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Murder In The Vatican: The Revolutionary Life Of John Paul And The CIA, Opus Dei And The 1978 Murders

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I have read several editions of this book. The 2010 complete edition Murder in the Vatican: The CIA and the Bolshevik Pontiff is basically the same as this 2008 partial edition plus several additional chapters on the Vatican bank murders and the 33-day Pope's intent to support the revolutionaries against the coalition of ruling juntas and the United States in Central America.

As for me, 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.

The first part of `Murder in the Vatican' is the only existing record of this good man's life. The second part is a fast paced action packed thriller of true crime.

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 this 2008 and earlier editions of this book, you will get only get part of the book. Get the 2010 edition on the following link:

Again I strongly reccommend the complete edition: Murder in the Vatican: The CIA and the Bolshevik Pontiff

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. ". . . Only the creaking of the wheels and an occasional thud of a frozen tot broke the quiet of the dawn."

". . . Each time their tiny frozen bodies would pass by in the cart, every priest, nun and brainwashed Christian 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 this which 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..."

A God for Lions: World Religions Simplified

The author of this book claims the 33-day Pope (Albino Luciani) often riled up homosexuals encouraging them to stand up for their rights. For example, the author quotes Luciani's letter to Figaro originally published in the NY Times and republished in John Paul's best seller 'Illustrissimi'. I checked 'Illustrissimi' and sure enough the letter was there, word for word.

"Dear Figaro,

Well then, who and what are you my dear Figaro?

A variety of dress? A mixture of feminine and masculine?
Of Orient and Occident?

Poor Figaro, against all these nobles with their coats of arms, these bewigged bourgeois, who themselves do every trespass.

They are no better, perhaps worse, than you. Barber, marriage broker, adviser of pseudo diplomats, yes, ladies and gentlemen, whatever you like.

They demand that you alone be honest in this world of cheats and rogues. Do not accept what they say, my dear Figaro, for you, too, are a citizen.
But, sadly, perhaps, your only solution is in revolution!

Your magical friend,

Albino."

I was drawn to this book by a review in the Globe, "Like the 'DaVinci Code', 'Murder in the Vatican' will infuriate devout Christians and other believers in ghosts and the supernatural. Yet, unlike Brown, Gregoire has the proof."

Look for low grades from enraged nuns.

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 anti-Communist John Paul II became 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 pro-Communist anti-American principles via encyclicals condemning capitalism and the basic tenets upon which the United States was founded. He condemned the imperialism of money in the Western world. He denounced private property claiming to give wealth and land to the poor was to give them God's province.

His reign had moved the Italian Communist Party from single digit electoral progress to 34.4% and his support of the Historic Compromise - the union of the Communist Party and Aldo Moro's Christian Democratic Party - threatened to move Communist members into control of Parliament. Communism would quickly spread from Italy to Spain where it had already reached double digit progress and eventually to all of Europe.

His Marxist principles took on horrendous roots where the poor were collectively dominant in Latin America, the stability of which was threatened. Covert 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 with billions in military arms and assistance to its ruthless dictators.

Paul's death was wrapped with speculations and vague rumors. His deterioration had been so extremely unusual whispers concerning the `acceleration of his demise' circulated. 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 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), a Marxist in every sense of the word, particularly in his driving ambition to rid the world of poverty, was elected, it struck a nerve of shattering proportions in Washington. As a cardinal, he had not only been a figure in the Italian Communist movement, he had vigorously supported the renegade archbishop of Central America Oscar Romero and his revolutionaries. When as a pope, he announced he would attend the upcoming Pueblo Conference in Mexico and 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 their 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.

Gregoire's book must surely stand out as one of the worse books ever written - in terms of style and grammar. (One is left somewhat astonished that the author has made no attempt to correct his truly outlandish writing style, especially considering the number of "reprints" that have been published...many of his sentences beginning with "In that there...") One is left with the impression that most of this book originated inside the fantasy of the author's imagination. (I seriously doubt that his friend "Jack" even existed.) Perhaps the author can provide some convincing proof of the supposed meeting that took place on March 13, 1979, or the archeological "Luciani Expedition into Egypt" discussed at length in chapter 17. His book conveys a sense of pure imaginary fiction and contributes nothing to the continuing uncertainty surrounding the pope's death. I find the book a total insult to the memory of this 33-day pope. A great book to read if you enjoy unstable writing and have a particular hatred for the Roman Catholic Church - by comparison Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code looks like a relatively harmless piece of religious trivia. Responsible writing on a serious topic it is not.

Murder in the Vatican: The CIA and the Bolshevik Pontiff


Thirty-three days into his pontificate, the youngest pope to die in four hundred years and the only pope whose death was unwitnessed was found dead sitting up in his bed. He had been reading papers which were still held upright in his hands.

The record of his life is supported by over two hundred direct references from Italian and world newspapers which followed his controversial ministry. The investigation of his death is supported by two hundred additional press reports including some from Wikipedia.

John Paul's purpose in life is best demonstrated by an incident that took place in Venice in 1973. Bombarded by activists on a range of issues from contraception, genetic research, women ordination, homosexuality, remarriage and so forth--issues of the emerging social revolution he had from time to time championed--he stopped them, "As long as there is a single child anywhere on earth who is starving to death because he or she does not have enough to eat, there exists no other problem in the world."

It was his struggle for basic human rights and dignity for all that made him the great enemy of those who shared the Vatican with him. It was his overly obsession to rid the world of poverty that made him dangerous to the United States and the capitalistic world it thrived in which cost him his life.

On the day before he was found dead, in a televised audience, he told the United States and its capitalistic allies, "It is the inalienable right of man to own property. Yet, it is the inalienable right of no man to accumulate wealth beyond the necessary while other men starve to death because they have nothing."

I am of the school of the historian Avro Manhattan. It was his genius and not mine which first linked the CIA to the Vatican murders of 1978--something he wrote about in many books in the 1980s. Events that took place in Italy early in 1990 proved his case. In the fall of 1990, there leaked from his Kensington home, Manhattan was in the process of writing a book that proved the CIA conspired with right wing elements in the Church in the deaths of Paul VI and John Paul I.

Internet sources note Manhattan's date of death as December 1990, the last time he was seen alive. His remains never been found, he is listed as a living author by major biographical indices including the Literature Resource Center, Gale Biographies of World Authors, etc.

The 2008 edition of Murder in the Vatican is the book Avro Manhattan was writing when `death' knocked on his door. Avoid older editions as they do not include the solution to the murders.

This book is not for those who enjoy reading dry narratives: he was born on - he was ordained on - etc. It is written in various genres which best describe events as they actually occurred. Parts of it do read in narrative, yet, other parts read like a novel, and interspersed, here and there, are scores of short stories--like those which open the book (click on 'Search Inside this Book') which describe the events which led up to his decision to become a priest and change the Church. Nevertheless, they all happened. There is even a bit of satire (fiction) in its epilogue: `Imagine what would have been had he lived?' To get an idea of how the book reads go to 'Search Inside' or go to JohnPaul1 org

This work is complete and total fiction. It's the most audacious and ridiculous thing I have ever read. Hardly one word of it has any connection to reality.

My authority for saying so? I have been researching Pope John Paul I's life myself for many years. I have talked to his family and those who knew him. I have read and translated his writings from his years Belluno, Vittorio Veneto and Venice, right from the original documents published in the 60's and 70's, even his original writings from the diocesan paper in Belluno in the 1940's. All of these are the writings that the author claims were confiscated from the archives when Luciani was elected Pope. Funny how I found all these archives still intact when I visited them seven years later in 1985! The author seems to be ignorant of the fact that all these writings have been republished many times in Italian.

In all of Luciani's genuine writings, you will not find a trace of the revolutionary ideas that Mr. Gregoire claims that the Pope had about sexuality. He most certainly did not want to suppress the Mosaic law and the Ten Commandments. He did not favor homosexuality at all. The few snippets of the Pope's actual writings that the author includes have usually been distorted beyond all recognition. This is especially true of his interview about the first test-tube baby, of which Gregoire excerpts only a tiny portion (there was no letter to the parents). In the remainder of the interview, Luciani said that he fully accepted Pope Pius XII's view that any procreation of children apart from the actual marriage act was not licit.

Here is another actual quote from his writings from 1974, an interview he gave to the daily newspaper of Venice - I myself photocopied the actual original article:

"A sexuality that is worthy of man must be a part of love for a person of a different sex with the added commitments of fidelity and indissolubility." (Il Gazzettino, February 12,1974, p. 7)

Gregoire claims that his is the only biography written of John Paul I or the only surviving record of his life. Pure nonsense. I myself possess about a dozen biographies of John Paul I in Italian, some very scholarly. Needless to say, they tell an entirely different tale. English readers have been deprived of a good complete biography of him in English; the gap has been filled by this?!

The account of the Pope's last audience is distorted beyond all recognition, with completely fictional passages added in which the Pope proclaims his revolutionary views on sex and birth control, the abolishing of the commandments, etc. The author says they came from an AP story, while the Vatican released only "excerpts." How can it be that I myself have researched the reaction to John Paul I's papacy in newspapers, both American and from around the world for 25 years without ever seeing any such story? That's because it does not exist. And please check out Andrew Greeley's book "The Making of the Popes 1978." He attended that audience talk, along with journalists from around the world. Yet he doesn't mention a word about any such declarations from the Pope.

Mr. Gregoire says in his preface that he wrote his book "in several genres." That ought to give a wary reader pause right there. If the genres he mentions are all fictional, then he is quite correct! I think all the other reviews on here -- particularly those who claim to have met Luciani -- must be written by Mr. Gregoire's sock puppets: no one else could possibly be as delusional and ignorant about the Church and this Pope as he is.

I love John Paul I very much, and it's horrible to see his legacy distorted in this way. If you study his actual writings, you will see that he was a progressive bishop in social matters, but he was not a Marxist. He was faithful on Church doctrine. But some people are not interested in the truth. They want a Pope made to their own specifications - they can't accept the man who really existed.

I hope the biography I am going to publish will set things right. In the meantime, the writings that I have translated appear in the book "The Smiling Pope: The Life and Teaching of John Paul I," and they are all authentic. The book contains an accurate short biography of him as well.


The Smiling Pope: The Life And Teaching Of John Paul I

This book is intriguing. There is so much information that your mind blurs as you try to put yourself into the story as an observer. I just finished it and now I will read it again (unlike other books I have read and enjoyed). I want to write all over the chapters with questions I want to find answers to and research I want to do as if I were an investigator.......sooooo much to find out, so little time. It raises questions about parts of your faith that answers need to be provided. What is truth, what is speculation by the author and what is fantasy as he tries to re-create a story told to him by his friend (tainted by his own beliefs and passed on) or from his own observation by being there. As stated, so many questions, so little time. What is truth, what is fantasy? Worth reading.

The author did a thorough investigation and reported his findings inl much detail, but with an evident bias toward the Marxist wing of the Roman Catholic Church. My main complaint is that the first seventy pages of this new book were missing, and would appreciate receiving a replacement. The book I have is not worth returning, so please just send me a complete volume. This is the first time I have had a problem with Amazon's service though I have bought many books from them. I will probabl;y order many more books in the future if this error is corrected.

Like the Da Vinci Code. This book will rile up those who think men in Rome know something they don't know. It will draw low marks from preachers and politicians who prey on the ignorance of men - will squeal like stuck pigs.

Yet, I would stay away from this 2008 edition as this is an investigative work, a progressive work. I would recommend the new 2010 edition for the complete record, I see now also available in Kindle: Murder in the Vatican: The CIA and the Bolshevik Pontiff