"A monumental work of twentieth century capitalism as it was jointly embraced by the Vatican and the United States and those caught up in it. Top-shelf CIA-Vatican intrigue." T. Francis Elliott, London Times._____ Driven by Paul VI's edicts 'Populorum Progressio' and 'Liberation Theology,' there were two fronts on which the CIA was confronted by communism as a democratic society-Italy and Central America. If Italy fell to communism, all of Europe would surely follow. If Central America fell to communism, all of Latin America would surely follow. It was in these parts of the world communism was raising its head as the will of the people that was so dangerous to the United States and its capitalistic allies. Henry Kissinger sounded the alarm, "Domination by Moscow is not the issue. Communist control of Italy and Central America is the issue. It would have terrible consequences for the United States and it is the number one threat to its national security." On the afternoon of March 13, 1978, fifteen men sat around a table in a sidewalk cafeacute; in a remote mountain village in northern Italy. In casual clothes, they went unnoticed, though one was the reigning Pontiff, and another Aldo Moro, and the others ranking cardinals of poverty stricken countries who comprised the leadership of the Marxist movement in the Church and the western world. They left at four o'clock. Aldo reserved the table "for this time next year." On March 13, 1979, Cardinals Benelli and Felici decided not to travel to Vittorio Veneto that day. After all, all the others were dead. They, themselves, unaware of their impending doom, were, too, as good as dead. _____ "One beautiful life...explodes into a trail of death and destruction in the Roman Catholic Church." Howard Jason Smith, Boston Globe.

Murder in the Vatican is two books in one book: The Revolutionary Life of John Paul (the only existing biography of the 33-day Pope) and The CIA, Opus Dei and the 1978 Murders. Why two books in one book? Unless one understands the mystery of his life - something the Vatican prefers to keep secret - The Secret Life of John Paul - one will never understand the mystery of his unwitnessed death. This book is in its fourth edition. In that time, I have changed little of what I have said about this good man's life other than to expand my account in this new edition to include stories of his childhood and his young life as a seminarian and as a priest. Yet, the mystery of his death and the deaths of those around him has involved an investigative process that has taken me to Italy and elsewhere in the world many times and spanned many years. I knew much more five years ago, than I knew five years before that, and I knew much more two years ago, than I knew five years before that, and I know much more today, than I did then. Here for the first time is the proof. How John Paul, and those around him, fell victim to twentieth century capitalism as it was jointly embraced by the Vatican and the United States. BEWARE OF THE USED BOOK MARKET: 2003, 2005 and 2006 editions do not include the complete biography or the solution to the murders. Only this 404 page 2008 edition includes both compete books.

"Did his struggle for basic human rights and dignity for born-out-of-wedlock children, the handicapped, women, the remarried, homosexuals and the poor cost him his life?"

An inquiry into the death of Pope John Paul I, the Smiling Pope, the investigation uncovering lies, half-truths and neglect within the Catholic church. The author has written two novels, and his last book Earth to Earth won the Crime Writer's Association Gold Dagger Award.

"A monumental work of twentieth century capitalism as it was jointly embraced by the Vatican and the United States and those caught up in it. Top-shelf CIA-Vatican intrigue." - T. Francis Elliott, The Times........ Some claim the Vatican Bank had to do with his murder. Others claim his threat to change doctrine that unfairly penalizes the lives of innocent people drove curial cardinals in the clandestine deed. Others claim the threat he was to the capitalistic tenets upon which the United States was founded rallied the CIA to action. Others whisper his sexual orientation led to his demise. 'The Vatican Murders' reveals how each of these possibilities played a role in the murder of the youngest pope to die in four hundred years.......... When elected--based on the few bits which had reached outside Italy--he was tabbed "...a moderate with an open mind to change doctrine in those cases it places unfair restraints on the lives of innocent people." Like the time he ordered his priests to melt down their golden chalices and other implements of idol worship to build an orphanage, to the times he had been caught baptizing born-out-of-wedlock children, to the times he had been caught officiating at funerals of the remarried, to the times he ordered hospitals to admit partners of homosexuals into intensive care units, to the time he defended their right to parent children, to the times he had been caught giving the Eucharist to communists, to the times he defied the ban on contraception, to his courageous defense of the first artificially inseminated child just a month before his election, to the time as a pope he declared "God is the Father. More so, the Mother." .......... On the afternoon of March 13, 1978, fourteen men sat around a table in a sidewalk café in a mountain village in northern Italy. In casual clothes they went unnoticed though one was the reigning Pontiff and another the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church. Included were Italian cardinals and statesmen who had been behind the rise of the Communist Party in Italy. The others were cardinals of impoverished parts of the world. Together they comprised the leadership of the Marxist movement in the western world. They left at four o'clock and Aldo Moro reserved the table "...for this time next year." On March 13, 1979, Cardinals Benelli and Felici decided not to travel to Vittorio Veneto that day. After all, all the others were dead. They, too, unaware of their impending doom, were as good as dead........ TRUE LIFE - TRUE CRIME

The only existing biography of the 33 Day Pope. It is the record of his struggles as an impoverished child, as a revolutionary priest, as an outspoken bishop, as a compassionate cardinal and as a beloved pope. It is the record of his philosophies, and of his hopes, and of his dreams, for mankind. For twenty years as a bishop, he was a rampaging locomotive running about the courts and Parliament of Italy demanding equal rights for oppressed peoples. In 1967, faced by an orphan population of two million in Italy, it was his lobbying in Italian Parliament that made it legal for single persons to adopt children. An opposition member challenged, "That would make it legal for homosexuals to adopt children," Bishop Luciani, responded, "Until the day comes that we can guarantee equal human rights and dignity to the tiniest minority, we cannot truthfully call ourselves a democracy." His intentions concerning bastards, women, homosexuals, etc. was quite evident in his acceptance speech, ". . . we must rise up the courage within us to set aside the convictions of our forefathers and together we will muster the strength to lift those restraints that have been unfairly placed by doctrine upon the everyday lives of many innocent people . . . for God-given human life is infinitely more precious than is man-made doctrine . . ." On the evening of September 26, 1978, he called together the Vatican cardinals. He told them "The Church's ban on contraception is the driving force behind disease, poverty and starvation in third world countries and abortions in first world countries." . . .He told them one thing more. "Mother Church is about to cease to be the cause of many of the world's problems and rather will begin to be the answer to them."

Only thirty-three days after his election, Pope John Paul I,Albino Luciani, died in strange circumstances. Almost immediately rumours of a cover-up began to circulate around the Vatican. In his researches David Yallop uncovered an extraordinary story: behind the Pope's death lay a dark and complex web of corruption within the Church that involved the Freemasons, Opus Dei and the Mafia and the murder of the 'Pope's Banker' Roberto Calvi. When first published in 1984 In God's Name was denounced by the Vatican yet became an award-winning international bestseller. In this new edition, Yallop brings the story up to date and reveals new evidence that has been long buried concerning the truth behind the Vatican cover-up. This is a classic work of investigative writing whose revelations will continue to reverberate around the world.

"A monumental work of twentieth century capitalism as it was jointly embraced by the Vatican and the United States and those caught up in it. Top-shelf CIA-Vatican intrigue." - T. Francis Elliott, The Times........ Some claim the Vatican Bank had to do with his murder. Others claim his threat to change doctrine that unfairly penalizes the lives of innocent people drove curial cardinals in the clandestine deed. Others claim the threat he was to the capitalistic tenets upon which the United States was founded rallied the CIA to action. Others whisper his sexual orientation led to his demise. 'The Vatican Murders' reveals how each of these possibilities played a role in the murder of the youngest pope to die in four hundred years.......... When elected--based on the few bits which had reached outside Italy--he was tabbed "...a moderate with an open mind to change doctrine in those cases it places unfair restraints on the lives of innocent people." Like the time he ordered his priests to melt down their golden chalices and other implements of idol worship to build an orphanage, to the times he had been caught baptizing born-out-of-wedlock children, to the times he had been caught officiating at funerals of the remarried, to the times he ordered hospitals to admit partners of homosexuals into intensive care units, to the time he defended their right to parent children, to the times he had been caught giving the Eucharist to communists, to the times he defied the ban on contraception, to his courageous defense of the first artificially inseminated child just a month before his election, to the time as a pope he declared "God is the Father. More so, the Mother." .......... On the afternoon of March 13, 1978, fourteen men sat around a table in a sidewalk café in a mountain village in northern Italy. In casual clothes they went unnoticed though one was the reigning Pontiff and another the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church. Included were Italian cardinals and statesmen who had been behind the rise of the Communist Party in Italy. The others were cardinals of impoverished parts of the world. Together they comprised the leadership of the Marxist movement in the western world. They left at four o'clock and Aldo Moro reserved the table "...for this time next year." On March 13, 1979, Cardinals Benelli and Felici decided not to travel to Vittorio Veneto that day. After all, all the others were dead. They, too, unaware of their impending doom, were as good as dead........ TRUE LIFE - TRUE CRIME

The sudden and unexpected death of John Paul I in the papal apartments on the evening of September 28, 1978 — after a pontificate of a little more than a month — has given rise over the decades to myriad suspicions, assumptions, and conspiracy theories. After so many unsubstantiated claims and unconfirmed rumors, we now know what happened in the last hours of the life of “the smiling pope.” Finally, here is an accurate account, backed by in-depth research and previously unpublished documentation, revealed by Stefania Falasca, the vice-postulator for John Paul I’s cause of canonization, in The September Pope: The Final Days of John Paul I. This compelling story — completely anchored in the facts, including medical reports, first-person testimonies, and archival investigations — is clear and accessible, and exposes the truth about the seemingly inexhaustible rumors that sprang up around this supposed Vatican secret.

Look out for a new book from Garry Wills, What The Qur'an Meant, coming fall 2017. "The truth, we are told, will make us free. It is time to free Catholics, lay as well as clerical, from the structures of deceit that are our subtle modern form of papal sin. Paler, subtler, less dramatic than the sins castigated by Orcagna or Dante, these are the quiet sins of intellectual betrayal." --from the Introduction From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Garry Wills comes an assured, acutely insightful--and occasionally stinging--critique of the Catholic Church and its hierarchy from the nineteenth century to the present. Papal Sin in the past was blatant, as Catholics themselves realized when they painted popes roasting in hell on their own church walls. Surely, the great abuses of the past--the nepotism, murders, and wars of conquest--no longer prevail; yet, the sin of the modern papacy, as revealed by Garry Wills in his penetrating new book, is every bit as real, though less obvious than the old sins. Wills describes a papacy that seems steadfastly unwilling to face the truth about itself, its past, and its relations with others. The refusal of the authorities of the Church to be honest about its teachings has needlessly exacerbated original mistakes. Even when the Vatican has tried to tell the truth--e.g., about Catholics and the Holocaust--it has ended up resorting to historical distortions and evasions. The same is true when the papacy has attempted to deal with its record of discrimination against women, or with its unbelievable assertion that "natural law" dictates its sexual code. Though the blithe disregard of some Catholics for papal directives has occasionally been attributed to mere hedonism or willfulness, it actually reflects a failure, after long trying on their part, to find a credible level of honesty in the official positions adopted by modern popes. On many issues outside the realm of revealed doctrine, the papacy has made itself unbelievable even to the well-disposed laity. The resulting distrust is in fact a neglected reason for the shortage of priests. Entirely aside from the public uproar over celibacy, potential clergy have proven unwilling to put themselves in a position that supports dishonest teachings. Wills traces the rise of the papacy's stubborn resistance to the truth, beginning with the challenges posed in the nineteenth century by science, democracy, scriptural scholarship, and rigorous history. The legacy of that resistance, despite the brief flare of John XXIII's papacy and some good initiatives in the 1960s by the Second Vatican Council (later baffled), is still strong in the Vatican. Finally Wills reminds the reader of the positive potential of the Church by turning to some great truth tellers of the Catholic tradition--St. Augustine, John Henry Newman, John Acton, and John XXIII. In them, Wills shows that the righteous path can still be taken, if only the Vatican will muster the courage to speak even embarrassing truths in the name of Truth itself.