Merchants in the Temple [antikvár]

About This Book The Wounds of the Vatican It is the afternoon of September 12, 1978. Pope John Paul I, after only eighteeni days of his pontificate, discovers that a powerful Masonic lobby with 120 members is active within the Curia. The news is_dy[s.concerting. Rather than abiding by the words of the Gospel, cardinals, bishops, and senior clerics are beholden to the vows of the Brotherhood of Freemasons—an intolerable situation. So on September 19, the new Pontiff starts to draft a plan for a radical reform of the Curia. In the late afternoon of September 28, John Paul summons the Secretary of State, the powerful Cardinal Jean-Marie Villot, to inform him of the changes he wishes to implement. He has prepared a list of senior cardinals to be dismissed. At the top of the list are Paul Casimir Marcinkus, the Monsignor who directs the lOR (short for Istituto per le Opere di Religione, the Institute for Religious Works, often referred to as the Vatican bank), and his closest collaborators: Luigi