Among those "who truly rule the world," Vladimir Putin is No. 1 and Pope Francis No. 4 behind Barack Obama and Xi Jinping according to Forbes. How much of the pope's influence derives from widely inaccurate, but always flattering, media reports is difficult to determine but other members of the top ten in addition to Putin have already acknowledged Jorge Bergoglio's power.
Pres. Obama’s newly appointed ambassador to the Holy See, Ken Hackett, stated in recent interviews:
“I believe that if we move out at the current pace and in the current style of Pope Francis, in another 24 months he is going to represent a very powerful force in the world."
“Diplomatically, I can say that every ambassador I talk to here says their governments now are investing more energy in inquiring about what's going on in the Vatican. They want to know what Francis' priorities are going to be and what he might have to say about major world issues.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel – 5th on
Forbes’ list - campaigning for re-election in September, made a special visit to Rome to meet with the pope on May 18. Except for George W. Bush,
who made five visits during his presidency to confer with Bergoglio's predecessors, world leaders usually make a courtesy call at the Vatican only while in Rome on other business. Putin will be in Trieste for an Italian-Russian intergovernmental meeting and is also making a trip to Rome to meet the pope.
"The [Merkel/Bergoglio] chat and photo opportunity could be a welcome campaign boost for a leader largely identified by Europe's economically suffering citizens as a champion of debt reduction, including painful austerity across much of the continent….Merkel said she and the pope spoke about the regulation of the financial markets, 'our central problem, our central task.'"
Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank and 9th on Forbes’ list, met privately with Pope Francis on Oct. 19. Draghi, a former Goldman Sachs employee, went to the Vatican in 2010 to discuss the Greek financial crisis with the president of the Bank of Greece, Lukas D. Papademos, along with Hans Tietmeyer, former president of Deutsche Bundesbank, and the Vatican Bank president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi. Draghi said that Greece should “slash the minimum wage, pensions and benefits – including deep cuts in the health service.”
Putin, whose meeting with the pope is confirmed to take place on Nov. 25, has positioned himself as an ally of Pope Francis in contrast to Pres. Obama as regards Syria. Although the massacre of civilians has been ongoing since the day he was elected, Bergoglio waited until the U.S. president proposed a limited air strike to deter the further use of chemical weapons to hold a peace rally. Head of the state religion, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, sent Obama a letter asking him “to listen to the cries of religious leaders who unanimously opposed proposals for military intervention” against Assad.
In a move sure to curry favor with the pope for whom protection of Christians in the Middle East is a top priority, Putin is considering granting Russian citizenship to about 50,000 Syrian Christians. “Syrian Christians, abandoned by Obama, turning to Russia for protection,” was the headline of an Oct. 17 article citing Christian leaders who praised Russia as the guarantor of “peace and stability.”
The Kremlin sided with the Vatican by opposing abortion and homosexuality as international human rights at the UN on Nov. 1. The same day at the World Council of Churches meeting, Metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church “spoke out strongly against what he called aggressive secularism and radical Islamisation” and denounced “the destruction of traditional family values and the rise of same-sex relationships,” common themes of both the U.S. religious right and the Vatican.
Putin united church and state for the same reasons other tyrants have done so throughout history. The Kremlin gives deference and material support to Russian Orthodox Church leaders. In return, ecclesial officials provide a moral veneer to their mutual pursuit of wealth and power, encourage Russian nationalism and docile acceptance of a non-democratic government. Similarly, neocons constructed the American religious right in the late 1970s and arranged the election of the charismatic Karol Wojtyla, molded into the superstar Pope John Paul II by consultants and a fawning media.
Media Misreporting
“Pope Francis Asks Global Catholics What They Think” and “Pope Francis' latest surprise: a survey on the modern family” are two of last week’s headlines telling us “Pope Francis is making new waves by launching a survey of his flock on issues facing modern families — from gay marriage to divorce” in preparation for a Synod of Bishops on the family.
“Not true” Vatican spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi, said. A document was sent only to bishops’ conferences asking for their response and only the English, Welsh and Belgian bishops chose to poll their parishioners. Bottom line: “The synod’s work will be based on Catholic doctrine and not on current public opinion, officials said.” And regardless of what any synod recommends, the pope is the ultimate authority.
“Could Pope Francis make women cardinals?" was the headline of an article about widespread "feverish speculation” including in the U.S. when Fr. James Keenan, a well-regarded moral theologian at Boston College, started a post on his Facebook page soliciting nominees for the first female cardinal.
“Just nonsense,” Lombardi responded. Labeled a “spoof story” by one Vatican reporter, he reminded us that “this would not be at all in line with the Argentinean pope’s teaching....[I]n his interview with the director of Jesuit journal Civiltà Cattolica, Francis stated: “I am wary of a solution that can be reduced to a kind of ‘female machismo,’ because a woman has a different make-up than a man.”
It was reported that Pope Francis “expelled” and “banished” Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst of Limburg, Germany for spending $43 million on his residence “at a time when the pontiff is stressing austerity.”
Tebartz-van Elst was, in fact, “granted a leave of absence" until an audit of his diocese is complete. Stressing austerity? Among the "group of eight” cardinals Bergoglio hand-picked to help him govern the Church, German Cardinal Reinhart Marx spent around $11 million renovating his residence in Munich and another $13 million for his house Rome. Australian Cardinal Pell spent $30 million on his own Roman "casa per ferie."
Pope Francis was “challenging” and “criticizing” U.S. bishops according to the media when, in fact, the American episcopate “applauded the pope’s words” that Church leaders are “obsessed” in their public statements about abortion, gay marriage and contraception.
The bishops' actual response shouldn't be surprising because, months before Bergoglio was elected, the National Republican Committee issued its “Growth and Opportunity Project,” dubbed an “autopsy” after the 2012 election, which developed a “plan for growth which calls for tolerant attitudes on…social issues such as abortion and gay marriage” and “emphasized a change in tone on some matters, rather than demanding a shift on policy positions.” Even Tea Partiers “see the social issues [anti-gay, anti-abortion] as a distraction.”
In contrast, a total media blackout occurred when Pope Francis concealed his dismissal of two prelates for sexually abusing minors, giving both men time to disappear before being apprehended. Months later, their whereabouts are still unknown.
Papal Power
A pope receives more worldwide press coverage than any other religious leader and more than most other heads-of-state. The Church as worldwide media outlets second to none in number and sophistication. Considering all governments, the Catholic Church has, if not the largest, than the most tightly-controlled global organization with hundreds of thousands of agencies. The pope rules over 3000 dioceses each controlled by a Vatican-appointed bishop and each with a large number of organizations and groups controlled by that bishop. (There are over 40,000 bishop-controlled entities in the U.S. alone.)
No other religion has a global financial network capable of moving “dark money” wherever needed among hundreds of thousands of these organizations to serve its geopolitical goals. (In comparison, Charles and David Koch were No. 31 on Forbes’ list.)
After Pope John Paul II allied with Ronald Reagan, the number of states having diplomatic relations with the Holy See rose from 85 to 176. The Holy See is "especially active” in 16 international organizations including the United Nations, Organization of American States, and World Trade Organization, according to the U.S. State Dept. The Vatican uses its platform in the UN “to pursue its goals of diminishing women, demonizing homosexuals, obstructing the use of condoms to prevent AIDS and refusing to allow abortion even to save the life of the mother,” none of which Pope Francis has changed.
What the world’s most powerful understand is that this papacy is a continuum of - not a break with – the mutual support between the Catholic Church and the plutocracy crafted by Karol Wojtyla in exchange for Poland’s freedom from communism and paid for by the Reagan/CIA/John Paul II slaughter of Latin Americans opposed to U.S.-backed military dictatorships.
Bergoglio was promoted all the way to cardinal by Wojtyla whose crowning achievement - if viewed by subsequent historical impact - was morphing the U.S. episcopate from a pro-civil rights, anti-war group into leaders of the religious right. Despite his ability to verbally inspire our highest aspirations, Bergoglio was promoted because he shared his pontiff’s right wing ideology including opposition to liberation theology, a teaching that the social and political structures causing poverty should to be changed. A recently revealed Vatican document, dated in 1980 and addressed to the newly-elected Reagan, “requested that the U.S. government take aggressive action against the liberation theology movement which it accused of transforming the Catholic Church into ‘a political weapon against private property and productive capitalism.’”
Wojtyla turned much of the decision-making about the Church's direction over to Opus Dei (and to a lesser extent the Legionaries of Christ, Knights of Columbus, etc.) because not only could it be counted on to meet the financial needs of popes and prelates, but also because the group fosters unquestioning obedience to popes and prelates and support of their temporal power.
Opus Dei is a secret society of global financiers, bankers and their supporters solidly behind right wing factions, parties and governments. The names of members are never disclosed unless a person admits his/her affiliation. The names of the clergy and prelates ordained into the Opus Dei religious order are, however, public.
Opus Dei "does not give alms to the poor, and the members are not allowed to give presents to anyone, but are pressed into forming friendships with the wealthy in order to obtain contributions.”
Pope Francis’ Appointments
“I think that the Curia [the Vatican bureaucracy] has fallen somewhat from the level it once had, in the days of the old curialists,” Bergoglio opined during the in-flight interview while returning from Brazil. “With every major appointment, it is becoming more clear who is that Pope Francis is referring to, when he mentions ‘the Curia of the old days.’ It is that which rose during the last 15 years of John Paul II’s pontificate, an era dominated by Angelo Sodano, who became the Vatican Secretary of State in 1991. Before that, he was a papal nuncio in Chile, from which he exerted his influence over Latin America. With struggle against liberation theology as background, Sodano built a network of Papal nuncios and bishops,” Vatican reporter, Andrea Gagliarducci, explained.
And so "Opus Dei and the Legionaries of Christ, religious groups which were prominently influential during the last part of John Paul II’s pontificate, are back. Their weight is heavy in an atmosphere that has become rarefied in the Curia,” a situation totally unscrutinized by the media.
Pope Francis' first action was to name a “group of eight” cardinals. “They are all people whom the pope holds in high regard, with whom he is in confidence and accord and whose advice he considers to be helpful in taking what he considers to be the most suitable approach to the governance of the Church,” said Vatican spokesman, Lombardi. Four have substantial ties to Opus Dei including the group’s coordinator, Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras, who, as leader of Opus Dei in that country, backed the 2009 coup against the progressive and elected Pres. Manuel Zelaya. Other prelates in Bergoglio's inner circle are also connected to "The Work."
Bishop Javier Echevarria Rodriguez, the current head of Opus Dei, has used the World Youth Day event in Brazil and the World Day of Families gathering in St. Peter's Square to recruit new members.
Pope Frances beatified Bishop Alvaro del Portillo, the second leader of Opus Dei.
Pope Francis' first "reform" of the Curia was to protect and increase his assets. Opus Dei priests and prelates were placed on the new pontifical commissions and committees established to oversee the shifting of authority over Vatican finances to Bergoglio's appointees.
Banco Santander was appointed by Bergoglio to be at the “disposition” of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See and “the administrative heads of the various dicasteries [departments] and dependent agencies of the Vatican” while the pope “cleans up” the appearance of the Vatican Bank.
Banco Santander is “a colossus with 10,000 branches which prides itself on having the most' branches than any other bank in the world” and is “present mainly in Spain, Portugal and Latin America, those territories inhabited by tens of millions of Catholics.” The bank expanded with the following result: “Huge Eurobank, rated 'Britain's worst,' now accused of gouging U.S. consumers.”
Banco Santander is thought to be associated with Opus Dei according to Wall Street Italia.
Irish “master of the universe,” Peter Sutherland, was appointed by Bergoglio to a new supervisory board in charge of Vatican finances and economic organization. Sutherland is managing director and chairman of Goldman Sachs International, former chairman of BP Oil, European chairman of the Trilateral Commission and on the steering committee for this year’s Bilderberg Conference. While Sutherland hasn’t admitted Opus Dei membership, he served on the International Advisory Board of IESE, the graduate business school of Opus Dei’s flagship University of Navarra.
At a July meeting of the Council of Cardinals for the Study of Organizational and Economic Problems of the Holy See, Sutherland gave a presentation on “the macro-economic situations and investment policies of APSA,” the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See which handles the Vatican’s investment and property portfolios.
Much of Pope Francis’ media success is probably due to the expertise behind ex-Fox News correspondent, Greg Burke, who “sees his [Vatican] job as a role similar to that of White House director of communications,” and who “would love to bring Roger Ailes into this job.” Burke has declared his membership in Opus Dei.
Fr. Fernando Vergez, a Legionary of Christ just promoted to bishop, was named by Bergoglio as Secretary-General of the Vatican City State to “coordinate and manage the daily operations of Vatican City State and is in charge of making all fundamental working decisions.”
The Legionnaires were discredited after it was revealed that their founder, Mexican Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, had sexually abused at least 20 seminarians and had two wives and three children. Their biggest benefactor is Carlos Slim Helu, the Mexican billionaire and No. 12 on Forbes’ list. Referred to as “Millionaires of Christ,” they count some of the wealthiest families in Spain and Mexico in addition to Slim as their supporters. Grupo Integer, the holding company for all the works of the Legion worldwide, had assets totaling an estimated €25 billion in 2010.
One of the most powerful men and groups in the Church is Carl Anderson and the Knights of Columbus. Anderson, an official in the Reagan administration and Supreme Knight, is a member of the Board of Superintendence of the Vatican Bank and has the power to oust the bank president as he did in May 2012.
Anderson’s influence derives from the substantial funding the Knights have provided to the Church along with the other large donors since the Wojtyla papacy who are “ultimately buying the Vatican one piece at a time.” On Oct. 10, Pope Francis met in private with Anderson and other K of C officials to thank them for their “unfailing support.”
Another sign of Anderson’s power: more than 100 prelates, including 11 cardinals, attended the Knights of Columbus annual convention held August 6-8 in San Antonio, Texas. Few groups of laity can claim anywhere near that level of public homage from churchmen.
With $19.8 billion in assets, the Knights continue to be one of the National Organization for Marriage’s biggest funders with “millions of dollars being funneled into race-dividing anti-gay strategies.” Combined with their support of anti-abortion legislation their contribution to Republican causes is probably in the billions.
There isn't one Vatican official or important prelate who has expressed disagreement with Pope Francis' beliefs that leftist governments are an enemy of the Church, a zygote is more important than a woman's life, LGBTQ persons should not receive equal rights, the poor should get a handout not a handup, and prelates should never have to face civil law enforcement authorities for sexual abuse or covering it up.
Meanwhile, under cover of the deceitful media, nothing except appearances has changed. This pope, like his predecessors, can thumb his nose at attempts by international agencies to help the hundreds of thousands of victims of the institutional Church's heinous crimes against children.
In the U.S., prelates like Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn, Twin Cities Archbishop John Nienstedt and Newark Archbishop John Myers can continue to the present day to aid and abet their priests' sexual crimes against children because their know their new pope could care less. None of Francis' "spontaneous" phone calls, hugs or other photo ops have been with survivors of clerical abuse. He has not responded to any letters sent to him by victims nor has he shown any compassion for their cause.
The U.S. episcopate continues to sponsor legal and legislative challenges to revoke or weaken Obamacare, undermine women's healthcare and persecute gays at a cost of millions of dollars.
Pope Francis' recent promotions of Bishop Leonard Blair as next archbishop of Hartford and Bishop Salvatore Matano to head Vermont's statewide diocese show that's exactly how Jorge Bergoglio wants it.