By Gregory Christiano (Age: 69)
Copyright 07-04-2003

 

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Pope John Paul I died only 33 days into his Pontificate (August 26, 1978 – September 28, 1978). It was one of the shortest reigns in the annals of the papacy. The official cause of death was myocardial infarction (a heart attack). But there was a great deal of confusion in the details of his sudden death, and many were crying – murder!

The “Smiling Pope,” as he was affectionately called was born Albino Luciani on October 17, 1912 near Belluno, Italy. He was ordained in 1935, made Bishop in 1958 and became patriarch of Venice in 1969. He received his cardinal’s hat in 1973. He was a staunch believer in ecumenism and the reduction of Church wealth. He was warm, humble and had no aspirations for the papacy. After Pope Paul VI died, Luciani was elected on the second day of the Conclave in 1978. He refused to wear the papal tiara or to be carried in the gestatorial chair. He was praised as a liberal reformer who read Mark Twain. He was on a mission to reverse the Church’s position on contraception, cleaning up the Vatican bank and dismissing many Masonic cardinals.

A word here about the Masonic cardinals:

The P-2 Lodge, as it was called, was founded in 1877 to provide for provincial Freemasons – known as Propaganda Due (P-2). It became a secret lodge in 1970 to recruit men of right-wing persuasion to prevent a Communist takeover. It was involved in a financial scandal and its offices were raided and membership lists were found. Many heads of the Italian State services, government officials, police chiefs, businessmen, journalists etc. were listed. This organization was disbanded but still operated secretly. In fact, they are still operating within Vatican circles to this very day.

Many Roman clerics were hostile towards Luciani. It was rumored he was deliberately elected by cardinals keeping secrets that he was too weak to bother them and his health would cause him to die prematurely in office. However, to the surprise and consternation of those very same cardinals, Pope John Paul I immediately investigated the Vatican Bank and wanted to clean house of any prominent prelates who were Freemasons.

He was about to make a series of dismissals and new appointments and remove those accused of financial and other misdeeds. All this has been construed as a motive for his murder.

The Vatican Bank Scandal:

The Vatican Bank (or The Institute for Works of Religion – IOR), was personally owned and operated by the Pope and made loans to religious projects all over the world. It was discovered that the bank exploited its high status and engaged in risky speculation and illegal schemes, including money laundering. Money was invested with Robert Calvi, head of the bank in Milan. He was eventually convicted for currency fraud in 1981 – (over $1.3 billion dollars was missing from bank funds). Calvi fled to England where he was found dead, hanging from a bridge in London.

Another participant in the scandal was Michele Sindona, an advisor to Pope Paul VI. Sindona was poisoned in 1986 in his prison cell. This sordid financial fraud also was linked with the Masons, the Mafia, arms dealers, political kickbacks and monies funneled through the CIA to support Solidarity in Poland.

Was the Pope Poisoned?

Davis Yallop’s book, “In God’s Name: An Investigation into the Murder of Pope John Paul I,” (1984), speculates that digitalis was the poison used. The Pope was taking medicine for low blood pressure, and just half a teaspoon of digitalis could cause a fatal heart attack. But the Pope also suffered from poor circulation and had suffered an eye embolism in 1975. Switching pills or forgetting to take medication could also have proven lethal. But it is uncertain who would have been able to slip the digitalis into the Pope’s liquid medication – Effortil.

There are many contradictions surrounding his death. The initial report issued by Cardinal Villot said the Holy Father had been found dead by Sister Vincenzia and not by a secretary. One report had him dead in his bathroom, the other by his desk in his bedroom. There were also discrepancies about the time the body was found, 4:30 am or 5:30 am? The official estimates was that he died at 11pm on September 28th. No autopsy was performed. (The last Pope to be autopsied was Pius VII in 1830).

Another report stated the Pope complained of feeling sick but wouldn’t call a doctor. He suffered a pain and a violent cough during that afternoon. It might have been a minor embolism. He was conferring with two secretaries around 8pm. After dinner, he rushed down the hallway to get a telephone call around 9:15 pm. This may have triggered the fatal heart attack. Both cases are plausible. But what really happened that night?

The Motives for Murder:

This spiritual leader of all the Roman Catholics, Albino Luciani, was actually embarking on a revolution. He wanted to set the Church in a new direction which was considered highly undesirable and dangerous by many high ranking Church officials.

He wanted, first of all, to strip many of powers by dismissing them or reassigning them into harmless positions. This directly involved the Freemasons. There were over one hundred Masons within Vatican City ranging from Cardinals to priests. Canon Law stated that to be a Freemason was grounds for automatic ex-communication. Six men in particular, stood to lose a great deal if Pope John Paul I remained in power. (These were – Marcinkus, Villot, Calvi, Sindona, Cody and Gelli). There was a suspicion of a conspiracy among these men with Villot the instigator and Gelli the executioner.

Motives for the Pope’s murder were in these series of dismissals and new appointments he was about to make. The Pope also wanted the Church’s wealth shared with the poor. He was also on the verge of reversing the Church’s position on artificial birth control, as well as cleaning up the messy Vatican Bank scandal. He was about to approve the birth-control pill. In his “Humanae Vitae,” he urged pastoral clergy acceptance of contraception and also acknowledged those children born by in-vitro fertilization. A remarkable and radical change from current Church policy, indeed.

Does this prove assassination by poisoning? The alleged conspirators tried to make it look like a natural death, according to Yallop. His Holiness’ domestics, secretaries, doctors, Swiss Guards, police force and judiciary of the Italian State were forced into silence. Sindona, Calvi (The Banco Ambosiano Group), Marcinkus and Cardinal Cody stood to lose much if Albino Luciani were to carry out his specific course of action. There was a growing list of people about to be seriously affected by the purported action of the Pope, especially Cardinal Jean Villot, the Pope’s Secretary of State. Bishop Marcinkus was to be replaced by Monsignor Abbo and Cardinal Villot was to be replaced with Cardinal Benelli as Secretary of State for the Vatican. There was apparently much corruption that the Pope was about to root out.

Poison was the most efficient way to have his death appear natural. It would leave no tell-tale external signs. Digitalis was the most probable. It would mask the conspiracy. This plan would have had to involve intimate knowledge of Vatican procedures. There would also be no autopsy. Other incriminating and outward signs of foul play would be removed.

The Details:

Cardinal Villot’s account was that it was a tragic accident. He alleged that the Pope overdosed on his own medication. This explanation was most improbable and defamatory. It almost insinuated that the Pope, so overwhelmed with this burden of his office, committed suicide! Everything was done to cover up this crime. However, no one would believe in an accidental death. And Cardinal Villot happened to be a Grand Master of the Masonic secret. He concocted a story for Sister Vincenzia who discovered the body. Then he made her take a vow of silence afterwards. She said she found the body in the bathroom, not his bed.

The bottle of Effortil disappeared along with the Pope’s glasses and slippers, probably because there were traces of vomiting on them. This was a symptom of digitalis poisoning. Also, the Pope’s Will had disappeared. The embalmers were called immediately after Cardinal Villot confirmed the Holy Father’s death at 5:30 am. The Cardinal then made Sister Vincenzia take the vow of silence. Dr. Buzzonati (not Prof. Fontana of the Vatican medical service, she should have been called in), confirmed the death and attributed it to acute myocardial infarction. The death occuring at 11 pm last evening (Sept. 28th). This report was made around 6:00 am. A whole hour had passed. Eventually Villot informed the other cardinals from around 6:30 am onward. No sacrament of extreme unction was given! The hypothesis of a sudden death seemed untenable to the personal doctor of the Pope’s faithful secretary Don Lorenzi.

In death, the Pope’s features were twisted and contorted in agony. The Signoracci brothers, the embalmers, attempted to remodel the face so his death agony would be changed to show a calm expression. Many people, however, had already seen the distorted features before these embalmers did their work.

The sisters who served as maids and domestics, cleaned and polished the Pope’s chambers soon after his death. Any evidence, such as fingerprints, was destroyed. Again, vomiting was one of the early symptoms of a digitalis overdose. The secretaries packed up the Pope’s clothes, letters, notes and personal mementos. By 6 pm the evening of September 29th, the Pope’s 19 rooms of the Papal Apartments had been thoroughly stripped. And the embalmed body would make an autopsy useless. By 11 pm that same evening, practically all traces of his reign had been removed. The memory of his presence in the Vatican had been wiped clean. The alleged assassination was complete. So the murder theory goes.

Many causes for suspicion aroused:

The Pope was in good health, according to his brother Edoardo. He reported that His Holiness was given a clean bill of health after a medical examination three weeks before his death.

A report in Time Magazine – October 9, 1978 – relating an opinion that the untimely death of Pope John Paul I stirred deep suspicions of him being poisoned.

The Third Secret of Fatima, which was never made public, revealed, some authorities say, the outlines of the murder of a Pope.

The Vatican has thwarted any research and suppressed any investigation into this matter from the very beginning.

SUMMARY OF EVENTS:

Early September 1978: Pope John Paul I asks Cardinal Jean Villot, the Secretary of State for the Vatican, to investigate the Vatican Bank operations. He also is considering the reversal of the Church’s stand on artificial birth control.

Later that month he presents Cardinal Villot with a list of those to be transferred, reassigned or asked to request for resignation. These lists are persons suspected of being Freemasons (that group called P-2). Cardinal Villot happened to be Grand Master, and his name was at the head of the list. This shift of power would have had a major impact on the existing Vatican hierarchy and would also have affected its financial practices.

September 29, 1978: John Paul I found dead in his bed. Cardinal Villot issues false statements, removes key evidence from John Paul’s room and orders the body embalmed before an autopsy can be performed.

FURTHER EVENTS AFTER HIS DEATH:

October 1978: John Paul II replaces the dead Pope. None of Luciani’s instructions or edicts are carried out.

January 21, 1979: Murder of Judge Emillio Alessandrini, a magistrate investigating the Banco Ambrosiano activities. Calvi and Sindona have close ties to the Vatican.

March 20, 1979: Murder of Nino Pecorelli, an investigative journalist, exposing membership and dealings of the Freemason’s P-2 group.

July 11, 1979: Murder of Giorgio Ambrosioli following his testimony concerning Sindona and Calvi in Vatican business circles.

July 13, 1978: Murder of Lt. Col. Antonio Varisco, head of Rome’s security service also investigating the activities of the P-2 group and was speaking with Giorgio Ambrosioli two days before Ambrosioli’s death.

July 21, 1979: Murder of Boris Guilano, the Palermo police deputy who spoke to Ambrosioli also two days before his death. This concerned Sindona’s money laundering of Mafia money channeled through the Vatican Bank to Switzerland bank accounts.

October 1979: Bomb explodes in the apartment of Enrico Cuccia of Mediobanca and a witness of G. Ambrosioli.

February 2, 1980: The vatican withdraws an agreement to provide videotaped depositions of M. Sindona in his trial in the U.S. on charges of fraud, conspiracy and misappropriation of funds in connection with the collapse of the Franklin National Bank.

May 13, 1980: Attempted suicide of Sindona in jail.

June 13, 1980: Sindona sentenced to 25 years.

July 8, 1980: Attempted suicide of Roberto Calvi, also jailed for fraud.

September 1, 1981: The Vatican Bank acknowledges its controlling interests in a number of banks controlled by Calvi for more than one billion dollars of debt.

January 2, 1981: A group of shareholders in Banco Ambrosiano send a letter to John Paul II exposing connections between the Vatican Bank and Roberto Calvi, P-2 and the Mafia. The letter is never acknowledged.

April 27, 1982: Attempted murder of Roberto Rosone, General Manager of Banco Ambrosiano as he was trying to clean up the bank’s operations.

June 17, 1982: Roberto Calvi found hanged to death from a bridge in London. Days later $1.3 billion dollars was found missing from the Banco Ambrosiano, Milan.

October 2, 1982: Guiseppe Dellacha, executive of Banco Ambrosiano found dead from a fall out of one of the bank’s windows.

March 23, 1986: Michele Sindona poisoned to death in the Italian jail for which he was serving time for ordering the death of Giorgio Ambrosioli.

PREDICTIONS OF THE MURDER OF JOHN PAUL I BY NOSTRADAMUS

Century 3, Quatrain 35:

When the sepulcher of the great Roman is found,
The day after a Pope shall be elected;
The Senate (Conclave) will not approve of him.
His blood is poisoned in the sacred chalice.

Century 10, Quatrain 12:

The one elected Pope will be mocked by his electors,
This enterprising and prudent person will suddenly be reduced in silence,
They cause him to die because of his too great goodness and mildness.
Stricken by fear, they will lead him to his death in the night.

Century 4, Quatrain 11:

He who will have the government of the great cape
Will be lead to execute in certain cases.
The twelve red ones will spoil the cover.
Under murder, murder will come to be perpetrated.

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Based upon the evidence and events, only one conclusion is evident. But still, there were no indictments, no subpoenas issued, no trials, no convictions made. It has been twenty five years since the death of Pope John Paul I and the mystery will continue to be debated.
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A poll conducted recently, resulted in 30% of the Italians are convinced that John Paul I was assassinated…(that’s 15 million people).
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THE END

Comments on this Article/Poem:
Click on the commenter’s name to see their Author’s Page

        04-06-2013     Bernard Vioret

It seems there are new revelations about that – see youtube video youtube.com/watch?v=G0apzP2bO20 and the internet site thesecretofthepopes.fr


        02-11-2013     Therese Hamilton

Excellent well researched and revealing article, especially in light of Benedict’s announcement today that he will step down as Pope on February 28. Thanks!


        08-14-2012     wayne whincup

Being a good man,is alot harder then being one that is bad.


        08-14-2012     george jose

still vatican is not safe. because present cook and computer operator declared concrete evidence of corruption and all fraud declaration . now cook is trouble . we can pray for cook for his betification in live.irinjalakuda diocese also doing many fraud , unnecessary rules addictiing by vicatr general jose irimpen. below 5 years children assembly to see mothers boob. etc.


        06-21-2012     pegmonty

I wish that more people would support an investigation into the Vatican on this matter and others. What Else are they covering up? Who actually runs the Vatican? How could John Paul II and Pope Benedict allow this to continue and not side with the ideas of Pope John Paul 1. Is it their European upbringing. Do they realize how many people are suffering because they are so backward!


        11-01-2011     Deanna Clark

Excellent, thank you.

I appreciated the Church’s support and obeyed when it came to birth control. I had 4 children and was not well off.

That said, I believe this wise, kind Pope would have made birth control a venial sin, to be used wisely and not selfishly, Some serious caution would have been recommended…against hedonism and A LIFESTYLE where babies are not welcomed, brothers and sisters not wanted.

He, more than many, would have hated seeing another freedom taken away from poor people and the god of money ruling reproduction. Given the enormity of influence in that direction, simply approving of birth control would have continued on that road, don’t you think?

Today is All Saints 2011…this Pope is the real saint and martyr of the last half of the 20Th century. Let’s ask for his help in our times…


        10-09-2011

Many people have a Problem.that a Murder could take place in the Vatican or the Church.But critical History of the Church/Vatican Shows clearly,it happened many times to solve their Problems or cover up.keep Secrets Hidden.
Why did J.P.II choose the same Name?To honor him J.P.I?? Hard to belife,after all HE Canceld everything which J.P.I already set in Motoion to Clean up,Vaticans Banks,including the Dark Connection.So one could think,he had nothing agains this Bank Busines.
Its not long ago,the Vaticambanks made Headlines again,more or less the same Thing. What Benedict XVI Promesed,to check in that in this,had been soon forgoten it seems.


         01-08-2009     Laura Nix

I just read ‘The Last Pope’ by Luis Miguel Rocha and did a yahoo search for Albino Luciani and yours was one of the most interesting. I was an evangelical missionary in Italy at that time, so was nominally aware of the death of Aldo Moro and the two Conclaves they had that year. So I was very interested to know more. Rocha’s epilogue is supposedly written by his source who had a part in the murder of Pope John Paul I, by smothering. I got some more details from your treatise and I thank you.


        10-04-2007     Lee Hirst

Very interesting report. However Karol Józef Wojtyla decided to call himself Pope John Paul the second. He admitted that the crusades were wrong and he apologized for them.

800 YEARS LATER….. And many thousands if not millions died.

If any Pope wanted to cover up any conspiracy concerning the Vatican… Then he should have not adopted the name of Pope John Paul.

My feeling is that John Paul the First succumbed to a natural death, which with the grace of God we should all do..


         07-14-2007     Jordan Screws

I am amazed at the content of this article. I am a history major studying to (hopefully) become a college professor and I have never read anything about this pope except in passing, if at all. You must be a well-educated man to know so much about this pope… did you study religious history or something of that nature in your days as a student? Anyway, the entire work is so scholarly and professional-looking that I am overwhelmed by it. If one thing is apparent, it is that this is well-researched.

The argument is laid out in a logical order with sufficient background information to give the reader an idea of who he was and what he did. You also give background information about the major players and forces that set events in motion and list major events in the mysterious death. All of this is done in a manner that gives needed information without bogging the reader down in “fluff”, which is a definite plus. Another major asset is the addition of a prophecy of Nostradamus: I have read a few of his quatrains before and they seem uncannily accurate when they are read and compared to modern events. Best of all, you present well-organized evidence and leave the reader to make their own conclusion instead of implying the truth or falsehood of the argument.

This could be a thesis statement to someone’s research paper. As a budding scholar, I am impressed with the quality of this work and the depth of your knowledge. This illustrates the continuing need for scholars like yourself to ask questions and present theories: keep up the good work Sir Gregory!


        07-10-2003     Janet Owenby

Excellent Gregory


        07-05-2003     Lyle Berry

A superbly written and well-researched treatise which I found extremely informative and fascinating. Thanks for sharing!
Warm Regards,
Lyle