Jean XXIII (4) After His Death

Public Accusation of Occult Heresies

 

Table of Contents

 

Introduction

 

1. The proofs advanced of Angelo Roncalli’s membership in Freemasonry

 

1.1. The testimony of Carlos Vázquez Rangel, presented by some as Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the Masons of Mexico

 

1.2. The testimony of Pier Carpi

 

1.3. The testimony of Franco Bellegrandi

 

1.4. The testimony of Gioele Magaldi

 

2. Freemasonry and formal heresy

 

3. Evaluation of the credibility of the witnesses

 

3.1. Carlos Vázquez Rangel

 

3.2. Pier Carpi

 

3.3. Franco Bellegrandi

 

3.4. Gioele Magaldi

 

4. General principles of the credibility of a testimony

 

4.1. General criteria

 

4.2. Testimony coming from a Freemason

 

5. The absence of Roncalli from the Pecorelli list and the mention of Don Luigi Villa

 

5.1. The Pecorelli list

 

5.2. Don Luigi Villa

 

6. The absence of irrefutable external proof and Thomistic principles

 

7. First conclusion

 

8. The opinion according to which John XXIII was a heretic and therefore was not pope

 

9. Final conclusion

 

10. Note

 

11. Sources

 

 

 

Introduction

 

This chapter examines the accusations formulated after the death of Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, known under the name of John XXIII. According to several authors, his affiliation to a heretical sect would have been discovered only after his decease.

 

According to the common opinion of theologians, a public heretic cannot validly hold the papal office, since he is separated from the Mystical Body of Christ (see the chapter devoted to “heresy”).

 

This case would be exceptional: the alleged heresy of John XXIII would have remained occult throughout his life and would have become public only a few years after his death.

 

1. The proofs advanced of Angelo Roncalli’s membership in Freemasonry

 

Several testimonies maintain that Angelo Roncalli would have been initiated into Freemasonry before his election.

 

1.1. Carlos Vázquez Rangel, presented by some as Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the Masons of Mexico

 

Carlos Vázquez Rangel is said to have declared: “The same day, in Paris, the profane (‘non-Mason’ in Masonic jargon) Angelo Roncalli (John XXIII) and the profane Giovanni Montini (Paul VI) were initiated into the august mysteries of the Fraternity. Thus it is proven that a great part of what was accomplished at the Council rested on Masonic principles.” This French translation reproduces the attribution transmitted by John Kenneth Weiskittel, “Freemasons and the Conciliar Church”, The Athanasian, vol. 14, no. 4, 1 June 1993. Weiskittel relies on a communiqué of Mary Ball Martinez relating to the interview conducted by Elías Chávez, “El gran maestro masón Olivares Santana hallará hermanos en El Vaticano”, Proceso, no. 832, October 1992, cover and pp. 6–8. Francesco Ricossa takes up this attribution in “Il Papa del Concilio”, Sodalitium, no. 42, January 1996, p. 4 and note 3, p. 15, through C.D.L. Reporter, no. 179, May 1995, p. 14.

 

1.2. Pier Carpi

 

In Le profezie di papa Giovanni (Edizioni Mediterranee, 1976, at the beginning of the book), Pier Carpi reports the account of an anonymous informer: Roncalli would have been initiated in Turkey, in 1935, in a society linked to the Rosicrucian tradition. Born only in 1940, Carpi could not have been a direct witness.

 

Arnaldo Piero Carpi, called Pier Carpi, was an Italian writer, essayist, novelist, screenwriter and film director. Born on 16 January 1940 at Arceto di Scandiano, in Italy, he died on 26 June 2000. His books deal notably with esotericism, occultism and prophecy. In Les Prophéties du pape Jean XXIII, first French translation of Le profezie di papa Giovanni published in 1976, then in pocket edition in 1978, he claims to report apocalyptic visions attributed to John XXIII and covering human history from 1935 to 2033.

 

1.3. Franco Bellegrandi

 

Franco Bellegrandi was an Italian journalist and a dignitary in the service of the Catholic Church. He presented himself as Chamberlain of the Sword and Cape at the Pontifical Court and collaborator of L’Osservatore Romano. In Nichitaroncalli: Controvita di un Papa (Rome, International E.I.L.E.S., 1994), the work for which he is particularly known, he sharply criticizes the life and action of John XXIII. He accuses Roncalli of having favored a modernist infiltration of the Church which would have led to the convocation of the Second Vatican Council. He reports a confidence attributed to Paolo Sella before the 1958 conclave, without producing the notarial act that he invokes. He also takes up Carpi’s account concerning 1935 and evokes anonymous printed matter which accused Roncalli of Freemasonry at the beginning of the Second Vatican Council, not at the conclave (Nichitaroncalli, pp. 55, 61–62 and 175–176).

 

1.4. Gioele Magaldi

 

Gioele Magaldi, born in 1971, is a figure of progressive Freemasonry and the founder of the Masonic movement Grande Oriente Democratico (GOD). In Massoni. Società a responsabilità illimitata. La scoperta delle Ur-Lodges (with Laura Maragnani, Chiarelettere, 2014), he maintains that Roncalli would have been initiated in the Ghedullah lodge, in Istanbul, in 1940, then would have passed the degrees of Apprentice, Companion and Master until 1943. He attributes to him another affiliation, to Montesquieu, in Paris, around the end of 1949. He also speaks of a Rosicrucian group in relation with Ioannes in 1950. The names Ecclesia and Ioannes appear in his account of a coalition project; in the passages concerned, he does not present them as two additional personal affiliations of Roncalli.

 

2. Freemasonry and formal heresy

 

In the argumentation presented here, membership in Freemasonry constitutes a formal heresy, for it implies adhesion to doctrines contrary to the Catholic faith, notably religious indifferentism and naturalism.

 

Clement XII condemned Freemasonry by the constitution In eminenti apostolatus specula of 28 April 1738. Leo XIII reaffirmed this condemnation in the encyclical Humanum genus of 20 April 1884:

 

“… to destroy from top to bottom the entire religious and social discipline which has sprung from Christian institutions …” (Leo XIII, Humanum genus, 20 April 1884, French translation.)

 

Canon 2335 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law provides:

 

“Those who join Masonic sects or other associations of the same kind which plot against the Church or legitimate civil powers contract ipso facto an excommunication simply reserved to the Apostolic See.”

 

This excommunication removes from the guilty party juridical communion with the Church and the exercise of many ecclesiastical rights. If his membership in Freemasonry also involves a formal and public heresy, it separates him from the body of the Church.

 

3. Evaluation of the credibility of the witnesses

 

Do these testimonies, often furnished by Freemasons themselves, bring sufficient proof?

 

3.1. Carlos Vázquez Rangel

 

The words attributed to Vázquez Rangel in Proceso, no. 832, in October 1992, and taken up by Weiskittel in 1993 call for serious examination. In these reprises, he evokes four Masonic lodges in the Vatican, the initiation on the same day in Paris of Angelo Roncalli and Giovanni Montini, as well as the membership of personalities such as Bishop Sergio Méndez Arceo in Freemasonry. The date of 1937 and the name of the Grand Lodge of France, sometimes added to this account, do not appear in the citation transmitted by Weiskittel or Ricossa.

 

These affirmations are accompanied by no irrefutable documentary proof and have sometimes been amplified in milieux opposed to modernism. For lack of independent confirmation, and taking into account the secret character of the lodges, they remain of the order of personal opinion and cannot be held as certain. This does not demonstrate that Vázquez Rangel deliberately lied. It does however demand prudence: a Masonic leader could exaggerate in order to promote his obedience, without one being able to deduce from this that his entire career is invalid.

 

It must be noted that no material piece accompanies this testimony: neither a copy of an initiation register, nor an authenticated signature, nor a contemporary document, nor a lodge minutes, nor a direct independent testimony, nor a precise verifiable date, nor a place controllable by other historical sources. In history as in law, the declaration of a responsible person, even if highly placed, does not suffice to establish with certainty a fact of such gravity. The probative value of a testimony depends on the possibility of verifying it objectively. Without independent corroboration, this declaration remains an allegation and does not by itself prove the Masonic membership of Angelo Roncalli.

 

To admit the contrary would allow one to hold as demonstrated an extremely grave accusation on the sole authority of its author, without requiring objective proof. This would be contrary to the fundamental principles of justice and of the historical method.

 

3.2. Pier Carpi

 

Carpi claims to reveal apocalyptic visions attributed to John XXIII, covering the years 1935 to 2033. His book Les Prophéties du pape Jean XXIII met with a certain success among amateurs of mysteries. Some observers nevertheless criticize his ambiguous style and the absence of reliable historical sources. Carpi also directed Povero Cristo (1975) and La moglie del diavolo (Satan’s Wife, 1979), and wrote comic-strip scenarios.

 

His life and work show a sustained interest in mystery and secret societies. This approach does not attach itself directly to authentic Catholic doctrine, which condemns superstitious speculations contrary to the faith.

 

His work provides no archival document allowing one to check his affirmations.

 

3.3. Franco Bellegrandi

 

His affirmations rest mainly on anecdotes, interpretations of symbols and rumors circulating in internal Vaticanist milieux. They do not rely on irrefutable documentary proofs.

 

3.4. Gioele Magaldi

 

The size of Magaldi’s book and its bibliography do not allow, by themselves, the verification of the alleged affiliations. The Masonic pieces that he claims to possess are not reproduced in the passages where he mentions them. Comparing his account to a novel or a thriller is a critical judgment, not historical proof.

 

The often sensationalist tone of his interventions in the media reinforces the image of a promoter of his ideas rather than that of an objective researcher.

 

4. General principles of the credibility of a testimony

 

4.1. General criteria

 

The credibility of a testimony depends first of all on that of the witness: it is a word that reports a fact.

 

To appreciate its value, one must examine:

 

1. His sincerity: the absence of motives for lying, such as personal interest, hatred or fear.

 

2. His competence: his capacity to observe and to remember correctly, taking into account his mental health, the distance and the conditions of observation.

 

3. His coherence: the absence of contradictions in his account or with already established facts.

 

4. His corroboration: the concordance with reliable testimonies or with objective proofs.

 

When these qualities are lacking, the testimony loses its probative value: a word whose reliability is not established proves nothing.

 

4.2. The testimony of a Freemason accusing a pope

 

Here it is a question of the accusation of a crime held to be unheard-of against a pope. The question of a heretical pope is the object of theological debates. The constitution Pastor aeternus of the First Vatican Council, promulgated on 18 July 1870, does not declare as a historical fact that no pope has ever been a heretic.

 

According to the thesis defended here, the credibility of a Freemason affirming that a pope belongs to Freemasonry is null, for the following reasons:

 

4.2.1. Lack of sincerity. According to the author, Freemasons are bound by secret and lying oaths and are the sworn enemies of the Catholic Church. The magisterium prior to 1963 condemned them, notably in Humanum genus of Leo XIII (20 April 1884). Their testimonies often aim to deceive or to defame. To bring down a pope would be, for a Freemason, the summit of this action.

 

The “Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita”, reproduced by Jacques Crétineau-Joly in L’Église romaine en face de la Révolution, t. 2 (Paris, 1859, pp. 82–90), describes a strategy of influence on the clergy and expresses this wish: “What we must ask for, what we must seek and wait for […] is a pope according to our needs.”

 

4.2.2. Moral incompetence. As members of a heretical and conspiratorial sect, they have, according to this argument, neither the probity nor the objectivity necessary to report the truth about the Church.

 

4.2.3. Habitual incoherence. Their declarations on other verified subjects contradict, according to the author, facts established by reliable Catholic sources and lack objective proofs.

 

4.2.4. Absence of legitimate corroboration. According to this argumentation, such a testimony can be confirmed only by pure and independent Catholic sources, and not by accomplices of the same sect.

 

4.2.5. Machiavellianism. According to the author, the members of these societies reserve for themselves the right to lie in view of a “greater good”, following a Masonic principle of relativistic esotericism. Their affirmations must therefore be received with reserve:

 

Leo XIII thus warns, in Humanum genus (1884):

 

He denounces the seductions of Masonic propagandists and the procedures employed to attract new adherents, notably among workers and the young (Humanum genus, 20 April 1884).

 

In In eminenti apostolatus specula (1738), Clement XII mentions the secrecy of the meetings and the oaths binding their members, which he says are strongly suspect of heresy. Their testimony must therefore be examined with prudence.

 

4.2.6. Juridical consequence of the principle

 

If an accusation so grave were held as proved on the sole testimonies of Freemasons, without independent document or objective corroboration, the same method could be employed tomorrow against any pope, bishop or priest. Juridical security would be ruined: a simple accusation emanating from a condemned secret organization would suffice to discredit a member of the hierarchy. Such a principle, generalized, would be destructive of law and contrary to the elementary requirements of natural justice and of canon law.

 

Canon 1939, § 1, of the 1917 Code of Canon Law provides that, if the delict is neither notorious nor absolutely certain but arises from public rumor, from a denunciation or from another source, a special inquiry must first establish whether the imputation has a foundation and which one.

 

Simple suspicion or public renown therefore never suffice by themselves. In the argument developed here, no one is ever declared or treated as a heretic without public, notorious and certain proof.

 

Saint Thomas Aquinas explains that a testimony brings a probable and not infallible certainty: “testimonium, sicut dictum est, non habet infallibilem certitudinem, sed probabilem”, that is to say that testimony, as has been said, does not possess an infallible certainty, but a probable one. Its credibility diminishes when there exist serious reasons to distrust the witness. Thomas cites notably infidels, persons of bad reputation and authors of a public crime among those whose deposition can be set aside (Summa Theologiae, 2-2, q. 70, a. 3).

 

In brief, according to this thesis, the testimony of a declared enemy of the Church proves nothing. It is intrinsically suspect and must be rejected as false until the bringing of a certain proof by irreproachable Catholic witnesses.

 

5. The absence of Roncalli from the Pecorelli list and the surprising mention of Don Luigi Villa

 

5.1. The Pecorelli list

 

Mgr A. G. Roncalli does not figure in the “Pecorelli list”, which enumerates prelates and dignitaries accused of Masonic membership in the middle of the 20th century.

 

The Italian journalist Carmine Pecorelli, himself a member of the Propaganda Due lodge, published this list on 12 September 1978 in OP — Osservatore Politico. It names high prelates and functionaries of the Vatican accused of Freemasonry and indicates dates of initiation, code numbers and pseudonyms. It concerns especially the years 1960 and 1970, during the reign of the one whom the author calls the so-called Paul VI.

 

In the list that appeared on 12 September 1978, Pecorelli does not name Roncalli. Carlo Alberto Agnoli presents and examines this document in La massoneria alla conquista della Chiesa (2nd ed., E.I.L.E.S., 2001, pp. 17–18), without this authenticating each of the accusations that it contains. The absence of Roncalli is verified in the list itself; it does not however demonstrate that he was never a Freemason.

 

5.2. Don Luigi Villa

 

Don Luigi Villa (1918-2012) was an Italian Catholic priest, ordained in 1942 and a missionary among the Combonians. He founded the institute Operaie di Maria Immacolata and directed the review Chiesa Viva. According to his own account, Pius XII and Padre Pio entrusted him with a mission; he would have unmasked the Masonic infiltration in the Church and defended Catholic Tradition against post-conciliar errors.

 

Here is what Don Luigi Villa reports in Paul VI… bienheureux ? (Éditions Saint-Rémi, 2009, p. 73):

 

“… one had the confirmation during another Congress, promoted by the Institute ‘J. Maritain’, in the Marches, on the theme: ‘How did we arrive at Vatican II?’. In the name of the Italian Episcopal Conference, there was present at the ‘Congress’ Mgr Ruini, then Secretary. Well, ‘The theme – wrote Baldoni – concentrated especially on the figure of Pope Roncalli and on the opening to the world, on the fact that this exceptional pope wanted to look out of the window’.

 

But Mgr Capovilla revealed – for the first time! – that he had seen the face of the Pontiff furrowed with tears, a little before dying, because some affirmed that he had set in motion a process which would not be the good of the Church! These ‘tears’ of Pope Roncalli demonstrate that he had not at all foreseen the negative effects of his decisions, of his apostolic gestures (!!) accomplished without consulting either his Secretary of State, Cardinal Tardini, or the other cardinals responsible for the various competent Congregations, in particular that of the Holy Office, while he preferred to listen to his prophet-counselor, his factious personal secretary, Mgr Capovilla, to such a point that Cardinal Tardini came to ask to be able to abandon his post, and Cardinal Siri, then Secretary of the Italian Episcopal Conference, protested to the pope against this unusual encroachment and this inconsiderate manner of acting of Mgr Capovilla, but without result!”

 

6. Absence of irrefutable external proof and Thomistic principles

 

For lack of irrefutable external proof, whether it be of ocular testimonies or of authentic documents verified by the Church, one must follow the Thomistic principle of not claiming what exceeds a certain reason. Every suspect benefits from the presumption of innocence until certain proof is brought: this is a universal principle of law.

 

Thus, in canon law:

 

Code of Canon Law of 1917, canon 1748, § 2: “Actore non probante, reus absolvitur.”

 

In English: “If the plaintiff does not prove, the defendant is absolved.”

 

One can further formulate this principle of prudence: “De mortuis nihil nisi certum”.

 

That is to say: “Of the dead, one must say only what is certain.” The Church, according to the author, never judges the dead on simple rumors, still less on the testimonies of its enemies or of condemned societies.

 

Another fundamental principle of Roman law applies equally:

 

“Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat.” (Digest, 22, 3, 2.)

 

In English: “The proof falls upon him who affirms, not upon him who denies.”

 

Whoever maintains that Angelo Roncalli belonged to Freemasonry must therefore produce certain, public and objectively verifiable proofs. In default, the accusation cannot be regarded as an established historical fact: it remains a hypothesis or an opinion.

 

7. First conclusion

 

The Masonic initiation of Angelo Roncalli is established by no certain historical fact, independent of sectarian sources, of indices and of hearsay.

 

In the First Epistle to Timothy, 5, 19, Saint Paul teaches: “Against a priest, do not accept an accusation, unless on the deposition of two or three witnesses.” The application of this rule to a pope belongs to the interpretation of the author. No concordant chain of published and verifiable primary sources, coming from Catholic prelates faithful to traditional doctrine and from accessible ecclesiastical archives, confirms the affiliations imputed to Roncalli in Turkey or elsewhere.

 

Pius XII took no disciplinary measure nor brought any public accusation against Roncalli, even while he discreetly followed the diplomatic compromises. No published original document establishes with certainty an initiation either. The alleged affiliation therefore belongs, according to the author, to an uncertain opinion rather than to a sure teaching.

 

On 12 January 1953, Pius XII created Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli cardinal. He named him Patriarch of Venice at the consistory of 15 January 1953 (Acta Apostolicae Sedis, t. 45, 1953, pp. 65–71 and 86–87). Roncalli entered Venice on 15 March 1953; he had received episcopal consecration on 19 March 1925. At the death of Pius XII, on 9 October 1958, he was still Patriarch of Venice and cardinal-priest of the title of Santa Prisca.

 

If Pius XII had held a certain proof of Roncalli’s membership in a society condemned under pain of excommunication, his successive nominations as nuncio, cardinal and Patriarch of Venice would be difficult to explain.

 

No document proving that Pius XII had knowledge of such an affiliation, these promotions constitute a serious historical index against the certainty of the accusation.

 

Catholics concerned with doctrinal truth must reject unfounded conjectures and remain faithful to the immutable faith, without yielding to rumors.

 

In conclusion, John XXIII, recognized according to what several authors call universal peaceful acceptance, acted as a semi-heretic, without public formal heresy throughout his life, and validly exercised his office.

 

The accusations of Freemasonry, judged doubtful, cannot invalidate this conclusion.

 

8. The widely spread opinion: John XXIII was a heretic and therefore not pope.

 

Indeed, numerous sedevacantist Catholics judge reliable the testimonies and the indices of an affiliation of Roncalli to Freemasonry. They estimate that these elements, joined to the other indices, suffice to prove his state of heretic.

 

Out of respect for the opinion of our confreres, we can only recognize that the question remains without definitive solution and that, for the moment, our convictions are only opinions.

 

We are all bound by this principle:

 

“In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas”

 

Here is an explanatory translation:

 

“In the necessary things of the faith, let us keep unity among ourselves;

 

in opinions, each enjoys liberty;

 

in all things, let us keep charity, without treating as heretic him who holds an opinion different from ours or from yours.”

 

We develop this important adage in another special chapter (035).

 

9. Final conclusion

 

We await one or several absolutely probative proofs, leaving no doubt and capable of convincing all interested parties.

 

Probably at the latest, a future pope will be able to settle this question definitively by having access to the Vatican archives.

 

May Divine Providence keep us in the immutable Catholic truth.

 

10. Note

 

In the sedevacantist world, several confreres, among whom bishops and priests, defend an opinion different from mine. I therefore accept and apply the adage “in fide unitas, in opinionibus libertas, in omnibus caritas”.

 

Their rather elevated number constitutes, in my eyes, an “extrinsic evidence” in favor of their position, although the arguments developed above seem to me to present an “intrinsic evidence” in favor of mine. In all cases, I submit myself in advance to any decision of the Church in this matter.

 

11. Sources

 

1. Elías Chávez, “El gran maestro masón Olivares Santana hallará hermanos en El Vaticano”, Proceso, no. 832, October 1992, cover and pp. 6–8. The words attributed to Vázquez Rangel are known here through the relays mentioned in entries 2 and 3.

 

2. John Kenneth Weiskittel, “Freemasons and the Conciliar Church”, The Athanasian, vol. 14, no. 4, 1 June 1993; reprise of a communiqué of Mary Ball Martinez relating to Proceso.

 

3. Francesco Ricossa, “Il Papa del Concilio. Diciannovesima puntata: Giovanni XXIII e la massoneria”, Sodalitium, year 12, no. 42, January 1996, pp. 3–17, notably p. 4 and note 3, p. 15. This last refers to C.D.L. Reporter, no. 179, May 1995, p. 14.

 

4. Pier Carpi, Le profezie di papa Giovanni, Edizioni Mediterranee, 1976; Les Prophéties du pape Jean XXIII, French translation, 1976, pocket edition, 1978.

 

5. Franco Bellegrandi, Nichitaroncalli: Controvita di un Papa, Rome, International E.I.L.E.S., 1994, pp. 55, 61–62 and 175–176.

 

6. Gioele Magaldi, with Laura Maragnani, Massoni. Società a responsabilità illimitata. La scoperta delle Ur-Lodges, Chiarelettere, 2014.

 

7. Clement XII, constitution In eminenti apostolatus specula, 28 April 1738.

 

8. Leo XIII, encyclical Humanum genus, 20 April 1884.

 

9. Codex Iuris Canonici, 1917, canons 2335, 1939, § 1, and 1748, § 2.

 

10. Jacques Crétineau-Joly, L’Église romaine en face de la Révolution, t. 2, Paris, Henri Plon, 1859, pp. 82–90.

 

11. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, 2-2, question 70, article 3.

 

12. First Vatican Council, dogmatic constitution Pastor aeternus, 18 July 1870.

 

13. Carmine Pecorelli, list published in OP — Osservatore Politico, 12 September 1978.

 

14. Carlo Alberto Agnoli, La massoneria alla conquista della Chiesa, 2nd ed., E.I.L.E.S., 2001, pp. 17–18.

 

15. Luigi Villa, Paul VI… bienheureux ?, Éditions Saint-Rémi, 2009, p. 73.

 

16. Digest, 22, 3, 2.

 

17. First Epistle of Saint Paul to Timothy, 5, 19.

 

18. Acta Apostolicae Sedis, t. 45, 1953, pp. 65–71 and 86–87.

 

19. John XXIII, encyclical Ad Petri cathedram, 29 June 1959.