Cardinal 'claimed pope to die'

[cptmarginal]

Cardinal says Vatican bank meeting reassured US donors

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Trustees of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation, which donates millions of dollars to papal charities each year, spent two hours at the Vatican bank April 20 and came away convinced that the institution's bad press was undeserved, said Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington.

"I found it very reassuring," the cardinal told Catholic News Service in Rome. "The effort of the Holy See to be transparent is demonstrable."

The bank, which is formally called the Institute for the Works of Religion (known by its Italian initials, IOR), "is just that -- a work of religion," said the cardinal, who is chairman of the Papal Foundation's board of trustees.

Having a bank allows Vatican offices, international religious orders and Catholic institutions to handle money in a variety of currencies and move resources to where they are needed, he said.

Cardinal Wuerl said the trustees were given an overview of the bank's operations and a tour of its offices in a medieval tower inside the Vatican.

A series of leaks of letters exchanged among Vatican officials and between the officials and the pope himself beginning in January raised concerns about the bank and about financial transparency within the Vatican. Concerns increased in March when the U.S. government put the Vatican on a list of countries that are vulnerable to money launderers, although the list says the Vatican is not as vulnerable as the United States itself.

In December 2010, Pope Benedict XVI instituted a new agency to monitor all Vatican financial operations and make sure they reflect the latest European Union regulations and other international norms against money-laundering and the financing of terrorism. At the same time, the Vatican promulgated a new law that defined financial crimes and established penalties -- including possible jail time -- for their violation.

Cardinal Wuerl said the meeting at IOR and the opportunity to ask questions reassured the trustees of the bank's "ability to demonstrate not only how they are in conformity with all the laws, but that that has been verified by outside auditors, and that's a very important element."

The Papal Foundation uses the Vatican bank to distribute the grants it makes in the pope's name; in 2011, it distributed more than $8.5 million in grants and scholarships to recipients in more than three dozen countries.

Bishop Kevin J. Farrell of Dallas, a Papal Foundation trustee, said, "Many times the only way we have of getting money directly to these works of charity is through the IOR. I consider it essential to our work."

For the Papal Foundation trustees, who include laypeople with backgrounds in banking or finance, he said, it was important to know the money is being handled professionally and according to "the moral, social and ethical guidelines of the Catholic Church."

In the popular imagination, sometimes just the combination of money and the Vatican is enough to generate wild stories. "We all love a great mystery," he said.

The results of the outside auditors' annual studies of the bank and its compliance with U.S. and European regulations were reassuring, he said.

"I was highly impressed," Bishop Farrell said, "and I'm not easily impressed."

"Having a bank allows Vatican offices, international religious orders and Catholic institutions to handle money in a variety of currencies and move resources to where they are needed, he said."

All this talk about the IOR has got me speculating about the Legionaries of Christ again...

Legionairies of Christ founder abused son, said he was CIA

In Mexico, the order reaches the upper echelons of business, the church and government, and for most of his life, Father Maciel was treated as something of a saint.

[...]

The greatest fundraiser of the modern church, Maciel founded the Legionaries of Christ, a religious order with a $650 million budget

Though mere millions can seem like chump change in the current climate of big-money black-budget covert-ops billions, that's plenty enough for some serious influence. It's amazing, the extent to which we are all in the dark as to the specific details of how our world actually operates. Compartmentalization is a very effective tactic for controlling your security-cleared subordinates, and for me the question remains: who actually does have an accurate overarching perspective, if anyone?

[cptmarginal]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/ap ... ican-leaks

Pope calls in Opus Dei troubleshooter to uncover source of Vatican leaks

Cardinal given 'pontifical mandate' to hunt Holy See staffers releasing documents on corruption claims in 'Vatileaks' scandal

Vatican staffers who have been leaking embarrassing letters about corruption and nepotism inside the tiny city state are to be hunted down by a crack squad of cardinals led by a senior member of the religious group Opus Dei.

Irritated by the anonymous release of documents to the press this year, Pope Benedict has named Cardinal Julian Herranz, 82, to lead a three-man team which will haul in staffers for questioning and rifle through files until they catch the perpetrators of what has been dubbed "Vatileaks".

A short statement printed on Thursday on the front page of the Vatican's daily newspaper warned the team had a full "pontifical mandate" to "shed complete light" on the whistle blowers, who have lifted the lid on alleged theft and false accounting.

Herranz was a long-time personal secretary to Josemaría Escrivá , the now canonised founder of Opus Dei, which has been accused of excessive secrecy, strict control over members and undue influence within the Vatican – a reputation pushed by Dan Brown's thriller The Da Vinci Code.

One of two cardinals who are members of the group, Herranz has insisted that Opus Dei has "no hidden agenda" and is only interested in the "the message of Christ", but he does appear to be cut out to be a Vatican troubleshooter, once stating that "men need to act decisively, like Jesus Christ – who was a real man".

Herranz's squad, which met for the first time this week, is just one of three inquiries now under way at the Holy See into the leak of letters in January and February that discuss the mysterious kidnapping of Emanuela Orlandi – the daughter of a Vatican employee in 1983 – the likely date of Benedict's death and an internal row over just how transparent the Vatican bank should be as it tries to shrug off allegations of money laundering.

The most shocking revelations are in a letter addressed to the Vatican's secretary of state by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the deputy governor of Vatican City, denouncing the signing by employees of inflated contracts with friendly companies. As proof, Viganò said he had discovered the price of the Christmas nativity scene in St Peter's Square was €250,000 (£204,000) more than it should have been.

One priest, who Viganò describes as "vulgar" and "arrogant" had been responsible for nepotism, fake invoicing and €70,000 going missing, he claimed.

After telling all, Viganò was reassigned to the US as papal nunzio, an appointment he describes as punishment for his honesty in a plaintive letter to Benedict in which he begs for a commission to look into his claims.

Since then, the Vatican has instead focused on finding out who leaked the letters, which it describes as "biased and trivial".

"I hope the Vatican employs the same tenacity in improving transparency at its bank and in reopening the Orlandi kidnapping case as it has with this inquiry," said Gianluigi Nuzzi, the Italian journalist who first broadcast the contents of the Viganò letters.

Herranz has been called in by the pope before to snuff out trouble at the Vatican. In 2007, he oversaw the suspension of a senior Vatican cleric who was secretly filmed telling a young man he was "hot" and that homosexual sex was not sinful.

Any employees now nabbed by Herranz and his team in the Vatileaks probe could be fired or face canonical punishment if they are clerics. But to track them down, the three "detectives" – as they were dubbed by Italian newspapers on Thursday – must penetrate the secretive world of the Vatican's bureaucracy, a task that Il Messaggero warned could turn out to be a "Mission Impossible".

[cptmarginal]

Surely he'll clear things right up!

From the previous page:

Almost 30 years ago the teenage daughter of a Vatican employee disappeared. Now Italian authorities want to know if she’s buried with a Mafia don on the grounds of a Vatican church—and how much Holy See officials know about her disappearance.

The faint smell of incense and candle wax permeates the church of Sant’Apollinare near Rome’s famous Piazza Navona. The basilica is one of a handful of churches outside the walls of Vatican City owned by the Holy See. It is used primarily by members of the ultra-conservative Opus Dei prelature for special masses for student priests and for celebrations of marriage and baptism of those affiliated with the sect. Behind a side door near the back of the basilica is a small courtyard that’s closed to the public. There, in an external crypt near the ornate sarcophaguses of bishops and cardinals, is the curious tomb of Enrico “Renatino” De Pedis, a prominent member of the infamous Magliana organized-crime gang who was ambushed and murdered by rival gang members in 1990.

Why a known-mobster like De Pedis is buried on the grounds of a Vatican church has been the object of much speculation since 1997, when a church maid revealed the tomb’s existence to an inquisitive journalist. The Vatican was always cagey about why the mobster was buried in one of its churches, and ultimately, the church’s silence spurred countless conspiracy theories. Now, thanks to shocking Vatican letters leaked in the Vatileaks scandal that is rocking the Holy See, the Italian police are less interested in why he’s buried there. Instead, they want to open the tomb to see if the remains of 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi are interred with those of the mobster.

[fruhmenschen]

see link for full story
http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/lib ... lachy.html
End Times Prophecy of St. Malachy



Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio



End Time Prophecy of St. MalachyAccording to the prophecies of St. Malachy (d. 1148), the successor of Pope Benedict will be the last man to sit on the throne of Peter before the end of the world. But are these prophecies truly from the Irish archbishop who visited Rome in 1139? And if so, what do they really mean?



Uncanny Match

First of all, St. Malachy’s prophetic predictions are concise, to put it mildly. Actually, they consist of no more than a brief Latin phrase or motto for each pope such as "aquila rapax" (the rapacious eagle). But when you put these prophecies side by side with the lives of each pontiff from 1143 to 1590, you find a perfect fit–the phrases can be seen to describe the birthplace, character, or career of each of the popes from the period. Take, for example, the pope described as "De rure albo" (from a white country). This corresponds remarkably to Pope Adrian IV (1154-59), an Englishman. The ancient name for England happens to be Albion, Nicholas was born near the British town of St. Albans, and later became Cardinal Archbishop of Albano. "Piscator minorita" ("The Minorite fisherman") could only have been Pope Sixtus IV (1471-84) who was a member of the Friars Minor, or Franciscans, and was the son of a fisherman.



Megastretch

After 1590, we see a distinct change. Gyrations are necessary to twist the Latin phrases into matching the appropriate pontiffs. To see a match between the phrase "Gloria olivae" ("Glory of the olives") and Pope Benedict XVI requires some that you put on some rather funky spectacles. OK, so there is a branch of the Benedictine order that is called the Olivetans, but Pope Benedict is not a monk! Some of the connections are even more far-fetched. "Pastor angelicus" was supposed to usher in a golden age for the Church and the world. But the Pope bearing this name is identified with Pope Pius XII, who guided the Church through the horrors of World War II and the cold war.



A Simple Answer

How could Malachy be so right for so long and then suddenly go far astray? Simple. The "prophecies" were not the utterances of St. Malachy at all, but the work of a forger. The first mention of the prophecies appears in 1595, more than 400 years after the saint’s death. Not even St. Malachy’s friend and biographer, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, makes any reference to them.



Fr. Claude-Francois Menestrier (d. 1705), a Jesus historian, theorized that the forgery took place before the papal conclave of 1590 with the goal of promoting the election of Cardinal Girolamo Simoncelli, the favorite candidate of the town of Orvieto, Italy. The prophetic phrase listed for the next pope to be elected reads "Ex antiquitate urbis" ("from the ancient city"); the Latin name for Orvieto is Urbs Vetus, meaning "old city."



Evidently the cardinals did not buy St. Malachy’s prophecy–they elected someone else.



In hindsight, we all see with 20/20 vision. The forger was easily able to come up with Latin phrases to fit every Pope from Saint Malachy’s time to his own. Of course, he had no such easy time in the case of future Popes after 1590. But of course, that did not matter to him. His ruse was intended to influence contemporary events, not to foretell the future.

[ShrikeHammer]

People...this Pope is only going to die when Darth Vader throws him into the bowels of the new Death Star as prophesied in Return of the Jedi.

- Long time lurker, infrequent poster.

[seemslikeadream]

Vatican mystery: Police open mobster’s grave seeking missing girl’s body

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press May 14, 2012 – 8:55 PM ET | Last Updated: May 14, 2012 9:24 PM ET

Forensic police officers work in the courtyard of Sant’ Apollinare Basilica in Rome. They are seeking evidence in a 1983 disappearance.

An overwhelming stench filled the air as forensic experts in white pantsuits and masks mingled with priests in black clerical garb during the exhumation of a reputed Italian mobster from the crypt of a Roman basilica.

The scene Monday outside the church of Sant’Apollinare was hectic, with television cameras jostling for views inside the chapel and the adjacent courtyard of the Opus Dei-run Pontifical Holy Cross University, where forensic vans came and went.
Related

Mysterious bones found inside mobster’s Vatican tomb

Italy to crack open mobster’s tomb in bowels of Rome church as part of search for missing girl

The chaotic scenes were part of an investigation into one of the Vatican’s most enduring mysteries: the 1983 disappearance of the teenage daughter of one of its employees.

Medical experts took samples from the remains of Enrico De Pedis and removed boxes of old bones from the nearby ossuary, as part of the investigation into whether Emanuela Orlandi may have been buried alongside him, said a De Pedis family lawyer.

.

Emanuela Orlandi, 15, the daughter of a Vatican lay employee, went missing in 1983.

Ms. Orlandi was 15 when she disappeared in 1983 after leaving her family’s Vatican City apartment to go to a music lesson in Rome. Her father was a lay employee of the Holy See.

Mr. De Pedis, a member of Rome’s Magliana mob, was killed in 1990. His onetime girlfriend has reportedly told prosecutors he kidnapped Ms. Orlandi. In 2005, an anonymous caller told a call-in TV show the answer to the girl’s disappearance lies in his tomb.

Amid a new push to resolve the case, the Vatican said last month it had no objections to opening the tomb.

Father Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said Monday the inspection of the De Pedis tomb was “certainly a positive fact” aimed at carrying out “all possible steps so the investigation could be completed.

“The prosecutors’ office can continue to count on the full collaboration of the church authorities,” he said.
‘I think it’s something very positive, both from the point of view of the Vatican and the prosecutors’

Lorenzo Radogna, the De Pedis’ lawyer, said investigators had found 200 containers with bones near Mr. De Pedis’s tomb in the ossuary, and these would be tested.

Initially, the ANSA news agency reported the boxes had been discovered in Mr. De Pedis’s casket itself, but later said they were found in the ossuary.

Ms. Orlandi’s brother, Pietro, said samples from Mr. De Pedis’s body had been taken for further tests and the tomb reclosed. He said the corpse was in relatively good condition, but there was only one body — that of a male — inside the casket.

There had initially been speculation Ms. Orlandi’s kidnapping was linked in some way to an assassination attempt on pope John Paul II two years earlier and the jailing of the gunman, Ali Agca.

Doubts have also been cast on whether the Vatican itself had co-operated fully with the investigation.

In 2008, Italian news reports quoted Mr. De Pedis’s former girlfriend as telling prosecutors Ms. Orlandi had been kidnapped by the Magliana gang on the orders of Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, the U.S. prelate who had headed the Vatican bank and was linked to a huge Italian banking scandal in the 1980s.

Bishop Marcinkus, who has since died, had always asserted his innocence in the scandal and the Vatican at the time of the allegation said the woman’s claims had “extremely doubtful value.”

A forensic police officer enters the courtyard of Sant' Apollinare Basilica Monday.

In a lengthy statement last month, Fr. Lombardi insisted the Holy See had done everything possible to try to resolve the case.

Mr. Orlandi said the move to open the tomb was a step forward in the investigation, and he hoped it showed a new willingness by the Vatican to co-operate fully and show full transparency about what it knows.

“I think it’s something very positive, both from the point of view of the Vatican and the prosecutors,” he said.

Speculation has long swirled around the location of Mr. De Pedis’s tomb — in a prominent church alongside important Catholics — an unusual final resting place for a reputed mobster. Sant’Apollinare is right next to the elegant Piazza Navona in Rome’s historic centre.

It is believed that when Mr. De Pedis was gunned down in 1990 by a rival on a Rome street, his family asked if he could be buried in a crypt in the basilica because they feared his grave would be desecrated by gang rivals if he were buried in a public cemetery.

Church officials first said no, but later changed their minds after the mobster’s family made a contribution of one billion lire, about $640,000 today, according to Italian media reports.

As the exhumation went on in the crypt, a priest was solemnly celebrating Latin mass.

Among those in the adjacent courtyard speaking with medical personnel was Monsignor Pedro Huidobro, rector who was a coroner before being ordained a priest.

Mr. De Pedis’s casket is expected to be moved to another location for reburial in the near future.

[Bruce Dazzling]

Lots of related woo here in this Red Ice interview with Tom Horn.

Petrus Romanus: The Final Pope
May 22, 2012

Thomas Horn is an internationally recognized lecturer, radio host and bestselling author of several books including his newest books, Petrus Romanus: The Final Pope Is Here. He is a well-known columnist who has been interviewed by US Congressmen and Senators on his findings as well as featured repeatedly in major media. Thomas received the highest degree honorary doctorate bestowed in 2007 from legendary professor Dr. I.D.E. Thomas for his research into ancient history. He returns to Red Ice to discuss Petrus Romanus. For more than 800 years scholars have pointed to the dark augury having to do with "the last Pope." The prophecy, taken from St. Malachy's "Prophecy of the Popes," is among a list of verses predicting each of the Roman Catholic popes from Pope Celestine II to the final pope, "Peter the Roman," whose reign would end in the destruction of Rome. St. Malachy's list heralds the beginning of "great apostasy" followed by "great tribulation" sets the stage for the imminent unfolding of apocalyptic events. According to this prophecy, the next Pope will be a false prophet who leads the world's religious communities into embracing a political leader known as Antichrist.

[seemslikeadream]

^^^^

thanks....Northern Ireland

[jingofever]

In a Vatican Whodunit, a Punch Line of a Suspect.

The pope's butler was arrested for leaking documents and the president of the Vatican Bank was kicked out.

[crikkett]

In a Vatican Whodunit, a Punch Line of a Suspect.

The pope's butler was arrested for leaking documents and the president of the Vatican Bank was kicked out.

I read about that on my phone, which I don't know how to use well enough to make links. It's a fascinating story. And, the Pope has four consecrated maids.

[Wombaticus Rex]

Finding it rather impossible to believe the butler had the access to pull off the Vatican Leaks. Not processing.

[crikkett]

Finding it rather impossible to believe the butler had the access to pull off the Vatican Leaks. Not processing.

Okay. From what I read this morning:

Vatican in chaos after butler arrested for leaks

Gabriele, the pope's personal butler since 2006, has often been seen by Benedict's side in public, riding in the front seat of the pope's open-air jeep during Wednesday general audiences or shielding the pontiff from the rain. In private, he is a member of the small papal household that also includes the pontiff's private secretaries and four consecrated women who care for the papal apartment.

Being a member of a household suggests they live together, along with private secretaries and aforementioned maids that also probably clean those secretaries' spaces. I can imagine it.

I think Yahoo's editors are having a little fun with this.
Difficult Pentecost for pope as butler probe hurts - Yahoo! News

[Luther Blissett]

Someone already beat me to it, but when I just saw this thread I was immediately reminded of how if the papal prophecies are legit, we are on our second last pope and it would be a very short lived appointment... Interesting!

Were the papal prophecies a framework? What's their last game?

[Wombaticus Rex]

What's their last game?

Read Preacher.

[Iamwhomiam]

"The butler did it." Hmm, seems I've head that before. I dunno, WRex, seems entirely possible to me.

Our Mid-Evil times are now passing into raw, unmitigtable Pure-Evil.

Can't you feel it?

Time to call in the Opus CIA to clean-up the House of Cardinals.