by Ephrem Fernando
C.S. Lewis’s prose comes clad in crisp white linen of logic. The first surprise is that an Anglican Christian from Northern Ireland where religious violence is endemic can have so many Catholic Christian convictions. This Oxford don whose books are a delight to read wrote in "God in the Dock" that priests should respect the boundary lines. "I think it is your duty to fix the lines clearly in your own minds and if you wish to go beyond them you must change your profession. This is your duty not specially as Christians or as priests but as honest men. There is danger here of the clergy developing a special professional conscience which obscures the very special moral issue. Priests who have passed beyond these boundary lines are apt to protest that they have come by their unorthodox opinions honestly. This simply misses the point which so gravely scandalizes the layman. We never doubted that the unorthodox opinions were honestly held. What we complain of is your continuing your ministry after you come to hold them". Albino Luciano John Paul the First was thinking about those boundary lines and Jesuits like Karl Rahner a half-baked theologian at Vatican 11 who descended on the Council wearing well cut Saville Row suits, James Bond ties and K shoes flagrantly violating Canon Laws that prohibit priests from appearing in public in lay clothes when he telephoned the Superior General of the Jesuits Father Pedro Aruppe and warned him that he would have one or two things to say about discipline. This is and extract of what he told the Jesuits soon after Luciar became the Vicar of Christ. "You may well know and justly concern yourselves with the great economic and social problems which trouble humanity today and are so closely connected with the Christian life. But in finding a solution to these problems may you always distinguish the tasks of religious priests from those of laymen. Priests must animate and inspire the laity to fulfill their duties but they must not take their place neglecting their own specific task of evangelisation". Taking C.S. Lewis’s book "Mere Christianity" he concluded by reading this passage about evil. "Evil is a parasite not an original thing. The powers which make evil to carry on are powers given it by goodness. Al the things which enable a bad man to be effectively bad are in themselves good things, resolution, cleverness, good looks, and existence itself".

Albino Luciano was born in a small mountain village north of Venice on October 17, 1912. His parents were dirt poor but Albino’s vocation for the priesthood came early actively encourage by his mother and entered the seminary at the age of twelve. He began to read voraciously and remembered everything he read. Like Socrates be was always asking embarrassing questions. In the seminary he asked his professor a man of somewhat flexible synta to explain to him the philosophy that underpins Freewill. He asked him if you and I are free, it looks as if what you and I decide to do today is what determines what is going to be the future tomorrow but if God already knows what you and I are going to do tomorrow how can we be free to decide that today. At the age of 23 he was ordained a priest and a Bishop at the age of 46 by Pope John XXIII in St. Peter’s Basilica. The first time the congregation gathered to hear their new bishop this is what he said. Taking a quote from The Imitation of Christ by Thomas Kempis Luciano began "Sometimes the Lord writes his works in dust. With me the Lord uses yet again his old system. He takes the small ones from the mud of the streets. He takes the people of the fields. He takes others away from their nets in the sea or the lakes and he makes them Apostles. It’s his old system. As soon as I became consecrated a priest I started to receive from my superiors tasks of responsibility and I understood what it is for a man to be in authority. It is like a ball that is pumped up. If you watch the children who play on the grass outside the cathedral when their ball is punctured they not even bother to look at it. It can stay with tranquillity in a corner. But when it is pumped up again the children jump out from all sides and everyone believes that they have a right to kick it. This is what happens to men when they move up. Do not therefore be envious. I come without 5 cents and want to leave without 5 cents after serving the Lord and his Church".

Before the conclave the chances of Albino Luciano becoming the Pope were nil. Ladbrokes the London bookmakers displaying a singular lack of taste opened a book giving the odds where his name was not even mentioned. Albino Luciano had other concerns. Travelling from Venice his battered Lancia 2000 had developed engine trouble and had told his secretary Fr. Lorenzi to get it repaired for them to leave for Venice soon after the conclave. On the day of the conclave he and his colleagues had entered the Pauline chapel with its frescoes by Michelangelo, preceded by the Sistine choir singing the hymn to the Holy Spirit, walked through the Sala Ducale beneath Bernini’s cherubs into the Sistine chapel where the door slowly closed on the 111 cardinals. The world’s most secret ballot would continue until puffs of white smoke told the waiting crowd of a million and a billion Cathelics world wide that the Vicar of Christ has been chosen. Meanwhile Fr. Lorenzi had the Lancia repaired parked it a couple of blocks outside St. Peter’s Square and was standing when Cardinal Pericle Felici appeared on the balcony "I bring you news of great joy. We have a Pope Cardinal Albino Luciano who has chosen the name John Paul the First. As the new Pope intoned the blessing Urbi et Orbi to the city and the world Fr. Lorenzi who had been Albino’s secretary for 30 years and was waiting to take him back to Venice kelt on the cobbled street and wept realising that he will never again speak or serve Albino Luciano. That evening he drove to Venice alone in the battered Lancia taking with him the small suitcase Luciano had brought with him to the Conclave.

One week after Luciano became Pope John Paul the First, he found that in some mysterious way he had been added to the exclusive distribution list of an unusual news agency called L’ Osser-vatore Politico (OP) run by a journalist Mino Pecorelli which invariably carried scandalous stories that subsequently transpired to be highly accurate. In one issue there was a story called "The Great Vatican Lodge" which contained 121 names of cardinals and prelates that seemed like a Who’s Who of Vatican City. If the information was correct John Paul realised he was virtually surrounded by Freemasons eventhough to be a Mason meant automatic excommunication from the Catholic church. His only friend in the Curia was cardinal Pericle Felici and was relieved to find his name not in the list. Pericle was a witty, sophisticated man, curial to the finger tips and full of humour and the Pope promptly telephoned and invited him for coffee. Felici advised the Pope that a similar list of names had been passed quietly around the Vatican over two years earlier in 1976 and the current one was a clever mix, some were Masons others were not. The trouble is Masons look uncommonly like the rest of us he added with a wry smile. The Pope considered for a moment, "You say lists like this one have been in existence for over two years". "Yes Holiness" replied Pericle. "And the Vatican’s reaction’’ queried the Pope. "The normal one. No reaction" replied Pericle. The Pope burst into laughter. He liked Pericle Felici traditional in thinking sophisticated, with considerable culture. After Pericle left John Paul decided to transfer everyone in the list out of the Vatican, majority out of Italy. There is a considerable body of opinion who believe that John Paul signed his death warrant with that decision. The weapon of choice poison the age old Italian Solution. Digitalis is a heart stimulant obtained from the Foxglove. In high doses it is toxic and mimics a heart attack. Any thing over 2.5 nmol per litre is fatal. Digitalis toxicity is treated by discontinuing the drug, restoration of serum potassium levels and management of arrhythmia (irregular heart beat). Digitalis antibodies are a specific anti-dote used for life threatening toxcity but no treatment was possible, given the assumption he was poisoned with digitalis, because John Paul died alone.

Before describing the events of September 29, 1978 the day John Paul died, it is appropriate to give briefly his medical background. As a toddler he had shown signs of tubercular illness, the symptoms being enlarged neck glands. Later his tonsils and adenoids were removed. When a young priest he underwent surgery for gallstones and a blocked colon. He suffered from low blood pressure, oscillating around a systolic of 120 mm mercury and a diastolic of 80 mm mercury. A blood clot in the central vein of the retina had been treated with anti-coagulants and medicine to dilate the blood vessels. The above is the sum total of John Paul’s medical history during his early life.

Sister Vincenza the eighty year old nun who was a cardiac cripple was assigned the task of preparing a flask of coffee for John Paul. As usual she had woken up at 3 am on that bitterly cold autumn morning of Friday September 29, 1978 hobbled along the corridor carrying the flask of coffee to the study of the Pope and knocked on the bedroom door and called out "Good morning Holy Father". For once there was no reply. Vincenza waited for a moment and walked away quietly. She returned at 4 am. The tray of coffee in the study was untouched. Anxiously she moved to the bedroom door and listened. There was no sound but she could see the light shining from under the door of the bedroom. She knocked again on the bedroom door. Still there was no answer. Opening the door she saw the Pope sitting up in bed. He was wearing his glasses and gripped in his hands were sheets of paper containing the names of cardinals and prelates who were Freemason to be transferred out of the Vatican. His head was turned to the right and the lips were parted showing his teeth as if he was trying to suppress some sort of an agonising pain. Now after mere 33 days as Pope Albino Luciano was dead. Cause of death in the death certificate myocardial infarction (heart attack). An autopsy was not performed because Church laws forbid post-mortems on Popes.

First to show his gratitude to Pope John XXIII for making him a bishop and Pope Paul V1 for making him a cardinal. On Sept. 10, 1515 Wolsel’y was made a cardinal. Pope Leo X died on Dec. 1,1521 and after his death Wolsey sought the papal tiara but the Dutch Cardinal Adrian Dedel was elected unanimously as Pope Adrian V1. In the book "Wolsey" Hilaire Belloc gives a magnificent tribute to Pope Adrian V1 whose pontificate was also brief and asks a question using the single Latin word ‘Utinam’ meaning would that What Belloc wished to know was what would have happened if Adrian lived. The same question could be asked today almost 500 years later. What would have happened if Pope John Paul the First had lived. Astute theologians believe all might have been saved. They believe Pope John Paul would have summoned Vatican 111, nullified the heresies of Vatican 11 and dumped it into the dustbin of history. His origin, his character, the direction to which he intended to give his holy will, his fixity of purpose, his separateness from the scandals to which the Court of Rome had fallen after Vatican 11, his unswering love of Tradition, these combined would have done what was needed. He was poor whereas the Rhine cardinals and their periti had come out of a cesspool of riches. He was humble where they were deliberately arrogant. He was zealous where they were cynical. It was upon the 26th. of August 1978 the worst season of the year that John Paul the First made his solemn entry into the City of Rome. He died 33 days later with nothing accomplished. He had attempted in that brief space to restore purity to the Roman court. He had for his reward the hatred of Masons and heretics whose interests his passion for justice was going to impoverish. With his passing there was rejoicing, from all those who could return to their vices and follies and throw to the winds the spiritual inheritance of a millennium. The Masons and heretical Cardinals and Bishops did not mourn for him. Only the spirits protecting the ancient magisterium mourned. But no one hears such mourning today because they are beyond the boundaries to which the church has fallen into. The best are condemned to live and die in the most evil times.

The breakdown of authority after Vatican 11 has created confusion which is Satan’s choice playground. Confusion was created by half-baked men whose views were the product of at least a century of dissent. Strong and staunchly traditional catholic Christian giants like Belloc, Newman, Waugh, Chesterton and many others held the line, but it was never easy to face scorn and hostility or to see so many things one holds dear snatched away by the modernists. The most important virtue for those of us who are standing up for Tradition is not courage but fortitude. Hilaire Belloc once wrote of fortitude that it is "the virtue of the menaced, of the beleaguered. It is the converse to and the opposite of aggressive flamboyant courage. Yet it is the greater of the two, though it lacks action. Fortitude wears armour and holds a sword. It stands ready rather than thrust forward. It is nourished not from without but from within. Fortitude is primarily endurance that character which we need most in evil times. It involves some memory of better times and some expectation of their return". Pericle Felici the witty cardinal who made the crack at Freemasons referred to earlier was the Master of Ceremonies at the Conclave that elected John Paul the First. Before closing the heavy metal doors behind the cardinals attending that Conclave he had wanted all unauthorised persons to leave. After John Paul’s mysterious death he was heard to remark with biting sarcasm that everyone left excepting the Devil.