01 Infiltration of Enemies, Cause of Crisis of the Church – Freemasons

The infiltration of the enemies,

cause of the crisis of the Church

 

Masonic infiltration responsible

for the widespread chaos among the Catholic clergy

 

Text bringing together

a dossier on the pontifical condemnations of Freemasonry

and the article by Raymund Maria, LifeSiteNews.

 

Table of contents

 

1. Introduction: something has gone gravely wrong within the hierarchy

 

2. Scope of the report

 

3. The pontifical condemnations of Freemasonry and of secret societies

 

3.1. In the eighteenth century: Clement XII and Benedict XIV

 

3.2. In the nineteenth century: the line taken up and extended to the Carbonari

 

3.3. Pius IX

 

3.4. Leo XIII

 

3.5. Saint Pius X: the enemy inside the Church

 

3.6. Conclusion of this point

 

4. The Alta Vendita (High Vendita): a Masonic plan exposed

 

4.1. The documents of the High Vendita and their publication by Crétineau-Joly

 

4.2. The meaning of the Permanent Instruction

 

4.3. Extracts from the Permanent Instruction

 

5. Pius IX

 

5.1. The allegations of Masonic membership

 

5.2. From the liberalism of 1846 to the condemnation of liberalism

 

6. Italian Freemasonry against the papacy (1877-1917)

 

6.1. The lodge Propaganda Massonica (1877)

 

6.2. Cardinal Rampolla at the conclave of 1903

 

6.3. The parade of 1917 on Saint Peter’s Square

 

7. Father Luigi Villa

 

8. The plan of the seminaries of 1961 and the letters of Mgr Francesco Marchisano

 

8.1. The plan and the publication of the letters

 

8.2. The three letters

 

8.3. The identifications of the code names

 

9. The Propaganda Due and Licio Gelli

 

10. The year 1978: the Gagnon report, the Pecorelli list and the death of John Paul I

 

10.1. The Gagnon report: commission, conclusions, Bugnini and Baggio

 

10.2. The Pecorelli list: 120 Vatican officials designated as Freemasons

 

10.3. Who was Pecorelli, and why he was able to publish the list

 

10.4. The one-month pontificate of John Paul I and his death

 

10.5. The assassination of Pecorelli

 

11. Notable names from the Pecorelli list

 

11.1. Mgr Annibale Bugnini

 

11.2. Cardinal Sebastiano Baggio

 

11.3. The request for resignation at 75 years

 

11.4. Bishops appointed from this period in the United States

 

11.5. Cardinal Villot, Mgr Paul Marcinkus, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli

 

11.6. Mgr Pio Vito Pinto

 

12. Conclusion

 

13. List of sources

 

13.1. Pontifical acts

 

13.2. Historical works and documents

 

13.3. Sources of the LifeSiteNews article and complementary documents

 

 

1. Introduction: something has gone gravely wrong within the hierarchy

 

As should be clear to anyone who examines the facts surrounding the Pecorelli list, Freemasonry has certainly entered within the walls of the Vatican at least several decades ago.

 

(LifeSiteNews) Something has gone gravely wrong within the hierarchy of the Church. The widespread heresy, scandal, corruption and apostasy of the pastors whom Christ justly condemned as “wolves clothed in sheepskins” are too systematic, and now too open, to have occurred by mere chance or by human weakness.

 

An ingenious planning and a pitiless and calculated execution have brought the hierarchy of the Church to such a state that bad bishops no longer hide their rejection of the deposit of the faith, their hatred of Christian morality, nor their contempt toward believing and faithful Catholics.

 

The programme favourable to LGBT persons, to contraception, to abortion and to women priests of the “synodal path” of the German bishops, the “rite of blessing” of the Flemish bishops for homosexual couples, the derisive qualifier of Cardinal Arthur Roche treating traditional Catholics as more Protestant than Catholic, the elevation by the pope of numerous bishops promoters of the LGBT movement to the college of cardinals, the stifling of the infamous McCarrick affair, the widespread network of the homosexual lobby among the bishops and within the walls of Rome, the handing over of the underground Church of China to the Chinese Communist Party by the Vatican, the approval and the adherence of the Holy See to the Paris Climate Agreement, strongly favourable to abortion, the cult of Pachamama and the participation in indigenous invocations of the spirits of the dead… the list continues on and on.

 

The mass apostasy that we see today in the ranks of the highest members of the Church has not, however, been the work of a single day nor of a single year. In this regard, a few facts will help to put the present situation into perspective: first the constant judgment of the popes on secret societies, then the plans of these societies and their execution, up to the occupation of the Roman structures.

 

2. Scope of the report

 

The report below will comprise the following:

 

1. The acts of the popes, from 1738 to Saint Pius X, condemning Freemasonry, the Carbonari and secret societies of the same kind as enemies of the Church and of human society.

 

2. The Masonic plan of infiltration of the hierarchy of the Church exposed in the “Alta Vendita” (High Vendita), published by Jacques Crétineau-Joly at the request of Gregory XVI then of Pius IX.

 

3. The allegations of Masonic membership concerning Pius IX, and his passage from initial liberalism to the definitive condemnation of liberalism.

 

4. Italian Freemasonry from 1877 to 1917, including the exclusive pronounced against Cardinal Rampolla at the conclave of 1903.

 

5. The clandestine work of Father Luigi Villa against the Freemasons at the Vatican, mission assigned by Padre Pio and confirmed by Pius XII.

 

6. A Vatican and Masonic correspondence attesting an attempt to take control of the Italian seminaries in the 1960s.

 

7. Facts on the Roman Masonic lodge Propaganda Due (P2) and on its chief Licio Gelli, as background to the Pecorelli list.

 

8. The Gagnon inquiry commissioned by the Vatican concerning the infiltration of Freemasons within the Holy See, the Pecorelli list of 1978 identifying 120 Vatican officials who were members of Freemasonry, including their dates of entry, their code numbers and their acronyms, and the circumstances surrounding the death of John Paul I.

 

9. Notable names from the Pecorelli list and the damage caused to the Church by Masonic prelates.

 

3. The pontifical condemnations of Freemasonry and of secret societies

 

3.1. In the eighteenth century: Clement XII and Benedict XIV

 

The condemnation begins before the nineteenth century and continues without rupture.

 

Clement XII, constitution In eminenti apostolatus specula, 28 April 1738 (current date; the text bears “the 4th of the kalends of May”, eighth year of the pontificate). He forbids all the faithful, clerics and laics, to enter into the societies called Freemasons or “liberi muratori”, under whatever name it may be, under pain of excommunication incurred ipso facto.

 

Declared motive: sworn secret, admission of every religion, and judgment of prudent men that these conventicles are depraved, for “if they did not do evil, they would not have so great a hatred of the light” (In eminenti, § 1; translation from the Latin).

 

Benedict XIV confirms this constitution by Providas Romanorum, 18 May 1751.

 

3.2. In the nineteenth century: the line taken up and extended to the Carbonari

 

In the nineteenth century, the line is taken up and extended to the Carbonari and to societies of the same kind. It must first be specified that these condemnations are not all encyclicals: some are apostolic constitutions or allocutions.

 

Pius VII, constitution Ecclesiam a Jesu Christo, 13 September 1821: condemnation and anathema against the sect of the Carbonari, recently born and spread especially in Italy, against their doctrines and against their deceptive use of a religious language. Pius IX recalls it expressly in the allocution Multiplices inter of 25 September 1865.

 

Leo XII, apostolic constitution Quo graviora, 13 March 1825 (Codicis iuris canonici fontes, vol. II, n° 481, pp. 727–733): renewal of the condemnations of secret societies, notably Masonic and Carbonarist. He takes up the acts of his predecessors and confirms them in perpetuity, against every secret society conspiring against the Church or the civil power.

 

Pius VIII, encyclical Traditi humilitati, 24 May 1829: denunciation of clandestine societies threatening the Church and the civil order, with particular attention to the corruption of youth.

 

The texts of Pius VII, of Leo XII and of Pius VIII are consultable in the editions of the Vatican. They establish a continuity of condemnation, while distinguishing the organisations aimed at: Carbonari and Freemasonry are not perfectly interchangeable appellations.

 

Gregory XVI, encyclical Mirari vos, 15 August 1832, against indifferentism and the novelties linked to the same spirit.

 

3.3. Pius IX

 

Pius IX intervenes several times.

 

Encyclical Qui pluribus, 9 November 1846: condemnation of secret societies from the beginning of the pontificate.

 

Encyclical Quanta cura, 8 December 1864, with the Syllabus: condemnation of modern errors (indifferentism, separation of Church and State, freedom of worship understood as a right), which are the public programme of the same sects.

 

Allocution Multiplices inter, secret consistory of 25 September 1865: explicit condemnation of the Masonic society and confirmation of the previous censures. Acta Sanctae Sedis, vol. I (1865–1866), pp. 193–196, here p. 193:

 

“recensenda procul dubio est, Venerabiles Fratres, perversa illa hominum societas, quae Massonica vulgo nuncupatur, quaeque in latebris primum, tenebrisque coacta in communem exinde perniciem religionis, humanaeque societatis erupit.”

 

Translation: it is necessary without any doubt to count, Venerable Brothers, among the machinations of the enemies of the Christian name this perverse society commonly called Masonic, first gathered in the hiding-places and the darkness, then come out to the common harm of religion and of human society. The Masonic society is thus presented as acting “for the common ruin of religion and of human Society”. The pope confirms the previous constitutions, reprobates and condemns the Masonic sect and the societies of the same kind that conspire against the Church or the legitimate powers, and forbids the faithful to enter into them under the penalties already carried, of which the reserved excommunication.

 

3.4. Leo XIII

 

Encyclical Quod apostolici muneris (28 December 1878), against socialism and communism.

 

Encyclical Humanum genus, 20 April 1884: major doctrinal exposition against Freemasonry and naturalism. The pope speaks of “this capital enemy” and of “a criminal association, no less pernicious to the interests of Christianity than to those of civil society”. The qualification of hostility toward the Church and human society therefore corresponds well to the substance of the pontifical text. The encyclical develops notably the critique of naturalism and of its religious, moral and political consequences.

 

He says that the partisans of evil coalesce, led or aided by the strongly organised and widespread association of the Freemasons, who rise openly against God.

 

He summarises the chain Clement XII, Benedict XIV, Pius VII, Leo XII, Pius VIII, Gregory XVI, Pius IX. He declares the sect constituted against right and honesty, pernicious both to the Christian thing and to the city, and forbids giving one’s name to it under the penalties with which the Church strikes the guilty.

 

He orders to tear off the mask, and repeats that no man must think he can, for whatever motive it may be, enter into the Masonic sect if he esteems his Catholic name and his eternal salvation.

 

Letter Dall’alto dell’Apostolico Seggio, 15 October 1890: denunciation of Masonic action in Italian antireligious politics.

 

Inimica vis (8 December 1892).

 

Custodi di quella fede, 8 December 1892: warning addressed to Italian Catholics against Masonic organisations and influence. Freemasonry is there qualified as enemy of God, of the Church and of the fatherland. But the same text invites not to exaggerate its power by attributing all evils to its direct and immediate action. This precision also belongs to the judgment of the pope.

 

3.5. Saint Pius X: the enemy inside the Church

 

On the existence of enemies inside the Church, a later text is particularly explicit: Saint Pius X, encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis, 8 September 1907, describes the modernists as present “in the very bosom and at the heart of the Church, enemies all the more formidable as they are less openly so”. This is a certain denunciation of an interior subversion; this passage does not, however, identify all modernists with Freemasons.

 

3.6. Conclusion of this point

 

The magisterium of the nineteenth century, in the continuity of 1738, holds Freemasonry and related sects as enemies of the Church and of human society, and makes of it a cause of excommunication. This is not an opinion of historians. It is the pontifical teaching.

 

4. The Alta Vendita (High Vendita): a Masonic plan exposed

 

4.1. The documents of the High Vendita and their publication by Crétineau-Joly

 

The publication is due to a request of Gregory XVI then of Pius IX.

 

Jacques Crétineau-Joly, L’Église romaine en face de la Révolution, work composed on unpublished documents, Paris, Henri Plon, 1859, two volumes, t. II, pp. 82–90. Volume II contains the seized correspondence, attributed to the High Vendita (Alta Vendita) of the Carbonari, with the text known under the name of Permanent Instruction. Gregory XVI would have remitted these papers to the historian. Pius IX addressed to the author a brief of approbation on 25 February 1861. Maynard presents this brief as a guarantee of the authenticity of the published documents; this appreciation belongs to his commentary. The published translation of the brief does not contain the prohibition to reveal the true names hidden under the pseudonyms, notably Nubius. Pius IX, brief to Jacques Crétineau-Joly of 25 February 1861, in U. Maynard, Jacques Crétineau-Joly. Sa vie politique, religieuse et littéraire d’après ses mémoires, sa correspondance et autres documents inédits, Paris, Firmin-Didot et Cie, 1875, pp. 400–402 and 421–422.

 

The LifeSiteNews article situates the document “at the end of the nineteenth century”; the edition of Crétineau-Joly dates however from 1859, and the papers were remitted to the historian under Gregory XVI. The text was taken up in English in 1885 by George F. Dillon, The War of Antichrist with the Church and Christian Civilization, Dublin, M. H. Gill & Son; London and New York, Burns and Oates, 1885, chap. XIV, pp. 65–72.

 

4.2. The meaning of the Permanent Instruction

 

“The Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita” ordered the members of the Masonic lodge to undertake a long-duration effort to undermine the Catholic Church from within. It envisaged a duration that could reach a century, without imposing a programme of a fixed duration of one hundred years (Crétineau-Joly, L’Église romaine en face de la Révolution, 1859, t. II, p. 84).

 

According to the reproductions of the text published in 1859 and taken up in 1885, the High Vendita says that the pope, whoever he may be, will not come to the secret societies. It is the secret societies that must go to the Church to conquer it. The means is not a coup de force, but a slow corruption of the clergy by liberal ideas, until obtaining a clergy and, in the end, a pope won over to the revolution, so that the revolution passes through the summit. Formula often cited, to be taken as translation of the sense, not as Latin citation: the triumph of the revolutionary idea by a pope is necessary (Nubius to Volpe, 3 April 1824, in Crétineau-Joly, L’Église romaine en face de la Révolution, 1859, t. II, p. 129). The work is that of a generation, not of a day. The instruction must remain secret for the simple initiates and not appear an order come from the High Vendita.

 

4.3. Extracts from the Permanent Instruction

 

The document declared:

 

“The Pope, whoever he may be, will never come to the Secret Societies: it is for the Secret Societies to take the first step toward the Church […] The work that we are going to undertake is the work neither of a day, nor of a month, nor of a year; it may last several years, a century perhaps; but in our ranks the soldier dies and the combat continues. […]

 

Once your reputation established, in the colleges, […] and in the seminaries, once you have captured the confidence of the professors and of the students, make that those who principally engage themselves in the clerical militia love to seek your conversations. […] then little by little you bring your dupes to the desired degree of cooking. When on all points at once of the ecclesiastical State this work of every day will have spread our ideas like the light, then you will be able to appreciate the wisdom of the counsel of which we take the initiative. […]

 

This reputation will give access to our doctrines within the young clergy as at the bottom of the convents. In a few years, this young Clergy will have, by the force of things, invaded all the functions; it will govern, it will administer, it will judge, it will form the council of the sovereign, it will be called to choose the Pontiff who must reign, and this Pontiff, like the majority of his contemporaries, will necessarily be more or less imbued with the humanitarian principles […] that we are going to begin to put into circulation. […]

 

Let the Clergy march under your standard while always believing to march under the banner of the Apostolic Keys. You want to make disappear the last vestige of the tyrants and of the oppressors, stretch your nets like Simon Barjone; stretch them at the bottom of the sacristies, of the seminaries and of the convents rather than at the bottom of the sea […] you, you will bring friends around the Apostolic Chair.” (Jacques Crétineau-Joly, L’Église romaine en face de la Révolution, Paris, Henri Plon, 1859, t. II, p. 84 and pp. 88–90.)

 

5. Pius IX

 

5.1. The allegations of Masonic membership

 

Several authors and historians, principally issued from Masonic obediences, have published texts supporting the membership of Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti in Freemasonry.

 

The Masonic author Dudley Wright, in his book “Roman Catholicism and Freemasonry” (Roman Catholicism and Freemasonry, London, William Rider & Son, 1922, pp. 172–175), affirms that Pius IX was initiated on 15 August 1839 within the lodge “Eterna Catena” (Eternal Chain) at Palermo.

 

The author J. W. Horsley, in “Pius IX and Freemasonry”, published in the Masonic research review “Ars Quatuor Coronatorum” (The Arts of the Four Crowned Ones), volume 26, published in 1913, at pages 218 and 219, affirms that the signature of the future pope is found in the registers of an Italian lodge situated at Montevideo, in Uruguay, following his passage in South America as apostolic auditor.

 

The Masonic researcher James A. Marples (The Great Likelihood of Pope Pius IX Being a Freemason, s. d., pp. 1 and 6) has also published studies in which he supports and validates the thesis according to which Giovanni Mastai-Ferretti was a Freemason.

 

5.2. From the liberalism of 1846 to the condemnation of liberalism

 

On the other hand, it is historically attested by the majority of historians that he passed at least for liberal at his election in 1846, time when he granted an amnesty to political prisoners. Faced with the revolutions of 1848 and after the assassination of his minister Pellegrino Rossi, he fled Rome for Gaeta. Following that, he condemned liberalism definitively. He promulgated the encyclical Quanta cura and the Syllabus (1864), and defined of his supreme authority the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception (1854) and of pontifical infallibility (1870). Pius IX was never proved Freemason, but he did indeed break with liberal ideas to become one of the popes most firmly opposed to the errors of his time.

 

6. Italian Freemasonry against the papacy (1877-1917)

 

6.1. The lodge Propaganda Massonica (1877)

 

At the moment of the publication of the Alta Vendita, Italian Freemasonry bore a particularly anticlerical animosity and a hatred of the papacy and of the Church. In 1877, the lodge Propaganda Massonica, also known under the name of Propaganda Due (P2), was established at Rome for political persons whose membership was held entirely secret, by reason of the papal condemnations of Masonry, of their public function and of their proximity to the papacy.

 

6.2. Cardinal Rampolla at the conclave of 1903

 

Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro, secretary of State under Leo XIII, was the favourite to become pope at the conclave of 1903. He was blocked at the conclave, and the accusation of sectarian membership is documented. On 2 August 1903, Cardinal Puzyna pronounced against his candidature the exclusive (veto) of the emperor of Austria-Hungary, Francis Joseph; it was not a question of annulling an election already acquired (A witness, “The Last days of Leo XIII and the Conclave of 1903”, Revue des Deux Mondes, 15 March 1904, section IV). According to the works documented by the anti-Masonic Catholic reviews of the time and the traditional milieus, this dramatic veto was pronounced because proofs of the secret membership of Rampolla in Freemasonry (or in the Ordo Templi Orientis) had been brought to the knowledge of the emperor. The intervention of the Catholic civil power in 1903 prevented a candidate accused with heavy suspicions of Freemasonry from sitting on the see of Peter.

 

6.3. The parade of 1917 on Saint Peter’s Square

 

In 1917, to celebrate their two-hundredth anniversary, the Masons paraded openly on Saint Peter’s Square brandishing a banner that said: “Satan will govern at the Vatican and the pope will serve him as Swiss guard.”

 

7. Father Luigi Villa

 

To add to the Masonic intrigue within the Church, besides the work of Mgr Gagnon in the inquiry on Freemasonry at the Vatican (see chapter 10), there was another priest who, for several decades, both before and after, was also engaged in the same mission.

 

In 1956, Father Luigi Villa, during a visit to Padre Pio, received from the saint the mission to consecrate his whole life to defending the Church against the work of the Freemasons, especially those who were within the Church. Subsequently, Pope Pius XII personally confirmed this mission by giving to Villa a papal mandate to do exactly that. The pope placed the priest under the protection of Cardinals Alfredo Ottaviani, prefect of the Holy Office, Pietro Parente and Pietro Palazzini (Franco Adessa, Chi era realmente don Luigi Villa?, pp. 6–8).

 

Villa worked tirelessly in the course of his priestly career to discover and hinder the manoeuvres of the Freemasons who had infiltrated into the ranks of the hierarchy, undergoing seven attempts of assassination because of the enemies he had made for himself (Franco Adessa, Chi era realmente don Luigi Villa?, p. 98).

 

In 1971, Villa founded the review Chiesa Viva (The Living Church), with correspondents from all continents, to expose the work of the Masons within the Church. Villa himself conducted inquiries on the membership of prelates and of priests in Freemasonry, verifying documents by means of police files and of lists of Masonic lodges. In 1992, Chiesa Viva republished the Pecorelli list (see chapter 10) with a presentation of the magistrate Carlo Alberto Agnoli, author of “La massoneria alla conquista della Chiesa” (Freemasonry in the conquest of the Church, Rome, E.I.L.E.S., 1996, p. 3 and pp. 14–29), who underlined the reliability of the list (Chiesa viva, no 231, July-August 1992; letter republished under the title “The “Pecorelli List””, no 420, October 2009, pp. 52–53).

 

8. The plan of the seminaries of 1961 and the letters of Mgr Francesco Marchisano

 

8.1. The plan and the publication of the letters

 

Several decades later, following the incitements of the Alta Vendita, the Freemasons in Italy began to execute a concrete plan to undermine the Church from within. Mgr Francesco Marchisano, who later became president of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church and who bore the Masonic code name FRAMA, wrote three letters to the grand master of the Grand Orient of Italy (G.O.I.) on the subject of a plan to take control of the priestly seminaries in the Italian regions of Piedmont and of Lombardy. The first two are dated from 1961; the third bears the date of 14 October, without indication of year.

 

The seminaries of Trento, of Turin and of Udine were identified as ideal places for the attempt, where a good number of Masonic confreres were already known to have infiltrated.

 

The letters were obtained and published in September 2002 by Father Luigi Villa, in a dossier entitled “Una nomina scandalo!” (A scandalous nomination!), and again in September 2019 in Chiesa Viva. The publication of 2002 came in response to the nomination of Marchisano to the post of vicar general for the Vatican City and of president of the Works of Saint Peter. Villa had previously exposed the complete data of Masonic inscription of the monsignor in June 1981 in Chiesa Viva.

 

8.2. The three letters

 

The letters of the monsignor to the grand master read as follows (Chiesa viva, nº 420, October 2009, pp. 42–44; translation from the Italian):

 

23 May 1961

 

Illustrious and venerable Grand Master,

 

It is with great joy that I received, through the intermediary of F. MAPA (Mgr Pasquale Macchi, secretary of Pope Paul VI), your delicate task: to organise silently, in all of Piedmont and Lombardy, the disintegration of studies and of discipline in the seminaries. I do not hide from you that the task is immense and that I need numerous collaborators, especially among the teaching personnel. You should signal them to me so that I may approach them as soon as possible and study together the tactic. I reserve for myself more precise communications after a meeting and a personal interview with MAPA.

 

In the meantime, please accept my devoted greeting.

 

Frama

 

To the venerable Grand Master of the G.O. (remitted by hand)

 

12 September 1961

 

Illustrious and venerable Grand Master,

 

After having approached and contacted several times the F.F. (Masonic confreres) Pelmi (Michele Pellegrino, according to the table published in Chiesa viva) and Bifra (Franco Biffi, rector of the Lateran University), I returned to MAPA to submit a first plan of work. He recommends to begin by the disintegration of the study programmes, by pressing our faithful teachers so that with arguments of new pseudo-theology and of pseudo-philosophy, they cast the seed among the students, now thirsty for novelties. Thus, the disciplinary rupture will be a simple consequence that will result from it spontaneously, without us having to occupy ourselves with it: the students themselves will take charge of it. It is therefore essential that you pay these teachers well, of whom you already have the list. I will be a diligent supervisor and I will report everything to you, faithfully.

 

With the most devoted and friendly greeting

 

Frama

 

To the Grand Master – Palazzo Giustiniani (remitted by hand)

 

14 October

 

Illustrious and venerable Grand Master,

 

At the meeting, last evening, the F.F. (Masonic confreres) Pelmi, Mapa, Bifra, Salma (Salvatore Marsili, O.S.B., abbot of Finalpia), Buan (Mgr Annibale Bugnini, Commission of the liturgy), Algo (Alessandro Gottardi, archbishop of Trento) and Vino (Virgilio Noè, master of ceremonies) were present; I was able to conclude that: firstly, we should begin experiences in certain seminaries of Italy, those of Trento and of Turin, or that of Udine where we have a good number of F.F. (Masonic confreres); secondly, we must spread our concept of freedom and of dignity of the human person in all the seminaries, without any hindrance, neither on the part of the superiors, nor on that of any law. A wide diffusion of printed matter is necessary. At this point, a meeting with all of you is urgent to decide how to act and to whom to confide the various tasks.

 

With my devoted greeting

 

Frama

 

To the Grand Master – Palazzo Giustiniani (remitted by hand)

 

8.3. The identifications of the code names

 

The identifications in parentheses, with the exception of that of Pelmi, are those of the source article: MAPA as Mgr Pasquale Macchi, secretary of Pope Paul VI; Bifra as Franco Biffi, rector of the Lateran University; Salma as Salvatore Marsili, O.S.B., abbot of Finalpia; Buan as Mgr Annibale Bugnini, Commission of the liturgy; Algo as Alessandro Gottardi, archbishop of Trento; Vino as Virgilio Noè, master of ceremonies. The table published in Chiesa viva identifies Pelmi with Michele Pellegrino (nº 420, October 2009, pp. 44–45). This editorial identification does not prove the alleged Masonic affiliation. The third letter is dated only “14 October”; its year remains indeterminate.

 

9. The Propaganda Due and Licio Gelli

 

Licio Gelli had joined Italian Freemasonry only in 1965. However, he rose rapidly to a role of incredible power within Masonry and in Italy when, in 1970, Lino Salvini, then grand master of the lodge of the Grand Orient of Italy, charged Gelli with restructuring the lodge Propaganda Due of Rome, of which he became the venerable master in 1975. This lodge, founded originally in 1877 (see 6.1), passed from a simple strength of 14 members in the middle of the 1960s to nearly 1,000 at the end of the 1970s under the direction of Gelli.

 

On 17 March 1981, the Italian police searched the domicile of Gelli in the framework of an inquiry on the alleged kidnapping of the Sicilian banker Michele Sindona. The authorities discovered lists of 962 members of the Masonic lodge Propaganda Due, grouped by political function, all under the sway of Licio Gelli, venerable master of the lodge. The lodge counted members of high rank of almost all the branches of the government of the country, including national defence. The names comprised 43 members of Parliament, 3 members of the cabinet, 43 generals, 8 admirals, the chiefs of all the armed forces of Italy, the chiefs of the security services, diplomats, the chiefs of police of the four largest cities of Italy, and officials of the Vatican, to give only some of the most prominent political personalities.

 

For the Italian authorities who did not figure among the members of the P2, the vast network of Masons of Gelli, secretly responsible to him, constituted a “State within the State” and threatened the stability and the sovereignty of the nation. Having thrown itself into the mêlée of Italian politics, the P2 was implicated in affairs such as the attack of the “Italicus” train of 1974, in which 12 persons were killed, and the massacre of the Bologna station, in which 85 persons were killed.

 

Its members were also found to have taken control of the Bank of the Vatican, bringing the Holy See almost to bankruptcy in a financial scandal that broke out in the middle of the 1980s and of which the Vatican has not yet entirely disengaged itself. In the 1970s, the activities of the P2 caused even an agitation within Freemasonry, finally leading to the official dissolution of the lodge Propaganda Due in 1981 by the Grand Orient of Italy.

 

10. The year 1978: the Gagnon report, the Pecorelli list and the death of John Paul I

 

10.1. The Gagnon report: commission, conclusions, Bugnini and Baggio

 

The inquiry of Mgr Édouard Gagnon on Freemasonry within the Roman Curia had been officially commissioned by Paul VI in response to the particular accusation according to which two high-ranking prelates were Freemasons: Annibale Bugnini and Sebastiano Baggio (Charles Theodore Murr, Murder in the 33rd Degree, 2022, p. xvi and pp. 81–82). Bugnini was charged with the Commission for the reform of the Latin liturgy after the Second Vatican Council, which produced the Novus Ordo Missale Romanum (the new Roman missal). Baggio was prefect of the Congregation for the Bishops, responsible for the nomination and the choice of bishops throughout the Catholic world.

 

It was a question of an official audit of three years of all the offices of the Holy See, concerning allegations according to which certain prelates and clerics of the Roman Curia were secretly members of Freemasonry. At the same time as the publication of the Pecorelli list, within the walls of the Vatican, its conclusions were presented in person to Pope John Paul I. According to the recently published memoirs of the secretary of Gagnon, Father Charles Murr: “Mgr Gagnon compiled an exhaustive dossier that left him no doubt that these shocking allegations were in fact true.” (Charles Theodore Murr, Murder in the 33rd Degree, 2022, p. xvi.)

 

Although the complete content of the inquiry of Gagnon is not publicly known, certain details on the affair have been divulged. Among these details figures the fact that Gagnon made known that he had indeed proofs confirming that Mgr Bugnini and Cardinal Baggio were members of Freemasonry. These proofs comprised the authentication of documents by INTERPOL, the International Criminal Police Organisation, charged with the inquiry on international crimes (Charles Theodore Murr, Murder in the 33rd Degree, 2022, p. 123). The conclusions of Gagnon thus corroborated the Pecorelli list, which also comprised the names of these cardinals.

 

Following the inquiry of Gagnon, Bugnini was sent in the last years of his life to Iran as apostolic nuncio, where he would ostensibly do the least harm to the Church, given the rarity of Catholics in Iran and the almost non-existent interaction between the Holy See and the Islamic government of Iran.

 

Baggio, however, proved more difficult to set aside. He would in fact remain at the head of the Congregation for the Bishops until 8 April 1984, several years after the beginning of the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, occupying this function since 26 February 1973, that is for about eleven years (Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. LXV, 1973, p. 111; vol. LXXVI, 1984, pp. 507–508). The length of his mandate would contribute considerably to the incalculable damage caused to the Church by this Masonic episcopal king-maker (see 11.2 and 11.3).

 

10.2. The Pecorelli list: 120 Vatican officials designated as Freemasons

 

On 12 September 1978, nearly a century after the publication of the Alta Vendita and a little less than two decades after the launching of the plot aiming to take control of the seminaries of Italy, the Italian lawyer and investigative journalist Carmine “Mino” Pecorelli (the LifeSiteNews article writes “Carmine Minor Pecorelli”), director of a press agency and of a review specialised in political scandals and crimes, the Osservatore Politico (“The Political Observatory”, the Political Observatory, in the LifeSiteNews article), published a list of cardinals, of bishops, of high-ranking priests and of officials of the Vatican that he identified as members of Masonic lodges. The list came to be known under the name of “Pecorelli list”, and comprised the names, the dates of entry (of initiation) into Freemasonry, the code numbers (Masonic matriculation numbers) and the acronyms of 120 Vatican officials, that is more than one hundred prelates, cardinals and officials.

 

These events and the occupation of the Roman structures by enemy networks occurred after the defection of Paul VI, the last pope, whose legitimate pontificate ended by his public heresy in 1964. The Pecorelli list is a documented fact proving the Masonic occupation of the post-conciliar Vatican institutions, a revelation that cost the life of its author (see 10.5).

 

10.3. Who was Pecorelli, and why he was able to publish the list

 

Pecorelli himself belonged to the Roman Masonic lodge Propaganda Due (P2), described in chapter 9.

 

Why Pecorelli published a list of high-ranking members of the Vatican of whom he affirmed that they also figured among the Freemasons will perhaps never be known. Was it a calumny? Was it to discredit the Church? Or was it because his list would precisely have exposed the greatest scandal within the walls of the Vatican of his time, or of ours, a work that was not without attraction for a political journalist disposing of sensitive internal information.

 

10.4. The one-month pontificate of John Paul I and his death

 

Taking a little distance, a few striking facts on the one-month pontificate of John Paul I raise the question of the depth of the Masonic plots within the Vatican. On 12 September 1978, Pecorelli published his list. On 25 September 1978, Mgr Gagnon met privately John Paul I to present to him the conclusions of his three-year inquiry on the same matter. The archbishop carried a voluminous dossier and made known to his secretary that he had broached with the Pontiff the subject of the membership of Baggio in the Masonic lodge. He also said to his secretary that the pope had accepted to occupy himself with the Masonic cardinal. (Charles Theodore Murr, Murder in the 33rd Degree, 2022, pp. 117–128.)

 

On 28 September, John Paul I personally called Baggio so that he come to meet the Pontiff in his office that day. Baggio met the pope in private in his personal apartment later in the evening, at 20 hours, for about one hour, and was heard crying out against the pope by the Swiss guards who stood outside the room, of which they testified later (Charles Theodore Murr, Murder in the 33rd Degree, 2022, pp. 129–132). The following morning, 29 September, John Paul I was found dead in his room. The doctor declared that he had died around 23 hours the previous night.

 

Given the circumstances and the questions surrounding the death of John Paul I — the fact that the Pontiff died so suddenly barely two weeks after the publication of the Pecorelli list, three days after having received in private audience the report of Gagnon, and only two hours after his confrontation with Baggio, the Mason who named the bishops of the Church and the last man to have seen the Pontiff before he was found dead —, Father Luigi Villa, a Vatican official working under the protection of the Holy Office (see chapter 7), ordered Cardinal Palazzini to have an autopsy proceed. Three autopsies, officially called “medical examinations”, were conducted, the verdict of each confirming that the pope had been assassinated (Franco Adessa, Who Really Was Father Luigi Villa?, Oconomowoc, The Apostolate of Our Lady of Good Success, s. d., p. 28). The results of the autopsies were not published by the Vatican, which officially gave a “heart attack” as cause of the death of the pope, after having changed the narrative several times.

 

The proper chronology of the article is conserved as it is written: the article says that the death took place “only two hours after his confrontation with Baggio”, and says also that the meeting took place at 20 hours and that the doctor declared the death around 23 hours. The two affirmations are conserved. According to the sedevacantist view, John Paul I was not pope.

 

10.5. The assassination of Pecorelli

 

What is known is that Pecorelli was mysteriously assassinated at Rome six months after the publication of his list, almost day for day, on 20 March 1979. He was killed by four gunshots in the Prati quarter of Rome. The judgment describes two Fiocchi projectiles and two Gevelot projectiles (Corte di assise di Perugia, judgment nº 3/99 of 24 September 1999, pp. 42–46). The Gevelot projectiles were of a particularly rare type, difficult to find both on the legal and clandestine markets. This same type of Gevelot bullet was discovered in the arms stock of the “Banda della Magliana” (the Magliana Band), concealed in the basement of the Italian ministry of Health. Among the persons aimed at by the police inquiries figured the chief of the Propaganda Due, Licio Gelli.

 

11. Notable names from the Pecorelli list

 

Volumes could be written on the damage caused to the Church by the cardinals, the bishops and the priests named as Freemasons on the Pecorelli list. I limit myself to considering only some of them.

 

11.1. Mgr Annibale Bugnini

 

In the printed list, Mgr Annibale Bugnini is indicated as having joined Freemasonry on 23 April 1963, with the code number 1365/75 and the acronym BUAN (OP — Osservatore Politico, 12 September 1978, p. 4). This date is that borne by the list, independently of the authenticity of the latter. He figures also, under this code name, among those present at the meeting described in the letter of Marchisano of 14 October (see 8.2). Bugnini was the man who led the changes brought to the liturgy, changes whose aims were to remove from the Roman rite of the Mass everything that would be objectionable for the Protestants. The texts of the ancient prayers of the Church and his choices in Scripture were stripped of a great part of their doctrinal content as well as of the Tridentine accent, so prized, on the sacrificial character of the Mass, so crucial to combat the Protestant heresies. The changes in the arrangement of the sanctuary were modelled on the style of the Masonic temple, in which the altar stands at the centre rather than turned toward the East.

 

The anthropocentric accents noted of the liturgy of the Novus Ordo and the radical displacement toward a liberalisation of doctrine and of practice in the Church, which accompanied the liturgical changes of the Mass, are the unsurprising fruit of the work of a Freemason authorised to change without scruple, at his will, everything that pleased him and that he thought he could impose with impunity on the whole Latin Church.

 

11.2. Cardinal Sebastiano Baggio

 

Just as damaging for the Church was the long mandate of Cardinal Sebastiano Baggio in his role of prefect of the Congregation for the Bishops, which effectively made of him a sort of Masonic puppeteer. According to the Pecorelli list, Baggio inscribed himself in the Masonic lodge on 14 August 1957, with the code number 85/2640 and the acronym SEBA. He was named prefect of the Congregation for the Bishops on 26 February 1973 (Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. LXV, 1973, p. 111). According to the article, this nomination intervened after Cardinal Jean Villot — also indicated by Pecorelli as Mason, and who served then as secretary of State under Paul VI since 1969 — had strongly pressed to obtain the nomination of Baggio to this role. It would already have been grave enough that a Freemason had the least part in the choice of a bishop, but that Baggio was made prefect of the Congregation for the Bishops and was thus free to name, throughout the world and for more than a decade, liberal, modernist, homosexual and Masonic bishops, is unfathomable.

 

In a letter to his venerable grand master, dated 4 January 1969, Baggio thanked the Masonic lodge for having assured his elevation to the Sacred College of cardinals, assuring his Masonic confreres of his continuous cooperation to penetrate the ecclesiastical milieus, especially the roles of direction, in view of “ruining the whole Church from within in all the sectors”. This letter was photographed and recently published in 2019 in Chiesa Viva (nº 529, September 2019, p. 4; nº 465, November 2013, p. 18):

 

4 January 1969

 

To the Venerable Grand Master

 

To the highly esteemed Assistants

 

I have just received the communication of Mapa concerning my nomination as cardinal, obtained by You thanks to all Your powerful means. I hasten to express to all of you, beloved and esteemed Brothers, my grateful and devoted thanks. As in the past, I am always at Your disposition concerning our programmes of expansion and of penetration into the ecclesiastical milieus, especially in these spheres of direction which will be, tomorrow, the principal points to ruin the whole Church from within in all the sectors.

 

With a renewed loyalty, V.F. greets you.

 

SB (Sebastiano Baggio)

 

“Mapa” is the same code name as in the letters of Marchisano (Mgr Pasquale Macchi, see 8.3). V.F. is not developed in the article.

 

11.3. The request for resignation at 75 years

 

To add the insult to the injury done to the Spouse of Christ and to assure the mass withdrawal of the rear-guard of the orthodox bishops in the Church, it was before the government of Baggio as maker of bishops that was formulated, for the first time in the history of the Church, the request made to the bishops to present their resignation at 75 years. Paul VI formulated it in the motu proprio Ecclesiae Sanctae of 6 August 1966, I, nº 11 (Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. LVIII, 1966, p. 763). This request did not produce automatically the vacancy of the see: the resignation had to be accepted. Numerous episcopal sees in the world thus became vacant after the acceptance of the resignations presented by bishops of more than 75 years. This situation later permitted solely Baggio to have largely free hands to replace almost the whole episcopate of the Church in a very short time and to attempt to remodel it in his image. Rarely has a man, pope or bishop, found himself in such a position to influence so vast a part of the Catholic episcopate in so little time.

 

11.4. Bishops appointed from this period in the United States

 

It is from this period that the Church in the United States received bishops such as McCarrick, Weakland, Mahony, Brown and Bernadin. The crimes and the sins on the hands of these men comprise homosexual rape, a homosexual liaison, the sexual abuse of minors, the stifling of abusive priests, the promotion of women priests, a militant trampling of the traditional music and liturgy of the Church, the prohibition made to Catholics to kneel before the Blessed Sacrament for holy communion, and the watering-down of the teaching of the Church on the sacred character of human life for the unborn child, to put only some sins and scandals to their name.

 

11.5. Cardinal Villot, Mgr Paul Marcinkus, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli

 

Other persons named on the Pecorelli list comprise Cardinal Villot, secretary of State of the Holy See under Paul VI, who acted as a sort of patron for Baggio, obtaining his nomination to the Congregation for the Bishops. Was also named Mgr Paul Marcinkus, chief of the Bank of the Vatican, who joined Masonry on 21 August 1967, with the code number 43/649 and the acronym MARPA, and who was implicated in the banking scandal that almost financially overturned the Holy See in the 1980s (see chapter 9).

 

Another name in view was Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, minister of Foreign Affairs under Paul VI and secretary of State under John Paul II. Casaroli entered into Masonry on 28 September 1957, with the code number 41/076, under the acronym CASA. It was Casaroli who was responsible for the open attitude of the Vatican toward the communists during the pontificate of Paul VI, a policy called Ostpolitik (policy of the East), which led the pope to relieve Cardinal József Mindszenty of his charge of primate of Hungary, resulting in the establishment of a State Church under the control of the communist leaders of Hungary. This policy was later rejected by John Paul II, coming as he came from behind the iron curtain, but the damage caused to the Church in Eastern Europe had already been done.

 

11.6. Mgr Pio Vito Pinto

 

Now, lest one think that the Masons named on the Pecorelli list are a thing of the past, it must be signalled that in the course of the last decade names from his list continue to appear in the affairs of the Vatican. A single case of this kind is Mgr Pio Vito Pinto, whom Pecorelli identified as having entered into Masonry on 2 April 1970, with the code number 3317/42 and the acronym PIPIVI. Pinto reigned as dean of the highest tribunal of the Church, the Roman Rota, from September 2012 to March 2021, making the headlines when he took it upon himself to criticise the four cardinals who had submitted the “dubia” (doubts) to Pope Francis concerning his teaching in Amoris Laetitia (The joy of love) on the admission of the divorced remarried to holy communion.

 

12. Conclusion

 

The pontifical magisterium, from Clement XII in 1738 up to Saint Pius X, has constantly held Freemasonry and related sects as enemies of the Church and of human society, and Saint Pius X denounced enemies present “in the very bosom and at the heart of the Church”. The Permanent Instruction of the High Vendita had exposed the design to conquer the Church by the slow corruption of the clergy, up to a pope won over to the revolution; the plan of the seminaries of 1961, the Pecorelli list, the Gagnon report and the inquiries of Father Villa show this design at work.

 

As should be clear to anyone who examines the facts surrounding the Pecorelli list, Freemasonry has certainly entered within the walls of the Vatican at least several decades ago. The complete verification of the list, although difficult, is certainly possible, given the police seizure of the documents of Licio Gelli naming all the members of the Masonic lodge of Rome, the Propaganda Due. The report of Mgr Gagnon also remains unpublished in the archives of the Vatican. Besides these sources, there are the inquiries conducted by Father Luigi Villa, of which some were published in the review Chiesa Viva.

 

While Italian prelates such as Mgr Francesco Soddu of Terni allow themselves recently to attend publicly the inauguration of a new entrance of the Masonic lodge of the Grand Orient of Italy, a new inquiry on Freemasonry in the ranks of the hierarchy of the Church is long overdue. Only then will the damage that Masonry has caused and causes to the Body of Christ begin to be brought to light.

 

13. List of sources

 

13.1. Pontifical acts

 

1. Clement XII, constitution In eminenti apostolatus specula, 28 April 1738, § 1–4; Codicis iuris canonici fontes, vol. I, n° 299, pp. 656–658. Latin.

 

2. Benedict XIV, constitution Providas Romanorum, 18 May 1751; Magnum Bullarium Romanum, t. XVIII, Luxembourg, Henri-Albert Gosse et Cie, 1754, constitution XLVIII, pp. 212–214. Latin.

 

3. Pius VII, constitution Ecclesiam a Jesu Christo, 13 September 1821; Codicis iuris canonici fontes, vol. II, n° 479, pp. 721–725. Latin.

 

4. Leo XII, apostolic constitution Quo graviora, 13 March 1825; Codicis iuris canonici fontes, vol. II, n° 481, pp. 727–733. Latin.

 

5. Pius VIII, encyclical Traditi humilitati, 24 May 1829. Latin.

 

6. Gregory XVI, encyclical Mirari vos, 15 August 1832; Codicis iuris canonici fontes, vol. II, n° 485, pp. 744–752. Latin.

 

7. Pius IX, encyclical Qui pluribus, 9 November 1846; Codicis iuris canonici fontes, vol. II, n° 504, pp. 807–817. Latin.

 

8. Pius IX, encyclical Quanta cura and Syllabus, 8 December 1864; Codicis iuris canonici fontes, vol. II, n° 542, pp. 993–999, and n° 543, pp. 1000–1009. Latin.

 

9. Pius IX, allocution Multiplices inter, secret consistory of 25 September 1865; Acta Sanctae Sedis, vol. I (1865–1866), pp. 193–196. Latin.

 

10. Pius IX, brief to Jacques Crétineau-Joly of 25 February 1861, French translation in U. Maynard, Jacques Crétineau-Joly. Sa vie politique, religieuse et littéraire d’après ses mémoires, sa correspondance et autres documents inédits, Paris, Firmin-Didot et Cie, 1875, pp. 421–422.

 

11. Leo XIII, encyclical Quod apostolici muneris, 28 December 1878; Acta Sanctae Sedis, vol. XI (1878), pp. 372–379. Latin.

 

12. Leo XIII, encyclical Humanum genus, 20 April 1884; Acta Sanctae Sedis, vol. XVI (1883–1884), pp. 417–433; French translation published by the Holy See.

 

13. Leo XIII, encyclical letter Dall’alto dell’Apostolico Seggio, 15 October 1890; Acta Sanctae Sedis, vol. XXIII (1890–1891), pp. 193–206.

 

14. Leo XIII, Inimica vis, 8 December 1892; Acta Sanctae Sedis, vol. XXV (1892–1893), pp. 274–277. Latin.

 

15. Leo XIII, Custodi di quella fede, 8 December 1892.

 

16. Saint Pius X, encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis, 8 September 1907, § 2; Acta Sanctae Sedis, vol. XL (1907), pp. 593–650; French translation published by the Holy See.

 

13.2. Historical works and documents

 

17. Jacques Crétineau-Joly, L’Église romaine en face de la Révolution, work composed on unpublished documents, Paris, Henri Plon, 1859, two volumes; t. II, pp. 82–90: Permanent Instruction of the High Vendita; p. 129: letter of Nubius to Volpe, 3 April 1824. Pius IX, brief to Jacques Crétineau-Joly of 25 February 1861, in U. Maynard, Jacques Crétineau-Joly. Sa vie politique, religieuse et littéraire d’après ses mémoires, sa correspondance et autres documents inédits, Paris, Firmin-Didot et Cie, 1875, pp. 421–422; commentary of Maynard on the authenticity of the documents, pp. 400–402.

 

18. George F. Dillon, The War of Antichrist with the Church and Christian Civilization. Lectures Delivered in Edinburgh in October, 1884 (The war of the Antichrist against the Church and Christian civilisation. Conferences pronounced at Edinburgh in October 1884), Dublin, M. H. Gill & Son; London and New York, Burns and Oates, 1885, chap. XIV, “Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita” (Permanent Instruction of the High Vendita), pp. 65–72. English.

 

19. Permanent Instruction of the High Vendita, dated 1819, French translation published in Jacques Crétineau-Joly, L’Église romaine en face de la Révolution, Paris, Henri Plon, 1859, t. II, pp. 82–90; extracts cited: p. 84 and pp. 88–90. French translation from the Italian.

 

20. Dudley Wright, Roman Catholicism and Freemasonry (Roman Catholicism and Freemasonry), London, William Rider & Son, Limited, 1922, pp. 172–175. English.

 

21. J. W. Horsley, “Pius IX and Freemasonry” (Pius IX and Freemasonry), Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, vol. XXVI, 1913, pp. 218–219. English.

 

22. James A. Marples, The Great Likelihood of Pope Pius IX Being a Freemason (The great probability that Pius IX was a Freemason), s. d., pp. 1 and 6. English.

 

23. A witness [Cardinal François-Désiré Mathieu], “The Last days of Leo XIII and the Conclave of 1903”, Revue des Deux Mondes, fifth period, t. XX, delivery of 15 March 1904, section IV. French.

 

13.3. Sources of the LifeSiteNews article and complementary documents

 

24. Raymund Maria, “Is Masonic infiltration responsible for the widespread apostasy among Catholic clergy?” (Is Masonic infiltration responsible for the widespread apostasy among the Catholic clergy?), LifeSiteNews, 20 October 2022. English.

 

25. Edoardo Stolper, “I riti nella storia della massoneria italiana” (The rites in the history of Italian Freemasonry), third part: “1870–1880. La Gran Maestranza Mazzoni” (1870–1880. The grand mastership of Mazzoni), L’Acacia. Notiziario del Rito Simbolico, Rome, Serenissima Gran Loggia di Rito Simbolico, nº 9, March 1982, pp. 20–30, especially pp. 26–27. Italian.

 

26. Maximilien-Marie Kolbe, “La storia” (The history), Niepokalanów, June 1939, Scritti (Writings), nº 1328, section “Gli inizi” (The beginnings). Italian translation.

 

27. Three letters of Mgr Francesco Marchisano, code name FRAMA, to the grand master of the Grand Orient of Italy, dated 23 May 1961, 12 September 1961 and 14 October (year not indicated for the third), said to have been remitted by hand, the last addressed to the Grand Master at the Palazzo Giustiniani. Facsimiles and transcriptions in Chiesa viva, year XXXIX, n° 420, October 2009, p. 42-44; table of the identifications, pp. 44–45; transcriptions in Chiesa viva, year XLIX, n° 529, September 2019, p. 3-4. Italian.

 

28. Centre of Catholic studies “Mater Ecclesiae”, Una nomina scandalo! (A scandalous nomination!), Brescia, Operaie di Maria Immacolata e Editrice Civiltà, September 2002, 24 p. Italian.

 

29. Chiesa viva, review founded by Father Luigi Villa in 1971, Brescia, Operaie di Maria Immacolata e Editrice Civiltà: n° 109, June 1981; n° 231, July-August 1992; n° 342, September 2002, p. 15; n° 420, October 2009, p. 41-45 and 52-55; n° 465, November 2013, p. 18; n° 529, September 2019, p. 2-4.

 

30. Mino Pecorelli (dir.), “La gran loggia vaticana” (The great Vatican lodge), OP — Osservatore Politico, Rome, OP Editrice, 12 September 1978, pp. 2–3; “La lista dei presunti massoni” (The list of the presumed Freemasons), ibid., pp. 4–5. Italian.

 

31. Camera dei deputati et Senato della Repubblica, Relazione della Commissione parlamentare d’inchiesta sulla Loggia massonica P2 (Report of the parliamentary commission of inquiry on the Masonic lodge P2), reporter Tina Anselmi, IXth legislature, Doc. XXIII, no 2, 12 July 1984, pp. 12–15, 21, 33–46. Italian.

 

32. Charles Theodore Murr, Murder in the 33rd Degree: The Gagnon Investigation into Vatican Freemasonry (Murder in the 33rd Degree: the Gagnon inquiry on Freemasonry at the Vatican), s. l., independent edition, 2022, ISBN 9798432706935, p. xvi; pp. 81–82, 117–128 and 129–132. English.

 

33. Mgr Édouard Gagnon, audit of three years of the offices of the Holy See, said to have been commissioned by Paul VI and presented to John Paul I on 25 September 1978. Said to remain unpublished in the archives of the Vatican. For the authentication of documents attributed to INTERPOL: Charles Theodore Murr, Murder in the 33rd Degree, 2022, p. 123.

 

34. Letter attributed to Sebastiano Baggio, 4 January 1969, to the Venerable Grand Master and to the assistants, reproduced in Chiesa viva, year XLIII, n° 465, November 2013, p. 18, and in Chiesa viva, year XLIX, n° 529, September 2019, p. 4. Italian.

 

35. Carlo Alberto Agnoli, La massoneria alla conquista della Chiesa (Freemasonry in the conquest of the Church), Rome, E.I.L.E.S. — Edizioni Internazionali di Letteratura e Scienze, 1st edition, 1996, p. 3 and pp. 14–29. Of the same author, letter of presentation of the Pecorelli list, Chiesa viva, no 231, July-August 1992, republished under the title “The “Pecorelli List”” (The Pecorelli List), Chiesa viva, no 420, October 2009, pp. 52–53. Italian.

 

36. Corte di assise di Perugia, judgment nº 3/99 of 24 September 1999, pp. 42–46, 267–274 and 441; Commissione parlamentare d’inchiesta sulla Loggia massonica P2, Anselmi report, Doc. XXIII, nº 2, 12 July 1984, pp. 93–94; Corte suprema di cassazione, VIth criminal section, arrêt nº 1869/2026, audience of 1 July 2025, deposit of 16 January 2026, pp. 16 and 109; Italian Republic, law nº 17 of 25 January 1982, art. 5, Gazzetta Ufficiale, nº 27, 28 January 1982. Italian.

 

37. Franco Adessa, Chi era realmente don Luigi Villa? (Who was really don Luigi Villa?), Brescia, Operaie di Maria Immacolata – Editrice Civiltà, s. d., 100 p., especially pp. 6–8, 45–46 and 98. Italian.

 

38. Franco Adessa, Who Really Was Father Luigi Villa? (Who was really Father Luigi Villa?), Oconomowoc (Wisconsin), The Apostolate of Our Lady of Good Success, s. d., p. 28. English translation.

 

39. Paul VI, motu proprio Ecclesiae Sanctae, 6 August 1966, I, nº 11; Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. LVIII, 1966, p. 763. Latin.

 

40. Secretariat of State, “Nomine” (Nominations), nomination of 22 September 2012; Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. CIV, 2012, p. 861. Italian.

 

41. Secretariat of State of the Holy See, Report on the Holy See’s Institutional Knowledge and Decision-Making Related to Former Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick (1930 to 2017) (Report on the institutional knowledge and the decisions of the Holy See concerning the former Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick, 1930–2017), Vatican City State, 10 November 2020, chap. III–IV, pp. 21–28. English.

 

42. Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. LXV, 1973, p. 111: nomination of Sebastiano Baggio as prefect of the Congregation for the Bishops, 26 February 1973.

 

43. Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. LXXVI, 1984, pp. 507–508: end of the prefecture of Sebastiano Baggio, 8 April 1984.