Power, secrecy feed conspiracy theories in Vatican City

National Catholic Reporter, July 31, 1998 by John L. Jr. Allen

If today few would defined Yallop's thesis, it is true, at the very least, that the Vatican handled John Paul I's death clamsily. At first it claimed the pope's secretary found the body, but later admitted that it was a nun who (gasp!) had gone to the pope's quarters unescorted. No autopsy was ever performed, and to this day no cause of death has been established.

As a final postscript to illustrate the cloak-and-dagger absurdity of this story, a Czech bishop, Pavel Hnilica, was indicted by an Italian court in 1992 for paying $2.8 million to buy the briefcase Calvi was carrying just before he died. Hnilica bought the briefcase from a business associate of Calvi, Flavio Carboni, who had been looking to sell it to the highest bidder. It was rumored to contain papers documenting the Vatican's role in Calvi's activities, and was under subpoena by Italian authorities. Hnilica, a longtime Roman resident with close Vatican ties, said he was acting on his own, though no one has satisfactorily explained where he dug up the $2.8 million to close the deal.

The Vatican has always maintained that this affair has been exaggerated, distorted and subject to the wildest speculation. That is no doubt so. But even on the most innocent interpretation, the fact remains that the pope's own banker involved the Holy See in illegal and immoral activities in the pursuit of earthly riches, and the Vatican subsequently deceived, inveigled and obfuscated about what had gone on.

Not a pretty picture. And once again, the harder the Vatican tried to keep the picture pretty, the taller the conspiracy tales grew.