-Caveat Lector- from:alt.conspiracy As, always, Caveat Lector Om K ----- <A HREF="aol://5863:126/alt.conspiracy:562627">GODS BANKER - THE P2 SCANDAL - The Rest of the Story</A> ----- Subject: GODS BANKER - THE P2 SCANDAL - The Rest of the Story From: Anonymous <A HREF="mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]">[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> Date: Tue, 19 October 1999 01:30 PM EDT Message-id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> John Robinson on the P2 Lodge - From Born in Blood And so we begin to see a typical source of the 94 manufactured mysteries" of Freemasonry (and many other institutions), those that are concocted not for analysis but for destruction, and The Brotherhood by no means stops with Masonic devil worship. In another chapter entitled "The Italian Crisis," Mr. Knight writes about the involvement of the pope's own bank in the greatest financial fraud of this century, a catastrophic papal scandal that still isn't over. Yet in Mr. Knight's book the matter escapes any hint of church scandal, being described as a "Masonic conspiracy". The basis for his characterization of the conspiracy as "Masonic" is a former Masonic lodge known as Propaganda Due, or P2, a lodge originally formed by the Italian Grand Orient as a lodge of research. In 1975 an Italian fascist named Licio Gelli was made the Venerable Grand Master of P2, and the following year that lodge was disavowed and suspended by the Grand Orient of Italy, so whatever it was, P2 ceased to be an official Masonic organization. Gelli converted the shell of P2 to his own purposes and those of his associates, eventually using it to build a network of secret cells of powerful politicians, bankers, and publishers throughout Italy. It was all done in complete secrecy, and with no authorized Masonic connections whatever. Soon after P2 was thrown out of official Italian Masonry Celli brought in Michele Sindona, the leading financial advisor to the Vatican. Then, in 1977, Sindona brought in Roberto Calvi head of the Banco Ambrosiano in Milan, which was closely associated with the papal bank, one of its major shareholders. Until the fan of Mussolini's government, it had been necessary for any borrower, or even depositor, to prove that he or she was a Roman Catholic before being able to do business with the Banco Ambrosiano. Calvi brought to the table his most valued contact, the Instituto per lo Opere di Religione, the Institute for Religious Works (the "IOR"), a financial institution often erroneously referred to as the "Vatican bank." The IOR belongs not to the Vatican city?state, but to the pope alone. As its name indicates, the Institute's function is to receive deposits from Catholic organizations and individuals, then loan the money out at nominal rates on favorable terms to finance the construction of Catholic schools, churches, and orphanages around the world. At the time of the scandals, and until 1989, the IOR was run by Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, a native of Cicero, Illinois, and a long?time friend and former bodyguard of Pope John Paul II. After Calvi was in with Gelli and Sindona, the Banco Ambrosiano helped to set up foreign shell companies, including ten in Panama, which were controlled by the papal bank. Then the Banco Ambrosiano loaned these shells up to one and a third billion dollars. The papal bank also put in funds of its own, but no one in Rome will even hint at the amount or purpose of these extensive secret fundings. All that is known is that some of the money was used to buy and prop up the share value of Banco Ambrosiano. When the Italian banking officials grew suspicious, Calvi and the archbishop exchanged letters. Marcinkus gave the banker comfort letters" asserting that the foreign shell companies were indeed under the direct or indirect control of the papal bank, and Calvi responded with letters asserting the IOR did not really owe the one and a third billion dollars. Both men knew that the loans were uncollectable and the exchange of letters of little value. As the government closed in, Calvi's ultimate solution was to hanghimself from Blackfriars Bridge in London, his pocket, full of cash and rocks, although suspicions of murder still surface. Calvi's death triggered an exhaustive investigation and the Banco Ambrosiano collapsed. The papal bank is said to have lost over 450 million dollars in the debacle. In spite of the huge losses, its controlling interest in the offshore companies, and its total involvement in the biggest financial fraud of this and perhaps any other century, the Holy See would answer no questions, nor would it provide any documentation as to the participation of the papal bank or of Vatican officials. Early in 1987, Archbishop Marcinkus was indicted by the Italian government for fraudulent bankruptcy. The Holy See would not produce Marcinkus to answer the charges, and he could not be extradited, for a very interesting reason. Back in 1929, the year in which Licio Gelli had joined Mussolini's Black Shirts, the Italian dictator effected the Lateran agreements with the Holy See, an arrangement known as the Italian Concordat. In exchange for Vatican support, Mussolini agreed that Italy would have no laws that were not in keeping with church teachings, which is why Italian law did not permit divorce and why the Vatican had censorship control over all books, magazines, and newspapers in Italy. Mussolini gave in to the Vatican demand that cardinals of the church be accorded all of the rank, respect, and privileges of princes of royal blood. He founded the Vatican fortune by agreeing to pay 92 million dollars as compensation for the loss of the Papal States, so that the church had a substantial pot of cash with which to buy when the rest of the world was pressured to sell at the very start of the Great Depression. Il Duce also agreed that the Vatican would be recognized as a completely separate sovereign state, totally independent from Italy or anyone else, and leaving Italy with no right of extradition. This proved useful to many during World War II, as Hitler also recognized the Concordat between his ally Mussolini and the Vatican, so that many aristocrats and others with the right connections were able to gain asylum from the Nazis in the Vatican, although they had to live out the war by carefully staying within the boundaries of the 108?acre Vatican state. That's exactly what Archbishop Marcinkus did when he learned that he had been indicted by the Italian government. The Italian process servers and arresting officers were not allowed in, and the archbishop did not set foot outside the Vatican for the five months that the issue of authority over him was being argued up to the Italian Supreme Court. Finally, in July 1987, that court decided that the Italian government had no authority to issue an indictment concerning acts performed inside another sovereign state, a conclusion that was universally expected. (The Observer of London met the news with the facetious comment, "Surprise, surprise.") The really big shock was that the papal bank agreed to pay and paid over to the Banco Ambrosiano the incredible sum of 244 million dollars, while denying any guilt, or even any material involvement, in the great fraud. Together with the reputed loss of 450 million dollars, this means that the affairs between the papal bank and the Banco Ambrosiano cost the Catholic church almost 700 million dollars, over ten times the 1987 operating loss that Catholics all over the world were asked to make up with extra donations, and with no explanations given the faithful for the gross mismanagement of the funds they had given or deposited in the past. The padlocks of total secrecy have been vigorously clamped on every aspect of the scandal by the Holy See, leaving little doubt as to the one "secret society" involved in this disgrace. That is what happened, but as described in Mr. Knight's The Brotherhood it is not a Vatican scandal at all, but a Masonic scandal. His allegation is based on nothing more than the fact that, on the secular side of the affair, a clandestine group was involved that called itself a Masonic lodge, but was not. His chapter "The Italian Crisis" begins with the sentence, "A Masonic conspiracy of gigantic proportions rocked Italy to its foundations in the summer of 1981." He reports that Gelli extracted government and personal secrets from members to be used for blackmail and calls the production of those secrets "Masonic dues." He refers to "the corrupt Freemasons in Italy's armed forces." As to the hanging of Calvi from London's Blackfriars Bridge, Mr. Knight reported that the death was found to be a suicide, but added a rumor that he had heard (or embellished), that Calvi "had been ritually done to death by Freemasons, a Masonic 'cable?tow' around?his neck and his pockets filled, symbolically, with chunks of masonry, the location of the murder being chosen for its name?in Italy the logo of the Brotherhood is the figure of a Blackfriar." I suggest the embellishment of this rumor (if such a rumor exists) because I have not been able to find that the figure of a Blackfriar is the logo of Italian Masonry, although, in keeping with the custom of Masonic lodges having names, there is one lodge in Italy called by the plural form of that name, Frati Nere (Black Brothers). Another point of all this that didn't seem to bother Mr. Knight was the matter of motive. Why would Freemasons bother to run the risk of murdering the Italian banker? Others may have had motive: officers of the Banco Ambrosiano; those involved in the Vatican?controlled companies that got the loan proceeds; anyone who received any of that money; anyone with a strong need to cover up; but none of the possible motives points to Freemasonic involvement. As to the Vatican itself, Mr. Knight not only perceived the affair as a Masonic scandal, rather than a Vatican one, but he further considered that the Vatican was a possible victim of further Masonic wrongdoing, citing "Freemasonry's penetration not only of the Roman Catholic church, but the Vatican itself." His conclusions, however, were not accompanied by a single shred of proof. ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! 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