Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #196990 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 404 pages

Synopsis
Murder in the Vatican is two books in one book: The Revolutionary Life of John Paul (the only existing biography of the 33-day Pope) and The CIA, Opus Dei and the 1978 Murders. Why two books in one book? Unless one understands the mystery of his life - something the Vatican prefers to keep secret - The Secret Life of John Paul - one will never understand the mystery of his unwitnessed death. This book is in its fourth edition. In that time, I have changed little of what I have said about this good man's life other than to expand my account in this new edition to include stories of his childhood and his young life as a seminarian and as a priest. Yet, the mystery of his death and the deaths of those around him has involved an investigative process that has taken me to Italy and elsewhere in the world many times and spanned many years. I knew much more five years ago, than I knew five years before that, and I knew much more two years ago, than I knew five years before that, and I know much more today, than I did then. Here for the first time is the proof.How John Paul, and those around him, fell victim to twentieth century capitalism as it was jointly embraced by the Vatican and the United States.

BEWARE OF THE USED BOOK MARKET: 2003, 2005 and 2006 editions do not include the complete biography or the solution to the murders. Only this 404 page 2008 edition includes both compete books.

Customer Reviews

What this book is all about
What we have here is summed up in Gregoire's conclusion, "The lack of importance the United States gave to the election of a pope after the death of pro-American Pius XII through the election of John Paul II has become paramount in the thinking of subversive elements in America. The lingering evidence is too striking to be ignored . . .

The failure of the United States to influence the election of a pro-American Pope in 1963 was a lesson not to be repeated. The adverse consequence of that failure was enormous. The price astronomical in terms of lost opportunity and the deployment of United States policies and billions spent in counteracting Paul's subversive operations inside and outside the Church. . .

Paul VI disseminated his pernicious and anti-American principles via encyclicals condemning liberal capitalism, free enterprise, and the basic tenets upon which the United States was founded. He repeatedly condemned the imperialism of money in the Western world. He condemned private property claiming to give wealth and land to the poor was to give them God's province. . .

Paul's Marxist principles took on horrendous roots where the poor were collectively dominant in Latin America. The stability of Latin America was severely threatened. Military and undercover operations by the United States had to be undertaken to counteract the spreading of Paul's doctrines. When they reached Central America, the United States had to intervene. . .

Paul's death was wrapped with subtle speculations and vague rumors. His deterioration had been so extremely unusual whispers concerning the `acceleration of his demise' circulated. These suspicions were well justified when his death was met with delight in the United States, specifically the headquarters of the CIA and the Pentagon which had labeled him the `Bolshevik Pontiff.' . . .

Nevertheless, his providential death gave the CIA the opportunity to carry out its scheme; to force election of a pro-American Pope. The CIA joined factions inside and outside the Church sponsoring the Opus Dei anti-Communist candidate Polish Cardinal Wojtyla. When Luciani (John Paul I), an avowed Marxist in every sense of the word, particularly in his driving ambition to rid the world of poverty, was elected, it certainly must have struck a nerve of shattering proportions in the United States. Particularly, in that as a cardinal, Luciani had vigorously supported Oscar Romero and the revolutionaries in Central America. Yet, the straw that 'broke the camel's back' occurred three days before he was found dead. He announced that he, himself, would lead the upcoming Pueblo Conference (Mexico) and he changed its theme from 'Liberation Theology' to 'Liberation of the Poor' - he would feed them food rather than faith. The perils of potential multi-Cubas became imminent. The dangers to the security of the United States had become real. . .

Gregoire brilliantly puts together the historical record supported by over 400 press releases. For those who can't accept what the press has to say, he locks in his case with dozens of important historical photos - like one with Licio Gelli, Grandmaster of the P2 killer organization which had a presence in the Vatican the night John Paul died, standing next to former CIA Director George Bush as he took his presidential oath in 1989.

No one is going to walk away from this book without the absolute conviction that the deaths of Aldo Moro, Paul VI, John Paul I and a dozen of their closest allies in a world war on poverty had greater roots than John Paul's alleged involvement in the Great Vatican Bank Scandal which as a matter of historical record began and ended under the reign of John Paul II.

As a bonus, the reader gets Part I of this book - the only existing biography of the 33-day Pope; itself worth twice the price of admission.

I, too, remember him
I happened to have been a young seminarian in the Vatican the night the Pope died. As we gathered in the cafeteria, having witnessed a vibrant driving fireball of a man the day before, the assumption was murder and our conversations focused on the two Opus Dei bishops `Murder in the Vatican' implicates in the crime. Both these bishops were made cardinals and promoted past 300 others who outranked them to two of the most powerful positions in the Church shortly after the death of John Paul I.

The author proves that Opus Dei was involved in a conspiracy with factions in the CIA and British Intelligence which carried out the murders of John Paul and a dozen of his closest friends in the fall of 1978. T. Francis Elliott (New York Times) is on the mark, "A monumental work of twentieth century capitalism as it was jointly embraced by the Vatican and the United States and those caught up in it. Top-shelf Vatican-CIA intrigue."

Yet, the legacy of this man is his life and not his death. Particularly enjoyable to me is the recounting of the author's conversations with John Paul when the latter was Bishop of Vittorio Veneto. In recording his many recollections of his struggles as an impoverished child, as a rebellious seminarian, and as an outspoken priest and bishop, Gregoire has preserved for the world an important part of history - something the present rulers in Rome would rather be forgotten. The reason why the Vatican has never commissioned a biography be written of the 33-day pope. The opening line of the `Preface' is clear. "For those of us who knew him, who remember him, I bring nothing new. But for those of us who have allowed the Church's misrepresentations of what he was all about, who have allowed Rome's falsehoods to distort his legacy, I bring a treasure trove of yesterday."

So, yes, I remember him. He was all that you say he was and much more. My hope for a more just Church and a better world died with him.

Toby Johnson, White Crane Journal, alludes to a secret given the author by John Paul, "In revealing the deep dark secret that must have haunted him all his life, Gregoire forces the transformation of Christianity."

Howard Greene (Times) probably said it best, "Like `The Davinci Code', `Murder in the Vatican' will infuriate the devout and other believers in the supernatural. But, unlike Brown, Gregoire has the proof!"

Avoid 2006 and earlier editions of this book, you will get only half the book.

Little frozen bodies in a cart
Gregoire does a riveting job in proving it was John Paul's obsession to do away with poverty in the world that cost him his life. He didn't have to go to Africa or China to see it, as he was surrounded by it when he was growing up; the plight of two million bastards - born-out-of-wedlock children condemned by the Church - something which Gregoire brutally portrays - their frozen bodies being collected each morning by a cart:

"Each time their tiny frozen bodies would pass by in the cart, every priest, monk, nun and brainwashed parishioner thought it to be right. The only hint of compassion now and then, 'They are better off dead.' Everyone thought there was something holy about it. After all, it was written in their Holy Bible, these were the worst of children - BASTARDS. . . That is, everyone except Piccolo, the little boy Albino Luciani. He thought it was wrong. He didn't care whether or not it was written in a book. In fact, he knew it was wrong. And he knew it was wrong because his revolutionary socialist atheist anticlerical father had told him it was wrong."

It was most likely this experience that drove him for twenty years as a bishop to be a rampaging locomotive running about the Vatican, the courts and Parliament of Italy demanding basic human rights for out-of-wedlock children, women, homosexuals, the remarried and the poor; things that must have infuriated right wing elements inside and outside the Church. Particularly, when he made it the central theme of his acceptance speech as recorded in `Murder in the Vatican':

Associated Press, September 29, 1978, Vatican City, Just thirty-three days into his pontificate, Pope John Paul died last evening... Vibrant and on the job to the end, he was sixty-five... the only Pope in history whose death was unwitnessed... On hearing the news, Cardinal Benelli of Florence called for an autopsy... Born of a social revolutionary atheist father who had placed him in a seminary at the age of eleven with the commission to bring change to the Church... What would have been John Paul's papacy is perhaps best defined by the central message of his acceptance speech in the Sistine Chapel, August 27, 1978, "... We must rise up the courage within us and set aside the prejudices that have been built into us by our Christian forefathers and together we will muster the strength to lift those restraints that have been unfairly placed upon the everyday lives of so many innocent people by doctrine... for God-given human life is infinitely more precious than is man-made doctrine..."