after the death of his previous master.Gregoire's investigations continue the work of Avro Manhattan, who also died in allegedly strange circumstances, whilst visiting his familial home in South Shields
South Shields
South Shields is a coastal town in Tyne and Wear, England, located at the mouth of the River Tyne to Tyne Dock, and about downstream from Newcastle upon Tyne...
, County Durham, in the United Kingdom. Manhattan's death is one of the deaths allegedly associated with those who were close to, or supportive of, John Paul I. The list of approximately thirty deaths includes his predecessor Paul VI, the great Belgian Primate Leon Joseph Suenens, Nikodim the youthful Orthodox Patriarch of St Petersburg, and numerous senior members of the Swiss Guard.
In popular culture
Malachi MartinMalachi Martin
Malachi Brendan Martin Ph.D. was a Catholic priest, theologian, writer on the Catholic Church, and professor at the Vatican's Pontifical Biblical Institute. He held three doctorates and was the sole author of sixteen books covering religious and geopolitical topics, which were published in eight...
's book Vatican: A Novel is a novel based on recent papal history. Although officially a work of fiction, Martin proposes the theory that the pope was murdered by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
because he would abdicate the benign policy of his two predecessors, John XXIII
Pope John XXIII
-Papal election:Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, a possible candidate, but, although archbishop...
and Paul VI
Pope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
, towards accommodating communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, and once again condemn it as an atheistic totalitarian ideology. Martin believed that the church structure was infiltrated for decades by illuminati agents who reached positions of high influence and rank, such as Jean-Marie Villot, at that time Cardinal Secretary of State
Cardinal Secretary of State
The Cardinal Secretary of State—officially Secretary of State of His Holiness The Pope—presides over the Holy See, usually known as the "Vatican", Secretariat of State, which is the oldest and most important dicastery of the Roman Curia...
.
Lead singer of The Fall, Mark E. Smith
Mark E. Smith
Mark Edward Smith is the lead singer, lyricist, frontman, and only constant member of the English post-punk band The Fall.-Early life:...
wrote a play entitled Hey, Luciani
Hey, Luciani
Hey! Luciani: The Life and Codex of John Paul I is a play written by Mark E. Smith, best known as the lead singer of the band The Fall. Described by its author as "a cross between Shakespeare and The Prisoner", the play centres on the mysterious death of Pope John Paul I in 1978.Starring Smith and...
, about the purported murder conspiracy, which was produced and performed in London. Several songs from the play were released as Fall singles.
Australian comedian Shaun Micallef
Shaun Micallef
Shaun Patrick Micallef is an Australian actor, comedian and writer. After ten years of working in insurance law as a solicitor in Adelaide, Micallef moved to Melbourne to pursue a full-time comedy career in 1993...
wrote a one-act play entitled "The Death of Pope John Paul I". In it the pope is found in bed, sitting upright, unable to be woken. Two cardinals
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
attempt to perform the ritualistic tapping with the silver hammer but no-one can locate the proper instrument, so they use a claw hammer
Claw hammer
A claw hammer is a tool primarily used for pounding nails into, or extracting nails from, some other object. Generally, a claw hammer is associated with woodworking but is not limited to use with wood products...
instead.
The film The Pope Must Die
The Pope Must Die
The Pope Must Die is a 1991 comedy film starring Robbie Coltrane, Adrian Edmondson, Annette Crosbie, Alex Rocco and Peter Richardson who also directed.-Plot:...
takes its title from a passage in Yallop's book. The film's plot - a poor country priest becomes a reforming Pope, pitched against a corrupt and Mafia-riddled Vatican - is a parody of Luciani's career, ending in comedy rather than tragedy.
The Last Confession
The Last Confession
The Last Confession is a stage play by Roger Crane based around the election and death of Pope John Paul I. The play follows Giovanni Benelli who recounts, during his last confession, his role in the death of John Paul and how this led him to lose his faith.-Plot:Disturbed by the corruption in...
is a play written by Roger Crane. It is a thriller that tracks the dramatic tensions, crises of faith, and political manoeuvrings inside the Vatican surrounding the death of Pope John Paul I. The play toured the UK in the spring of 2007, before being transferred to the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, with a cast including David Suchet
David Suchet
David Suchet, CBE, is an English actor, known for his work on British television. He is recognised for his RTS- and BPG award-winning performance as Augustus Melmotte in the 2001 British TV mini-drama The Way We Live Now, alongside Matthew Macfadyen and Paloma Baeza, and a 1991 British Academy...
. It was subsequently broadcast on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
on 4 October 2008. In October 2010 the play was brought to continental Europe by the Antwerp Theater Group "De Speling".
The 1990
1990 in film
The year 1990 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* CGI technique is expanded with motion capture for CGI characters, used in Total Recall .* The first digitally-manipulated matte painting is used, in Die Hard 2....
motion picture The Godfather Part III
The Godfather Part III
The Godfather Part III is a 1990 American gangster film written by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, and directed by Coppola. It completes the story of Michael Corleone, a Mafia kingpin who tries to legitimize his criminal empire...
featured a story element depicting Società Generale Immobiliare
Società Generale Immobiliare
Società Generale Immobiliare was the largest Italian real estate and construction company. It was founded in Turin in 1862 but then moved to Rome in 1870 with the unification of Italy. After moving to Rome, the company became interested in the pastoral land around Rome and ended up buying it. ...
, the largest real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
company in the world whose former largest shareholder was the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
, and the Vatican Bank
Vatican Bank
The Institute for Works of Religion , commonly known as the Vatican Bank, is a privately held institute located inside Vatican City run by a professional bank CEO who reports directly to a committee of cardinals, and ultimately to the Pope...
involved in organized crime
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
during and after the death of the old pope and the election of a fictional Cardinal
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
named Lamberto to the papacy. Lamberto takes the papal name "John Paul I" and, like the real Pope John Paul I, he mysteriously dies.
A storyline in the comic book series Warrior Nun Areala
Warrior Nun Areala
Warrior Nun Areala is a manga-style American comic book character created by Ben Dunn and published by Antarctic Press. First appearing in Ninja High School #38 , she has since appeared in her own comic books beginning with Warrior Nun Areala Vol. 1 #1 in December 1994...
features a flashback back to John Paul I's pontificate. Shortly after being elected to the papacy John Paul discovers a conspiracy of demon worshiping freemasons in the Vatican and works to root them out. Discovered, the Masons kill him in order to continue their goal to destroy the Catholic Church. While John Paul does die, the Warrior Nuns manage to avenge him.
In The Company: A Novel of the CIA
The Company (novel)
The Company: A Novel of the CIA is a work of fiction written by American novelist Robert Littell and published by Penguin Press in 2002. The plot interweaves the professional lives of both historical and fictional characters in the field of international espionage between June 1950 and August...
by Robert Littell
Robert Littell (author)
Robert Littell is an American novelist and journalist residing part of the time in France. He specializes in spy novels that often concern the CIA and the Soviet Union....
, Pope John Paul I is murdered by a KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
hired killer.
External links
- Mark E Smith on JPI (New Musical Express, 13 December 1986
- NY Times: Was the Pope murdered? (5 November, 1989)
- "Catholic Counter-Reformation" essay on JPI
- A thorough critical discussion of Yallop and Cornwell's books
- "The Murder of Pope John Paul I: A study by the Abbé de Nantes" (article from the English CRC for October 1984)