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   Though the news is in today's papers, it nevertheless carries us back some   
   fifty years to perhaps the most traumatic period in the recorded history of   
   planet Earth. Adolf Hitler's dictatorship began in Germany in 1933. At that   
   time, one of Hitler's first    
   acts was to negotiate a concordat with the Vatican through the then Papal   
   Secretary of State, Cardinal Pacelli (who had also served many years as the   
   papal nuncio to the German republic). Even before that concordat with Germany,   
   the Vatican had already    
   negotiated a compact with the Fascists of Italy, who came into power in 1922.   
   Interestingly, Cardinal Pacelli's own brother, a lawyer, had a large hand in   
   shaping the concordat with Mussolini, to achieve which the Catholic Popular   
   Party gave up any    
   chance that it might have had to oust the Fascists from power.   
      
   In 1939, that same Cardinal Pacelli was elected Pope in the shortest conclave   
   since 1623. As Pope Pius XII, Pacelli was the dominant leader of the Catholic   
   Church from 1939 until 1958, throughout the entire period to which today's   
   newspaper reports    
   pertain. Officially, Pius XII kept the Vatican neutral during World War II;   
   but his curious silence in respect to Hitler's demonic activities and the   
   support rendered to Nazi and Fascist refugees after the War leave one in   
   serious doubt as to what sort    
   of neutrality he actually maintained. One may well wonder how much Pius XII   
   knew of and supported Hitler's war plans and extermination targets. One may   
   also speculate as to the relationship between Pius XII's firm stand against   
   the communists and Hitler'   
   s diplomatic blunder in violating his treaty with Stalin as well as the   
   inexplicably extravagant deployment of German troops against Russia.   
      
   Pope Pius XII clearly strove for world conquest under the Fascist and Nazi   
   flags. To Pius XII, the communists were the arch-enemy, the Godless, the   
   anti-Christ. But, since the death of Pius XII, the Vatican has had time to   
   reevaluate the current course    
   of human events, and at present one certainly cannot detect the same fear of   
   Russia or communism. Indeed, today the worldly power with which the Church, in   
   its ongoing bid for global domination, has sought to make an alliance is the   
   very same political    
   force which the Church took as its most bitter enemy just a few years earlier.   
   This metamorphosed sentimental strategy, so obvious in the activities of the   
   openly political worldly powers, may be perceived also, and easily, in the   
   field of Church    
   politics, if one is only ready to acknowledge it.   
      
   After Pope Paul VI died on August 6, 1978, the Cardinals elected their first   
   “people's Pope”, John Paul I. Unfortunately, John Paul I proved to be a   
   significant embarrassment to the Church because of some of his idiosyncrasies,   
   such as a book of letters    
   addressed to deceased authors like Charles Dickens and Mark Twain and to   
   fictional characters like Pinocchio and Mr. Pickwick. After only thirty-four   
   days as Pope, John Paul I died under what may best be described as very   
   mysterious circumstances. On    
   October 14, 1978, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyla was elected to become the   
   current Pope, John Paul II.   
      
   Unmistakably, John Paul II is a very competent man. During his tenure in   
   office he has not only played an active role in reshaping and recoloring the   
   political map of the world but, in addition, it would seem that he has also   
   managed to refill the    
   depleted Vatican coffers. Those who have followed the scandal associated with   
   the collapse of Italy's largest private bank, Banco Ambrosiano, after the   
   murder or suicide of Roberto Calvi (another death under mysterious   
   circumstances), cannot be ignorant    
   of the Vatican connection. Though there are minor contradictions in the   
   various newspaper and newsmagazine accounts, it is nevertheless clear that   
   Banco Ambrosiano collapsed due to $1.3 billion of bad loans which were issued   
   entirely, or at least in    
   large part, to ten or twelve finance houses in Panama. These Panamanian   
   finance houses were owned, as the Vatican now admits, “unwittingly” by the   
   Vatican bank. Under considerable pressure from the Italian government and some   
   small amount of hostile    
   public opinion, the Church has offered, finally, to repay about $250 million.   
   That would leave, still unaccounted for, the huge sum of one billion dollars   
   or more. It is not unreasonable to assume that all or most of this remaining   
   money made its way    
   into the Vatican treasury.   
      
   [421] See, for example, Galatians 2:1-21.   
      
   [422] Thus, it is particularly interesting to watch the activities of a   
   pontiff who has made “solidarity” so much the theme of his papacy that it gets   
   reflected not only in his efforts for Christian unity but also in his doctrine   
   for labor. (See Pope    
   John Paul II's encyclical, “Laborum Exercens” or the text of his address   
   before the International Labour Conference in Geneva on 15 June 1982.)   
   Moreover, as it is quite obvious that John Paul II is at least partially   
   responsible for creating and    
   controlling the Polish trade union that has been so much in the news these   
   past few years, it seems that the Pope also did not miss his chance to arrange   
   a considerable amount of free, and mainly favorable, advertising for his new   
   doctrine.   
      
   [423] Lately, many activities of the Roman Catholic Church may be regarded as   
   highly detrimental to the military morale and preparedness of the U.S.A.,   
   especially in relation to the position of the U.S.S.R. For example, less than   
   a year ago, the Catholic    
   Bishops in the U.S.A. issued such a strong statement against the use of   
   nuclear weapons that the U.S. Government was compelled to do extensive public   
   relations work in order to minimize the damage.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)