The Vatican Exposed: Money, Murder, and the Mafia by Paul L. Williams Page B
Authors: Paul L. Williams
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Draganovic
placed Pavelic under the care of the Argentine hierarchy and introduced
him to top Argentine officials, including Juan Peron. Within a year
Pavelic gathered together his fellow Ustashi expatriates and formed
Hrvatska Drzavotvorna Stranka to keep alive the dream of Catholic
Croatia. In 1959 Pavelic suffered a heart attack while visiting Spain. The
"Butcher of the Balkans" received a special blessing and the sacrament
of extreme unction from Pope John XXIII on his deathbed.'s
On November 23, 1999, survivors of the Catholic-supported
atrocities in Croatia filed a lawsuit against the Vatican for hoarding
gold stolen by the Ustashi and for helping Nazi war criminals escape
from justice by establishing ratlines to South America. The suit,
which seeks more than $1 billion in damages, received the support of
the Ukrainian Union of Nazi Victims and Prisoners and the Organization of Antifascist Resistance Fighters. "The Vatican Bank claim
may turn out to be as large as claims against Swiss banks," attorney
Jonathan Levy told the press. "In fact, the figures may be much
higher." 19
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples: "How
hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God!"
The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said
again: "Children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom
of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye
of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom
of God." The disciples were even more amazed, and
said to each other: "Who then can be saved?" Jesus
looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible,
but not with God; all things are possible with God."
Mark 10:23-27
t the end of World War II, Italy was "one extended poor-house."' The Allied invasion, the German defense, and the
destruction wrought by the Italian partisans had resulted in the devastation of roads, railways, bridges, tunnels, industrial plants, city streets,
marketplaces, and apartment buildings. This posed economic ruin for the Vatican since it had invested the donation of Mussolini almost solely
in Italian business and industry. But now many of the businesses were
closed and the industries tottered on the edge of bankruptcy.
To compound the problem, the Communists remained the only
well-funded, well-organized, and politically aggressive party in Italy.
The leader of the party was Palmiro Togliatti, who had spent most of
the war in Moscow as a houseguest of Joseph Stalin.2 His platform
called for the socialization of industrial firms that had been financed
by the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (IIR) during the Great
Depression, the very firms in which Nogara invested most of the
Church's holdings. Pius XII blanched at the prospects.
To ward off the Communist menace, the Holy Father provided
full funding to activate the Christian Democracy Party under the
leadership of Alcide Dc Gasperi. Dc Gasperi upheld as his personal
motto: "Catholic, Italian, and democratic, in that order."
Throughout his life he attended mass and received Holy Communion on a daily basis. In a letter in which he proposed marriage to his
future wife, Francesca Romani, De Gasperi wrote: "The personality
of the living Christ pulls me, enslaves me, and comforts me as though
I were a child. Come, I want you with me to be drawn to that same
attraction, as though to an abyss of light."3
In his early years, De Gasperi, as a staunch opponent of Fascism,
had gained the enmity of Mussolini. Hauled before a fascist tribunal,
he said: "It is the very concept of a Fascist state that I cannot accept.
For there are natural rights that the state cannot trample upon."4
Mussolini threw him into the Regina Coeli prison in 1927. De
Gasperi, like his friend Antonio Gramschi, would not have survived
the long stay in prison until the collapse of the Fascist regime. But
Mussolini's signature on the Lateran Treaty in 1929 enabled Pius XI
to have De Gasperi released into papal custody. For
placed Pavelic under the care of the Argentine hierarchy and introduced
him to top Argentine officials, including Juan Peron. Within a year
Pavelic gathered together his fellow Ustashi expatriates and formed
Hrvatska Drzavotvorna Stranka to keep alive the dream of Catholic
Croatia. In 1959 Pavelic suffered a heart attack while visiting Spain. The
"Butcher of the Balkans" received a special blessing and the sacrament
of extreme unction from Pope John XXIII on his deathbed.'s
On November 23, 1999, survivors of the Catholic-supported
atrocities in Croatia filed a lawsuit against the Vatican for hoarding
gold stolen by the Ustashi and for helping Nazi war criminals escape
from justice by establishing ratlines to South America. The suit,
which seeks more than $1 billion in damages, received the support of
the Ukrainian Union of Nazi Victims and Prisoners and the Organization of Antifascist Resistance Fighters. "The Vatican Bank claim
may turn out to be as large as claims against Swiss banks," attorney
Jonathan Levy told the press. "In fact, the figures may be much
higher." 19
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples: "How
hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God!"
The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said
again: "Children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom
of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye
of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom
of God." The disciples were even more amazed, and
said to each other: "Who then can be saved?" Jesus
looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible,
but not with God; all things are possible with God."
Mark 10:23-27
t the end of World War II, Italy was "one extended poor-house."' The Allied invasion, the German defense, and the
destruction wrought by the Italian partisans had resulted in the devastation of roads, railways, bridges, tunnels, industrial plants, city streets,
marketplaces, and apartment buildings. This posed economic ruin for the Vatican since it had invested the donation of Mussolini almost solely
in Italian business and industry. But now many of the businesses were
closed and the industries tottered on the edge of bankruptcy.
To compound the problem, the Communists remained the only
well-funded, well-organized, and politically aggressive party in Italy.
The leader of the party was Palmiro Togliatti, who had spent most of
the war in Moscow as a houseguest of Joseph Stalin.2 His platform
called for the socialization of industrial firms that had been financed
by the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (IIR) during the Great
Depression, the very firms in which Nogara invested most of the
Church's holdings. Pius XII blanched at the prospects.
To ward off the Communist menace, the Holy Father provided
full funding to activate the Christian Democracy Party under the
leadership of Alcide Dc Gasperi. Dc Gasperi upheld as his personal
motto: "Catholic, Italian, and democratic, in that order."
Throughout his life he attended mass and received Holy Communion on a daily basis. In a letter in which he proposed marriage to his
future wife, Francesca Romani, De Gasperi wrote: "The personality
of the living Christ pulls me, enslaves me, and comforts me as though
I were a child. Come, I want you with me to be drawn to that same
attraction, as though to an abyss of light."3
In his early years, De Gasperi, as a staunch opponent of Fascism,
had gained the enmity of Mussolini. Hauled before a fascist tribunal,
he said: "It is the very concept of a Fascist state that I cannot accept.
For there are natural rights that the state cannot trample upon."4
Mussolini threw him into the Regina Coeli prison in 1927. De
Gasperi, like his friend Antonio Gramschi, would not have survived
the long stay in prison until the collapse of the Fascist regime. But
Mussolini's signature on the Lateran Treaty in 1929 enabled Pius XI
to have De Gasperi released into papal custody. For
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