(S.Sede/Riflessioni strategiche) Crisis of Papacy (Olga Chetverikova, Strategic Culture Foundation, 20 febbraio 2013)
The on-going events reflect the fact that the Catholic Church goes through crisis today. It has failed to stand up to the process of dechristianization spreading up in the Western society. Actually it is the collapse of the very institution of Papacy. A Pope’s resignation is usually outstanding news, but this time it was taken in stride by the world. It was perceived as an ordinary resignation, something that undermined even more the image of Pope as «God’s Lieutenant on earth» after a number of down to earth, mundane scandals shook Vatican… Still what has happened is an extraordinary event. The tough fight is going on inside the city-state…The very crisis is a result of extremely strong outside pressure on the Holy See. The goal is to limit the Pope’s influence as the one who exposes the theory of «new world order». Actually that’s what he has been focused on recently, were it arguing for establishing a «universal political power», calling for creating a «global central bank» or supporting coups in North Africa.
Unlike in other states, the power in Vatican is of sacral nature, it’s an absolute theocratic monarchy. The Pope holds all the reins as a Roman bishop, a secular clergyman and the sovereign of Vatican City State. It’s not so easy to limit his power. Today we are facing the repetition of the same scheme used to destitute the Holy See of temporal power in September 1870. Those days kind of a play was staged to may it appear the Pope was brought down by revolutionary Italian army. The idea was to transfer Vatican and its land to new Italian rulers along with the debts of around 30 million of scudos (the currency of the Papal States until 1866). The Pope failed to pay it off to the Rothschild family. It is impossible to make the Pope go bankrupt. So the debt restructuration plan was invented to make the wolves (the Rotshields) sated and the sheep (the Pope and his retinue) intact getting away with only sheepskin cut. The loss of temporal power was compensated. In 1870, the First Vatican Council proclaimed the dogma of papal infallibility for the occasions the pope speaks ex cathedra when issuing a solemn definition of faith or morals.
Today the Pope sovereignty is questioned again. The only thing is that the inclusion of the Pope’s power into the «new world order» means in practice transferring Vatican’s money to the total control of world banking mafia. It strikes the most close and untouchable Holy See structure - the Vatican Bank, which is the Pope’s bank, not an official Vatican state financial institution; the Pope is the only share holder and fully controls it through an oversight commission of five cardinals.
Pope Benedict ХVI has come under unprecedented pressure during the last three years. Gianluigi Nuzzi had touched a nerve with his 2010 Vatican SPA, an investigative book on the Vatican banking practices. Then the bank was subject to strict punishment. A part of its assets was arrested. Criminal proceedings were initiated against Tedesci, the head of the Bank those days. Back then the bank was imposed a fine. After that the Holy See made an abrupt turn, financial transparency became the slogan of the day. Vatican started a campaign to be included into the FATF «white list» and adopted a law against money laundering. It asked MONEYVAL (the Council of Europe action against the Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism) to recognize the bank as the only organization matching the international norms.
The steps taken were not enough, the pressure increased. The appearance of the book called His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI (Italian: Sua Santità. Le carte segrete di Benedetto XVI), published by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, capped the climax. It saw light in May 2012 and portrayed the Vatican as a corrupt hotbed of jealousy, intrigue and underhanded factional fighting. The book showed the Pope was vulnerable to pressure exerted by outside forces. Nobody made precise what exactly forces were meant. Still, somebody paid attention on the fact that the surge of pressure on the Pope coincided with a remarkable event: on May 30 2012 the Rotshields and Rockefellers concluded an agreement on joining the assets of their companies. Rothshild Investment Trust «Capital Partners» (RIT CP) bought a big package of Rockefeller Financial services (RFS) shares. The RFS is responsible for the Rockefellers and other US richest families business.
In July 2012 The 241-page report by MONEYVAL, the committee of financial experts backed by the 47-nation Council of Europe, warned that Holy See regulators lacked the power to oversee how money flows through Vatican City. In January 2012 the Italian central bank blocked all electronic payments in Vatican, debit and credit cards were not received anymore. All Italian commercial banks were forbidden to operate on the Vatican’s soil because it «does not meet the EU common banking standards on vigilance». The pressure grew, so it is logical to surmise that the reason behind the declared resignation of Benedict XVI is impossibility to continue the game of maneuvering. It becomes too perilous: the Vatican old timers still remember the sad fate of John Paul I who launched the reform of financial structures and died 33 days later after his election to the Papacy.
It’s hardly an occasion the last important decision before the death was related to the Vatican Bank; the position of its head had been vacant since May 2012. On February 16 2013 Ernst von Freyberg, a German lawyer and financier, a specialist on merging, became the head of the Bank. What stands out is the fact that von Freiberg is a Knight of Malta. The Order of Knights of Malta is even more influential than Opus Dei, formally known as The Prelature of the Holy Cross that former head of the Bank Gotti Tedeschi belonged to. The order is a rather closed group uniting the Western nobility; it’s also kind of an international business club exerting substantial influence on world politics. The assignment of Ernst von Freyberg can be considered as a one more step on the way to transferring the Vatican financial system to the control of world financial clans. It’s interesting Benedict XVI never saw the new bank director, his candidacy was the choice of Spencer & Stuart, an executive search consulting firm based in Chicago. The agency is called a «headhunter».
No matter he tried to keep up with the times and meet the requirements of globalization, no matter he facilitated further rapprochement between Catholicism and Judaism, Benedict XVI is still stuck in the mud in the eyes of the many who belong to the powers that be. His conservative views and the adherence to traditional values poorly matched the strategy of global elites. A new Pope will have to apply more efforts to become «tolerant» enough for those who are accustomed to speak on behalf of the world community. A new Pontific will have to be «on modern lines».