CHAPTER VI GOD OR MAMMON?

A GIGANTIC financial power. Money, the main instrument of Vatican policy. — The Church’s lands are spread all over the globe. — Accumulation and speculation. The Bank of the Holy Spirit. — The Italian economy dominated by the Vatican. From explosives to spaghetti. — Sacred assets m Spain, South America, Switzerland, France, and so on. — Pius XI condemns the modem world’s “unrestrained cupidity and insatiable thirst after temporal goods”. — The war industries and petrol, profitable holdings for the Roman Catholic Church. — A new Promised Land: a new source of wealth flows into the Pope’s coffers. — The Middle East, Algeria and the financial interests of the Holy See. — A post-war enigma: Europe ruined and the Vatican overflowing with riches. — Domination through the press and books. The pontifical censorship. — The Gospel or Mammon?

IN our previous work we described, on the basis of what certain well informed authors have written, the gigantic financial power which the Vatican represents in the world of today, and with which it is essential to be familiar if one wishes fully to understand the Papacy’s outstanding influence in the political field.

We shall therefore summarize what we have already published on this subject, and would refer the reader to the above-mentioned work for any details or references.

While the public may know that the Roman Church has landed property, in general it is far from imagining how much. Is it realized for instance, that in Italy the Church owns 250,000 ha?—that one-third of the land in Spain is hers?—and that in South America she owns vast expanses? And this does not include innumerable other properties spread over the rest of the globe.

But today, it is less important that the question of landed property should be studied; it is its financial force that counts. Already Peter’s pence from 400 million faithful, offerings and masses ensure the Holy See a revenue that may be termed astronomical. This source of wealth which is ceaselessly flowing into the Vatican coffers has given rise to an accumulation of capital. And, as is rightly pointed out by Roger Garaudy, to whom we are indebted for some precious revelations in the question of holy finance:”There is but one step from accumulation to speculation”.

This step was, in fact, taken a long time ago, for as early as the seventeenth century the Pontifical States had their own bank, the “Banco di Santo Spirito“, But today this establishment, with its unexpected invocation of the Paraclete, is but a modest cog in the gigantic holding constituted by the Vatican’s financial organization.

In recent years, such scandals as the currency speculation affair, in which Mgr. Cippico was compromised, have thrown some light on this question and have revealed first of all that the Vatican, through a vast network of banks, is in almost complete control of the Italian economy. Furthermore, the fact that the nephews of Pope Pius XII and of his predecessor were found to be occupying important jobs in the largest of these banks is quite eloquent.

“We have unbounded trust in the charity of the faithful. . . . But divine Providence does not dispense us from the virtue of prudence, or from the human means at our disposal.”These words, uttered in honeyed tones by Pius XI, clearly say what they are meant to say. The”virtue of prudence”and”human means”have not failed to bring magnificent results, for the Roman Church now owns two-thirds of the buildings of Rome and invests its capital in all kinds of Italian undertakings: building societies, insurance companies, electricity, chemical industries (including the manufacture of explosives), and soon . . . nor must the production of spaghetti be overlooked; indeed, a nephew of Pius XII, Prince Marc-Antonio Pacelli, presides over the fate of this national industry.

Moreover, this important member of the”black”nobility is far from confining his activities to this food speciality. The real estate business would appear to offer a keen interest to him —or to those he represents. . . . This is confirmed in the following account:

There was that famous story of real-estate speculations which broke out last year in Rome, implicating a big company which was supposed to have reaped an illicit gain of 150 milliard francs. Prince Marc-Antonio Pacelli, nephew of the Pope himself, is a member of the company’s administrative council and the company’s adviser was Signer Bernardino Nogara, the Vatican’s financial administrator.”

A strange encounter, is it not?

Spain, South America, even Switzerland, thanks to the”camouflaged”Jesuits, are all choice lands for the finances of the Roman Church. Her interests in the Middle East are no secret, and the defence of those owned by her in Viet-Nam weighed heavily in prolonging the disastrous war of Indo-China.

In France, the Vatican favours textiles and the banks and— according to what Roger Garaudy tells us—it does not disdain the impure but substantial income from the casinos. Thus at Deauville, and especially at Monte-Carlo, games are played on sanctified gaming tables and the roulette turns “ad majorem Dei gloriam”. A thought that should console the ruined punter.

While on this subject, we should piously read once again the encyclical”Quadragesimo anno”of the sadly missed Pius XI, vituperating the”unrestrained cupidity”and”insatiable thirst after temporal goods”, which—he said—was spreading across the world.

“But the war provided a new trend to the sacred monies”, writes Roger Garaudy. “The war industries offered a profitable investment. The precious help given by Morgan’s Bank, the biggest bank in the world, which had become the Holy See’s power of attorney in America, enabled the Vatican to enter the ‘Anaconda Copper’ Trust, and later, the field of petrol. . . .”

Indeed, North America is the Roman Church’s new Promised Land; a land which in the old days was so hostile to her but where Irish and Italian immigration has now ensured—together with the subtle work of the Jesuits—a situation which is becoming increasingly favourable. The dollar now flows into the Pope’s coffers, and the position that he took against France in Algeria and the Middle East coincided strangely with his very important interests in foreign petrol.

We shall not revert here to what we wrote in our former work dealing with the almost miraculous way in which the Holy See’s funds have so swelled and multiplied in a few years as to constitute the formidable financial trust that may be seen today. We repeat: in a few years. This is what Geo London and Ch. Pichon wrote in 1933, in their work”Le Vatican et Ie monde moderns”:

“The finances of the Holy See were for a long time mediocre. The fall from temporal power had reduced them to a mere few million lires . . . upon the death of Benedictus XV (in 1922) the Cardinal Camerlingo found a singularly light money box . . . Plus XI dismissed the royal staff of servants, replacing them with his old cook, Signora Linda.. . .”

The first world war had brought about this depression of the Vatican finances, owing to the general impoverishment of Europe and, in particular, the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary, which was the Holy See’s principal source of revenue.

The situation has therefore greatly changed since then, and one cannot help noting that, from the “temporal” point of view, the Church’s most beneficial years were those of the second world war—at the end of which we have seen, facing a Europe that was blood-stained, ruined and completely plundered by the Nazis, the Vatican overflowing with the most fabulous riches. A strange synchronism! Herein lies a mystery which, though not by nature theological, nevertheless calls for serious meditation.

Finally, the closely knit network of newspapers, periodicals and organs of propaganda which its present opulence has enabled it to spread over the world, is by no means the least important aspect of the colossal power thus acquired by the Church. In France alone, a thousand newspapers and reviews are under its control, and the profusion to be observed of works on apologetics or of Vaticanist inspiration, the many articles and books singing the praises of the Holy Father—who deigns to suffer them to be published, despite the price he has to pay in Christian humility—are as significant as the almost complete disappearance of all contradictory writings. For, with all due deference to the Republicans who govern us, they say, there exists a censorship in France: that of the pontifical censor. Volens nolens, every writer must obtain the nihil obstat, and the exceptions—rare though they be—only prove the rule. There are, on this subject, some very interesting stories, which one could easily assemble into an edifying collection.

Shall we select one proof among many? We shall take it from the extremely well informed daily, Le Journal du Parlement. Georges Oudard, adviser to the Union Francaise, published a remarkable article in this paper, deploring that the government of the day did not react, as it was its duty to do so, against the antinational pursuits of the Catholic Church in France Overseas, and particularly in Algeria. Here is an extract from the article:

“The slackness of which we have been all too guilty in this domain has enabled the Vatican to pursue in Africa and Madagascar a work of disintegration of French unity. Francois Mejan brings this out in a recent work which every man of politics—especially the head of our Government—should read and meditate upon. Under the title ‘Le Vatican est-il centre la France d’outre-mer?’ the author has assembled many impressive facts, texts and documents which reply in the afl6rmative. Our Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of France Overseas would derive benefit from the study and use of these.

“I have learned from Rome or, to be more precise, from the Holy See itself, that Mgr. Dell’Acqua, Mgr. Tardinfs deputy, is said to have protested most ferociously to our Ambassador against the publication of this work. He was extremely shocked that there should be no French legislation able to forbid its publication or to authorize its confiscation, and he finally asked whether it would not be possible at least to stifle its sale in order that it should reach only a very limited number of readers.

“We are confounded by the presumptuousness of such a step, which the deputy of Mgr. Tardini, who is listened to by the Sovereign PontifF, would never have had the audacity to undertake if we had accustomed the Holy See to our justified protests against its continual encroachments in France Overseas.

“It is time to put an end to this unpardonable weakness.”

What are we to think of this step taken by the Holy See with a view to the gagging of patriots who dare denounce its intrigues against France?

It is easier, of course, to try to stifle a book than to reply to it. The facts disclosed by Francois Mejan are therefore irrefutable, since the accused are reduced to so cowardly an expedient.

In the olden days, the author would probably have been burned on the Place de Greve. There has been progress since, it will be said. But there would be still more if the Roman Catholic Church were finally and once and for all prevented from meddling with State affairs.

And are we not right to speak of pontifical censorship?

This rapid expose on the financial power of the Roman Church throws quite a hard light on the temporal ways and means on which she relies for world domination. It permits of an understanding also of how, after the two most terrible wars that have ever covered the world in blood, she is still not afraid pressing nations into bellicose attitudes. Can it not be said, indeed, that she is quite successful in pubUc calamities? The collapse even of the dictatorships that she raised up and nourished has not penetrated her strength. So then, why not start the same game again? What is there to lose? If, in the sight of a few of the flock, the spirit of the Gospels is increasingly lost, at least success is assured on the side of Mammon.

Download a PDF file of this article.

Please follow and like us: