Continued...
the money – which is why the German bishops were able for so long to thumb their noses at Pope John Paul who wanted them to stop stamping the government’s abortion permission slips.
And now that they have control of the Vatican’s assets (the cash-generator has always been real estate) they’ve now got most of the rest of it. Of course, the women’s religious orders were done-for 30 years ago.
The only power-brokering going on now in the religious life is divided roughly between the Jesuits, the Legion and Opus Dei. Frankly, in terms of Church politics, no one else counts, except perhaps for some of the politically powerful and wealthy Italian/European "New Movements" like St. Egidio and Communion and Liberation. But that’s pretty much the entire package.
The Knights of Malta was one area that until the end of last year was still in an ambiguous position with regards to the Revolution, and it was that business unfolding before the eyes of the alternate media that has given much of the game away. The issue in the Sovereign Military Order of the Knights of Malta was that though they didn’t have any money themselves, the Professed Knights – most of whom were not nobility – had most of the power according to the constitutions. The money was in the hands of the German/ Austrian nobility who weren’t professed and therefore didn’t call the shots. To a guy like Albrescht von Boeselager (the "von" is the key here), the son of an ancient German noble family, this just seemed like an inversion of how things ought to be.
The peculiarities of the Knights’ constitutions created what for the Revolution was a conundrum... one that has now been resolved. Watch in the next months for the complete rewriting of the constitutions to put the constitutional power into the hands of the wealthy lay German nobility and out of the hands of the Professed religious Knights. I’ve been told that it’s likely we’re headed for the creation of two separate but vaguely historically related institutions, one made up of Professed religious knights who would maintain the pomp and ceremony and the outfits, and perhaps be graciously allowed to participate in a small way in the order’s assistance to the poor; and the other a secular NGO run out of Germany or Brussels who have the ear of the Vatican power structures, and charge of the bank accounts.
And this was mostly the doing of the Vatican Secretary of State, Pietro Cardinal Parolin, not Francis.
Everything I read and heard about the complicated and confusing business of the Knights of Malta has indicated that Parolin was the one behind it. It was Parolin that Boeselager went to, his friend, for recourse against being removed over the absurd irrelevance of condoms (of all things!). And it was Parolin and his creatures who have been in control of the situation ever since, most particularly the career diplomat, Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu, who is now the de facto representative of the pope to the Sovereign Military Order of the Knights of Malta. As our friend Mike Hichborn reported, it was also Parolin, personally, who is believed to have been in receipt of a cheque for 30 million Euros from the money manager of Boeselager’s German nobility faction.
As one waggish contact put it: "It was supposed to be that the Knights were about wealthy nobility serving the needs of the poorest of the poor. Now we’ve got the poorest of the poor being put at the service of the wealthy nobility."
I believe that the successful manipulation of, and the resulting cash payouts, from the SMOM affair is part of Parolin’s bid for the papacy. And it was certainly a trial balloon, a wildly successful field test of his powers. If this is the case, the next bit of news I have had is of great interest.
It comes by email from Rome, from among people with connections to the Secretariat of State, i.e.: Cardinal Parolin.
"Fresh news: they were saying at breakfast that
Parolin is expected to be made Archbishop of Milan and Becciu Secretary of State."
It had already been intimated to me by people with connections there, that the whole business of Parolin’s effective takeover of the SMOM was about gathering support – particularly the support of the German bishops – for his Big Project. He will now begin to pressure Bergoglio to resign so he can be elected pope.
And wouldn’t 30 million Euros go a long way to generating that kind of support! It would hardly be the first time someone had allied himself with the wealthy nobility to buy himself a pontificate. In that sense it’s a very traditional move.
Now this news about Milan and Becciu fits extremely neatly with this. I was told in a phone conversation the other day that Becciu isn’t Francis’ man, but Parolin’s. Francis doesn’t especially like Becciu – a career diplomat who has spent his whole career in the frescoed halls of political power and never met a poor man in his life. But the pope allowed Becciu – presumably on Parolin’s suggestion – to take over things in the Knights because if he failed it would be easy to distance himself from him. Because his name is unknown, if he succeeded Francis could easily take the credit.
It is certainly becoming more and more clear that the entire thing with the Knights of Malta and the German takeover has been Parolin’s baby from
RELEASED!
JUST
the get go. So Becciu him being elevated to Secretary of State would make a great deal of sense, becaaaauuuuse... (get ready for the punchline…)
Milan is the papabile see. It is a common axiom in Catholic history: if you want to be pope, get made archbishop of Milan.
This is so broadly accepted in Italy that the Italian bishops’ issued a press release congratulating their pick, Cardinal Scola, on his election to the papacy on March 13, 2013. Scola had gone into the Conclave with the support of Angelo Bagnasco, the head of the Italian bishops’ conference, Caffarra the powerful leader of the "conservatives" and archbishop of Bologna, Ruini the former Vicar of Rome and Re the acknowledged kingmaker. It can be safely assumed that if Parolin goes to Milan, it will be with the blessing of the Italians, most of whom are reported to be pretty fed up with Bergoglio by now.
If the above news is true – and if they pull it off – it would mean that Parolin intends to become the kind of pope who keeps the political power close, like a gun under his pillow, in fact. It is to be remembered that Becciu – until recently a nonentity as sostituto of the Secretariat of State – is certainly Parolin’s man, and the reason he was put in charge of the Knights was that he was Parolin’s pick, not the pope’s. If Parolin were pope, he would certainly like to have his own hand-picked and obedient man already in place in Stato.
For anyone appalled by this, don’t be. This is actually the normal way things are done in the Vatican, and frankly, they’re an improvement over the Bergoglian way of blackmail and surveillance.
So it might be a pretty good idea right now to keep a close eye on Pietro Cardinal Parolin. ■
![[image]](images/image_20170521__2__13_2_large_gray.jpg)
Pietro Cardinal Parolin.