A Thousand Year History of

the Roman Catholic Church:

From the
Perspective of its Victims

2nd Edition, February 2020

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Table of Contents

Introduction............................................................................................9

Chapter 1: The Beginning.....................................................................13

Chapter 2: The Crusades......................................................................16

The Rise of Evil.....................................................................................16

Who Were the Crusaders and What Motivated them?...........................17
The Early Crusades................................................................................17
Funding for the Crusades.......................................................................18
Anti-Semitism and the Early Roman Catholic Church..........................19
Escalation of the Crusades.....................................................................20
The First Crusade: 1095AD to 1099AD................................................20
The Knighthood Orders of the Roman Catholic Church.......................23
A Breakdown in Relations with the Byzantine Empire of the East.......24
Colonisation...........................................................................................24
The Second Crusade: 1147AD to 1149AD............................................25
Saladin...................................................................................................27
Treatment of Women..............................................................................27
The Third Crusade: 1187AD to 1192AD...............................................28
The Fourth Crusade: 1202AD to 1204AD.............................................30
The Crusades in Spain...........................................................................32
The Baltic Crusades...............................................................................32
The Crusades in Italy.............................................................................33
The Children's Crusade: 1212AD..........................................................33
Crusades Against Russians....................................................................33
Heresy Trials..........................................................................................34

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 The Fifth Crusade: 1217AD to 1229AD................................................34
King Louis IX of France........................................................................34
Pope Urban IV and Edward of England................................................35
The End of the Knights Templar: 1312AD............................................35
The Crusades Against the Hussites........................................................36
The End of the Byzantine Empire..........................................................36
The French Crusade of 1320AD............................................................37
The Crusade Against Nicopolis: 1396AD.............................................37
Further Aggression Against the Russians..............................................38
The Downfall of Constantinople............................................................38
Crusades Against Protestants.................................................................39
The Spanish Armada Against Protestant England: 1588AD.................39

Chapter 3: The Inquisition....................................................................40

The Inquisition in France and Italy........................................................40

Bernardus Guidonis...............................................................................44
The Lateran Council..............................................................................50
Torture and the Roman Catholic Inquisition..........................................59
The Roman Catholic Inquisition in Spain..............................................61
Crimes Committed by Spain and the Roman Catholic Church Against
Muslims.................................................................................................65
The Spanish Inquisition in the Sixteenth Century.................................68
The Spanish Inquisition in the Eighteenth Century...............................71
The Roman Catholic Inquisition in Portugal.........................................72
The Roman Catholic Inquisition in England.........................................74
The Roman Catholic Inquisition in Ireland...........................................75
Scandinavia and the Nordic Countries...................................................75
The Catholic Church Inquisition in Goa, India......................................75
The Roman Catholic Inquisition in South America...............................76

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Chapter 4: The Counter Reformation...................................................79

Witchcraft and the Roman Catholic Church..........................................79

The Abolition of Witchcraft in a few Pockets of Civilisation................84
King William III of England..................................................................85
Continuing Atrocities by the Roman Catholic Church..........................85
The Spanish Inquisition during the Protestant Reformation..................86
Atrocities in the Netherlands and Belgium............................................89
King Philip II of Spain...........................................................................90
Atrocities in England.............................................................................92
A Final Show of Arrogance by the Spanish...........................................93
Atrocities in Mexico..............................................................................93
Atrocities in Peru and Chile...................................................................95
Burning of Books...................................................................................96
The Courage of Protestants in the Netherlands.....................................96
Atrocities in Portugal, Brazil and Goa...................................................97
Catholic Church Oppression in Germany..............................................99
Catholic Church Oppression in Poland................................................100
Catholic Church Oppression in Austria...............................................100
Catholic Church Oppression in Hungary.............................................101
Continuing Oppression of Muslims.....................................................101
Spain's new "Sport".............................................................................102
The Catholic Church and Eighteenth Century Europe........................102
The Catholic Church and Nineteenth Century Europe........................104
Direct Involvement by the Roman Catholic Church...........................105
Pope Benedict XIV..............................................................................111
The "Myth of Benevolence" of Thomas More.....................................111
The Myth of Impartiality by the Roman Catholic Church...................112
The Thirty Years War...........................................................................113
Louis XIV of France and the Catholic Church....................................114

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Chapter 5: Suppression of Freedom and Liberty................................116

Galileo..................................................................................................116
The Catholic Church's Attitude toward Freemasons...........................120
Pope Gregory XVI and Democracy.....................................................122
Pope Pius IX: Kidnapper, Religious Zealot and Paedophile...............126
The Syllabus of Errors.........................................................................127

Chapter 6: Racism, Nazism and Fascism............................................130

La Civiltà Cattolica..............................................................................130
Pope Pius X and Democracy...............................................................131
The Catholicism of the Nazi Party Leaders.........................................132
Adolf Hitler..........................................................................................133
Joseph Goebbels..................................................................................134
Magda Goebbels..................................................................................135
Reinhard Heydrich...............................................................................136
Heinrich Himmler................................................................................136
Cardinal August Hlond........................................................................137

Chapter 7: General Francisco Franco.................................................140

Franco's Childhood..............................................................................140
Franco's Youth......................................................................................141
Franco the Soldier................................................................................142
Civil Unrest in Spain............................................................................143
Spanish Atrocities in North Africa.......................................................144
Franco's Rise through the Military Ranks...........................................145
A Brief Period of Democracy in Spain................................................147
The First Military Coup.......................................................................148
The Demise of Democracy in the Second Spanish Republic..............149
Franco's Rise to Power.........................................................................150

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 The Spanish Civil War.........................................................................151
Official Support of Franco's Regime by the Roman Catholic Church 153
Franco's Decisive Move Toward Nazism............................................154
Further Support Given to Franco by the Roman Catholic Church......155
Continuing Atrocities by Franco's Regime..........................................157
Direct Support from the Pope..............................................................159
The Beginning of Franco's Love Affair with Nazism..........................159
The Franco Regime's Support of the Nazis.........................................163
The Blue Legion..................................................................................164
Franco's Continuing Racism and Anti-Semitism.................................165
Franco and the Final Years of World War Two....................................166
The End of the Second World War......................................................168
Franco's Regime After the Second World War....................................169
Franco's Regime in the 1950s..............................................................171
Franco's Regime in the 1960s and 1970s.............................................173
Recent Beatifications by Pope Benedict XVI......................................174

Chapter 8: Benito Mussolini...............................................................175

The Early Years of Benito Mussolini...................................................175

Mussolini's Early Political Career.......................................................176
Mussolini's Rise to Power....................................................................177
Support by the Roman Catholic Church of the Fascist Party of Italy..179
Treaties between the Catholic Church and the Fascist Party...............181
The Reign of Oppression and the Road to War...................................185
Italian Racism and Atrocities Against Muslims and Arabs..................186
Racially Motivated Atrocities Committed by the Italians in Ethiopia.187
Italian Atrocities in Yugoslavia............................................................188
Italian Aggression Against the Greeks.................................................188
Mussolini, Racism and Nazi Germany................................................190

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 Formal Agreements Between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany...........192
Mussolini's More Cowardly Acts.........................................................193
Italian Retreat.......................................................................................194
The Salo Republic................................................................................194
Further Support for Mussolini by the Roman Catholic Church...........195

Chapter 9: Pope Pius XII and World War Two...................................197

Introduction to Chapter........................................................................197
The Early Years of Eugenio Pacelli.....................................................197
Archbishop Eugenio Pacelli and Anti-Semitism.................................199
The Catholic Centre Party of Germany...............................................200
The Nazi 'Enabling Act'.......................................................................205
The Nazi-Catholic Church Concordat.................................................208
The 'Nuremberg Laws'.........................................................................210
Pope Pius XII and Nazi Germany........................................................212
The Croatian 'Ustashe'.........................................................................216
Slovakia and Jozef Tiso.......................................................................218
The Roman Catholic Church During German Retreat.........................219
The Roman Catholic Church at the End of World War Two...............223

Chapter 10: Corruption, Scandal and Child Abuse.............................225

Child Abuse and the Roman Catholic Church.....................................225

The Piarist Order..................................................................................225
The Reign of Pope John Paul II...........................................................231
The Road to Sainthood for Pope Pius XII...........................................238
The Road to Sainthood for Pope Pius IX.............................................239
Treatment of Women in the 21st Century Catholic Church.................239
Attacks Against the Gay Community in the 21st Century...................240
Continuing Right-Wing Views in the 21st Century.............................240

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 Paedophilia within the modern Roman Catholic Church....................241
Catholic Church Child Abuse in the United States of America...........242
Catholic Church Child Abuse in the United Kingdom........................244
Catholic Church Child Abuse in France..............................................245
Catholic Church Child Abuse in the Republic of Ireland....................245
Catholic Church Child Abuse in Belgium...........................................245
Catholic Church Child Abuse in Austria..............................................246
Catholic Church Child Abuse in South America.................................246
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger...................................................................248
"Let's Blame Homosexuals"................................................................248
"Let's Blame the Jews"........................................................................248
Pope John Paul II and the Nobel Peace Prize Committee...................249
Pope John Paul's 'Love-Hate Relationship' with George W. Bush......251
Pope Benedict XVI..............................................................................252
Cardinal Ratzinger and Child Abuse...................................................253

Chapter 11: The Massacre of Children & Babies in Ireland...............255

Chapter 12: The Links Between the Catholic Church and the Mafia..256

Bibliography.......................................................................................259

Appendix: Timeline............................................................................263

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Introduction

This book has been written for the purpose of describing and showing evidence
of crimes against humanity, committed over a period of more than a thousand
years, by leaders and high-ranking officials of the Roman Catholic Church.
The events described will show how the Roman Catholic Church has escaped
justice time and again for the atrocities that have been committed by its leaders
over the centuries. This book defines "atrocities" and "crimes against
humanity" as any act which was either ordered, encouraged, or intentionally
ignored by one or more high ranking officials within the Roman Catholic
Church, when they had the power or influence to have prevented the atrocity
from occurring.

A modern-day example would include evidence pointing to various leaders

within the Catholic Church turning a "blind eye" to suspected paedophiles, in
the sense that evidence had been presented to the Vatican, and having seen that
evidence, the Vatican, representing the global Roman Catholic Church, allowed
the suspected paedophiles to continue their church business without alerting
the authorities to the crimes of which they were suspected.

Evidence from further back in history will be presented of the mass executions
that were carried out against "heretics" in Western Europe, in the name of the
Roman Catholic Church, where the Catholic Church and its various Popes
allowed and indeed encouraged atrocities such as burnings at the stake and
torture to continue to be perpetrated in the name of the Catholic Church.

The examples above fall within the definition of "crimes against humanity" in
the opinion of the author. The author does not describe terms such as "crimes
against humanity" within the context of any specific legal framework, such as
international law or United Nations Conventions. Rather, a reasonably

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objective moral rather than legal perspective is used for the purpose of
describing the events depicted in this narrative.

Indeed, the legal frameworks for such crimes did not officially exist within
international law a few hundred years ago. Moreover, the author's definition
falls within the context of what any reasonable and moral human being would
describe as "mass murder", "torture" and other forms of oppression carried out
against innocent human beings purely due to the colour of their skin, their race,
or their religious beliefs.

The following chapters will show how the Roman Catholic Church, in addition
to carrying out such crimes over a period spanning more than a thousand years,
has shown little evidence of remorse, with little or no evidence that there has
been much (or any) justice for the millions of innocent people who have been
tortured, persecuted and oppressed at the hands of this powerful organisation
that purports to be "Christian".

This book is not about religion. It does not in any way encourage or discourage
the following of any particular religion, including Catholicism. Rather, it is
about crimes that have been committed as a result of abusing and
misinterpreting the tenets of Christianity, whether for political, racial or other
purposes. The book will demonstrate and show evidence of the degree to which
"un-Christian" hypocrisy has existed within the Roman Catholic Church
throughout the centuries. After reading each of the contained chapters, the
author would like to ask the reader to ask themselves, at the end of each
chapter: "Would the real Jesus Christ have approved of the events described
herein?"

As regards the evidence presented, all historical facts are taken from the books
given in the bibliography. The author's sources, as shown in the bibliography,
are taken from a wide range of historians and therefore a wide range of

10
viewpoints have been taken into account for almost every paragraph of this
narrative.

It is true that the leaders of any political or religious structure do not represent
the will, opinion or belief of every single one of its members. When reading
the evidence and the facts presented, it will therefore be up to the reader to
form an opinion of the degree to which the leaders of the Roman Catholic
Church had the support of its members on those many occasions when crimes
against humanity were committed "in the name" of the Roman Catholic
Church.

The reader may also ask himself/herself, when analysing the responsibility for
a particular action committed by a high-ranking official within the Catholic
Church clergy, if they were "only following orders from above". Whether or not
this is a valid excuse for any particular action is a matter of opinion. However,
it is worth considering that the "buck has to stop somewhere". In the case of
the Roman Catholic Church, it stops at the Bishop of Rome, also known as the
Pope. Where it stops, and where and how the breadth of responsibility lies, will
be up to the reader to determine, based on the evidence presented in the
bibliography and possibly from further reading of other sources of historical
evidence.

It is also worth considering that the Bishop of Rome is elected through, to

some extent, a democratic process. The Pope is voted in by cardinals of the
Roman Catholic Church and the cardinals who elect a particular Pope are
therefore representative of the institution itself, to a greater or lesser extent.

Finally, this book has been written in a way that will hopefully make it
accessible to a wide readership. The purpose of this book is to present the truth,
lest it be forgotten. Allowing crimes against humanity to be forgotten and
confined to the annuls of history is a crime in itself, in the opinion of the

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author. One must be mindful of historical truth if humanity is to make any
future social progress. Such an attitude is necessary in order to advance beyond
the hatred and ignorance that gives rise to the unforgivable crimes that have
been committed throughout human history and, indeed, are still being
committed today in various parts of the world.

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Chapter 1: The Beginning

Christianity began as a minority Jewish sect, a sect that was attempting to

follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. Later, they came to believe that Jesus had
risen from the grave after his death. The second most influential figure in early
Christianity, after Jesus himself, was Paul, who was to later become St. Paul.
Paul actually introduced elements into Christianity that had never actually been
practised by the religious Jew known as Jesus Christ.

The reason Paul did this was in order to give the new Judaic sect mass appeal.
He wanted to make his new 'Christianity' accessible to the masses for the
purpose of facilitating mass conversion. Even at this early stage, Jesus Christ's
closest disciples may therefore have begun to deviate from their leader's
teachings. We shall never know, since the gospels were not written down until
many decades after the events they were supposed to depict.

There is no firm evidence that Jesus himself endorsed any of the new elements
added to Judaism, especially since they were not added until after his death.
There is no evidence that Jesus himself would even have approved of a new
religion being created in his name. He was never known to have deviated
significantly from his Jewish roots or from his Jewish religious devotions.

Due in no small part to its expansionist goals and policy of mass conversion,
Christianity permeated the Roman Empire during the centuries following the
death of Christ, inevitably culminating in the official adoption of Christianity
by the Roman Emperor Constantine. Constantine was, during his reign as
emperor, desperate to find a political tool that he could use to reunite an
increasingly divided Roman Empire that had fallen victim to many years of
civil war.

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Constantine deviously, but successfully, foresaw that Christianity could be such
a tool. He then set about twisting the rapidly growing religion to his advantage.
The Roman elite were no strangers to opportunism. Constantine himself was
not even baptised until he was lying on his deathbed. So it would appear that
he did not see fit to take on this critical and central practice of Christianity until
the end of his life.

After formally announcing conversion to Christianity, Constantine convened

the first ecumenical council of the Church at Nicaea 1. Bishops from all over the
Christian world were invited to attend. Constantine decided to place the capital
of his new Christian empire at a Greek colony known then as 'Byzantium', near
the Black Sea. He renamed it 'Constantinople' (modern day Istanbul).

In the year 325AD, the first General Council of the Church was convened in
the centre of Nicaea. The first "confession of the Catholic Christian faith" was
drawn up here.

Due to cultural, political and religious differences, the Roman Empire then
split into two separate empires: An eastern Greek-speaking empire and a
western Latin-speaking empire. Constantine, adding 'Holy' to his title to
become 'Holy Roman Emperor', remained the leader of the eastern empire.

At that time, the western empire was much poorer and so Constantine, and the
later eastern emperors who were to follow him, probably did not regard the
western empire as being much of a threat to their rule. Little did they realise
that, in spite of their successful attempt to create a new city named
Constantinople, whose structures and treasures could be seen to rival or even
better those of Rome, Latin Western Europe would later rise again amidst a
new kind of empire, with Rome once again at its core.

1 Nicaea is now a city called Iznik in modern Turkey, about 100km south-
west of Istanbul

14
After the split, the western Latin empire was regarded to be under the
leadership of the Bishop of Rome, also known as the Pope.

A series of battles over Rome ensued. There were various western emperors
who were supposedly ruling parts of western Europe at various times, but the
Bishop of Rome, the Pope, ultimately had the most power and influence over
the people and armies of the west. The western Latin church in Rome came to
be known as the 'Roman Catholic Church'.

Divisions of opinion followed, with the Latin Roman Catholic Church of the
west following its own increasingly hierarchical church-centric view of
Christianity, which included the extra step of a conversion of the gospels into
Latin. The eastern Greek-speaking regions adopted Orthodox Christianity.
They evolved to became somewhat less militant than the Latin regions. The
Orthodox Christian regions also could be deemed to have more accurately
followed the Christian gospels, by virtue of speaking one of the main
languages the gospels were actually written in: Greek.

15
Chapter 2: The Crusades

The Rise of Evil

The first crusade began in 1095 and the last crusade could be deemed to have
ended in 1464, though this is debatable. Some historians regard the last crusade
as the Spanish Armada against Protestant England, in 1588.

The word 'crusade' is one possible English translation of the Latin terms
passagium, iter, voyage or reise. These were Latin terms given to mean a
military operation blessed and sponsored by the leaders of the Roman Catholic
Church, at the top of whose strict hierarchy sat the Bishop of Rome, or the
Pope. The purpose of such a military operation was very simple and clear from
the perspective of the Catholic Church: "To annihilate the enemies of
Christianity".

At the time of the 11th century AD, the main enemy of Christianity was
considered to be Islam. The Catholic Church at this time considered Islam to
be its foremost threat. To a somewhat lesser extent, others were also considered
'heretics', and these included groups of people in the Baltic and central
European regions. Later, smaller crusades were to be launched, reflecting
infighting within the Latin Catholic Church itself, with rival Popes rallying
support and declaring crusades against one another.

The Roman Catholic Church legitimised its warring crusades of butchery and
barbarity under the pretext of a 'Code of Just War' and this legislation was
comprehensively processed through a bureaucracy of Catholic Church lawyers.

16
Who Were the Crusaders and What
Motivated them?

Firstly, it needs to be understood that it was the Pope, the leader of the Roman
Catholic Church in Rome, who was the ultimate authority in initiating holy
wars against those considered "unbelievers" or "heretics". These holy wars
were later to become known as "Crusades". Successive Popes prepared for
crusades by making appeals for Christians to "take the Cross". Those taking the
cross, thereby becoming crusaders, were then granted certain privileges by the
Roman Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church would guarantee that assets and families would be
protected while their crusaders were acting in the service of the church. But
primarily, those indoctrinated and psychologically conditioned by the Roman
Catholic Church were led to believe that all their past sins would be forgiven,
allowing them quick entry into paradise if they fought (and murdered) in the
service of the Catholic Church. The vast amounts of funding raised and
allocated to the crusades was sanctioned and organised by the Pope and his
appointees in Rome.

The Early Crusades

Many people tend to associate the crusades with those centred on capturing the
Holy Land1 from the Muslims. However, before the main crusades began there
were smaller scale crusades. For example, Pope Urban II encouraged Spanish
Roman Catholics to stay in Spain and fight the Muslim Moors, rather than join
the crusades to the Holy Land. Oppression and mass murder of Jews, Muslims
and others considered heretics was to continue in Spain for many centuries to

1 Modern day Israel

17
come, culminating in the infamous Spanish Inquisition. There were other
smaller scale crusades in Eastern Europe against those considered heretics and
pagans. The crusaders advanced to regions stretching all the way to Russia.

The Roman Catholic clergy preached that the crusade wars were lawful and
that the crusaders had what was termed a "right intention" to conquer the lands
and bring them into "obedience" with Rome. The clergy promised that all those
who died in the service of the Roman Catholic Church would enjoy the
"Indulgence" granted by the Pope. 'Indulgence' was taken to mean the
remission of all past sins in the afterlife and quick entry into heaven.

It is very clear that at the time of the crusades, the Roman Catholic clergy
considered the Muslims to be "enemies of God". Pope Innocent III once
remarked that anyone aiding Muslims was "acting against the interests of
Christ and the Christian people".

Roman Catholic doctrine banned acts of violence. However, papal 1 legitimacy

for war was allowed under the pretext that acts of violence could be legitimised
by the Pope, since he was "acting on behalf of Christ", however hypocritical
that may sound to the discerning intellect. Such statements might appear to
some to be reminiscent of the way the Roman Emperors had, a thousand years
previously, deemed themselves to be acting on behalf of their Roman gods,
when perpetrating wars of aggression against their adversaries.

Funding for the Crusades

The crusades could never have been instigated without adequate funding. The
Roman Catholic Church was at the very heart of the impetus to raise and

1 'Papal' means 'of the papacy' and 'papacy' refers to the authority of the Pope
over his Church government

18
allocate the required funds, and it used the regional emperors and kings to
achieve exactly that. Regional kings levied and imposed extra taxation on
behalf of the Pope.

For example, in 1146 King Louis VII of France imposed a tax to raise money
for the second crusade. Those who did not officially "take the Cross" were
forced to pay more than those who had. King John of England was also
coerced by the Pope into imposing a 'crusade tax'. Crusade taxation continued
on into the 13th century. The successive Popes of the Roman Catholic Church
also raised finance from the imposition of fines upon those found guilty of
'blasphemy'. And Catholic clergy contributed some of their own not
inconsiderable wealth to the crusades.

Anti-Semitism and the Early Roman

Catholic Church

Anti-Semitism perpetrated against Jews by the early Roman Catholic Church

was escalated to a new level by Pope Alexander II (1061AD to 1073AD).
During his reign, Pope Alexander sent a letter to Spanish bishops, urging them
"not to treat Jews in a way that was in any way 'humanitarian' ". From that
point onward, all Jews, be they men, women or children, were collectively held
officially responsible by the Pope and his Roman Catholic appointees for the
"death of God". The apparently obvious paradox that Jesus Christ was himself
a Jew did not seem to strike any particular discord with the Roman Catholic
authorities of the time. Evidently, a rational chain of reasoning was not the
order of the day. Logic gave way to ignorance and blatant racism.

Nevertheless, in the late 11th century, Jews were seen as 'useful' by a few of the
more educated and enlightened bishops. In the 1080s, Bishop Radiger of
Speyer wrote a charter encouraging Jews to settle in his city in order to exploit

19
the economic invigoration which well-educated and hard-working Jews were
known to bring into their communities. In the 1090s their success sparked
jealousy among less successful, less well-educated merchants, and these
merchants regularly attacked innocent Jews.

Poor nobles and knights without land even found themselves having to borrow
money from Jews to help fund their contribution to the crusades. Jews living in
the Rhineland region of modern-day Germany were forced by German
Catholics to pay protection money, under threat of violence. Hundreds of Jews
were massacred by Roman Catholic crusaders advancing south through
Germany, encouraged by local German bishops, on their way to committing
further atrocities against Muslims.

Escalation of the Crusades

The crusades began as a "people's crusade", and can essentially be seen as a

steady escalation from pilgrimage to warfare. The Arabs and Turks were also
warlike at that time and carried out massacres of their own. However, one
could argue that it was their land in the first place and that native Aryan
Europeans, whatever their religion, had no business going there. In any event,
increasing numbers of knights and fighting men joined the ranks of a rapidly
decreasing minority of 'peaceful' Christian pilgrims. This resulted in an
escalating cycle of violence which was firmly encouraged by the Pope and his
bishops and other appointees within the Roman Catholic Church.

The First Crusade: 1095AD to 1099AD

The first of the crusades was proclaimed by Pope Urban II in November

1095AD at the Council of Clermont. The more peaceful and less aggressive

20
Holy Roman Empire of the East (Byzantium) was already on the decline by
this time, with the Catholic Church in Rome menacingly gaining power and
influence. As the Catholic crusaders of western Latin Europe marched through
Germany, Jews were among the first non-Christians to be mercilessly
slaughtered.

In spite of these events, there is evidence that many of these crusading Roman
Catholic "Christians" were not averse to extorting Jewish money, which they
found useful for funding the crusades against those they considered to be their
main enemy: Muslims.

As a consequence of the butchery, sizeable Jewish communities in Germany

formed suicide pacts and killed themselves and their children in their
desperation, rather than face the thought of watching their children be
slaughtered before their eyes by bloodthirsty Roman Catholic crusaders. The
crusaders continued on through Prague, slaughtering thousands more Jews,
many more of whom committed suicide, and on the crusaders marched,
continuing through Hungary.

Some of the crusaders had originally been destined for a career ascending the
various ranks of the Roman Catholic Church, but when the Church brought
about restrictions on who and how many could join their ranks, these young
men were instead exploited and offered careers as crusaders.

The crusaders marched on through the Southern Balkans and then on to

Constantinople. Many poor knights without land of their own hoped to increase
their wealth by stealing land from 'infidels'. Gifts were offered to the crusaders
by the Byzantine Holy Roman Emperor seated in Constantinople. The emperor
was undoubtedly fearful of the consequences of not showing the utmost
hospitality and support to the army of Roman Catholic crusaders who were
marching into his city. Some Byzantine Orthodox Christian soldiers joined the

21
western Latin-speaking crusaders, but Orthodox Christians joining the crusade
amounted to less than a twentieth of the number of Roman Catholic crusaders.

The crusading army continued on through areas that are now part of modern
day Turkey. They were surprised by the fighting ability of the Turkish bowmen.
Even so, they defeated the Turks in a series of decisive battles and then
continued their march toward the Holy Land.

After reaching the ancient city of Antioch 1, the crusaders must have felt
intimidated after seeing this heavily fortified city. They decided to camp there
and play a 'long game' by trying to cut off critical supply routes between
Turkey and Syria. There is historical evidence that the onset of a harsh winter
caused some of the crusaders to resort to cannibalism. Desertion was rife in the
wake of the many defeats they sustained at the hands of the Muslim armies.

The crusaders were later joined by a fleet from England. Possibly aided by
treachery from within Antioch, the city eventually fell to the crusaders in the
summer of 1098AD. They entered the city and brutally murdered hundreds of
Muslim men, women and children. There is even evidence that they mistakenly
killed other Christians who at the time happened to be living peacefully side by
side with Muslims in the city. Turkish reinforcements further depleted the
crusaders' resources, but eventually the crusaders defeated them.

At this time Jerusalem was in the hands of Shi'ite Muslims, enemies of both the
Christians and the Turks. The Shi'ite Fatimid armies exploited Turkish defeats
by capturing land further north in areas that comprise modern day Israel.

The crusaders arrived and encircled a heavily fortified Jerusalem. Later, they
were joined by more English crusaders, who were, of course, also loyal to the

1 Antioch is near the modern Turkish city of Antakya, not far from the Syrian
border

22
Catholic Church in Rome. The English aggressors arrived at the port of Jaffa1.

The crusaders eventually managed to penetrate the ancient city of Jerusalem,

clambering over the walls and then proceeding to slaughter every man, woman
and child in their midst. Jews and Muslims fought side-by-side in an ultimately
unsuccessful attempt to defend their city and their children against the Roman
Catholic attackers. After the massacre, one of the garrison commanders
allowed a few remaining prisoners to leave, in return for large sums of money.

The senseless slaughter by the invading Catholic armies went on for two whole
days. Afterwards, the crusade leaders descended upon the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre to give thanks to their God. Having been conquered by the Roman
Catholic Church, a Latin state was inevitably established in the region, with
Jerusalem at its centre. Jerusalem had been a peaceful Muslim city for more
than four centuries before this time, with Jews, Muslims and also native
Christians living peacefully side by side.

The Knighthood Orders of the Roman

Catholic Church

Shortly after the first crusade, various military Orders were established by the
Roman Catholic Church, under the pretext of "defending Christendom". The
most well known of these were the 'Knights Hospitaler' and the infamous
'Knights Templar'. These were military monks answerable only to the Pope.
The Templar knights become well known for their unrivalled brutality.

Other similar military Orders of the Roman Catholic Church were established
in Spain. One high-ranking bishop in the Catholic Church was the Archbishop
of Toledo, Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada. He wrote: "The sword reddens with the

1 Jaffa is a small town in modern Israel next to Tel-Aviv

23
blood of Arabs, and faith burns bright".

A Breakdown in Relations with the

Byzantine Empire of the East

Between the first and second crusades, the Turks did not give up, and the
crusaders suffered a series of humiliating defeats by the Turkish armies. The
crusaders and their Roman Catholic Church, looking for someone to blame
aside from their regular Jewish targets, found a scapegoat in the form of the
Holy Roman Empire of the East. The Byzantine empire, centred at
Constantinople, did not follow or consider themselves answerable to the
Roman Catholic Church or the Pope. They followed a variety of Christianity
which came to be known as 'Orthodox Christianity'. It was orthodox in the
sense that it followed the Christian gospels in their original Greek and Hebrew
forms, as opposed to the Latin translations followed by the Catholic Church in
Rome.

Thus the crusaders and their Roman Catholic Church blamed the Holy Roman
Emperor in Constantinople for their lack of success, accusing the Emperor of
treachery. And so began the breakdown of the fragile alliance between the
culturally and religiously separated Roman Empires of the east and west of
Europe.

Colonisation

Having established a Roman Catholic kingdom in Jerusalem, western landlords

were encouraged to establish Catholic colonies in the rural areas surrounding
Jerusalem. Even native Christians who had been living in peace with Muslims
and Jews for many years, did not escape having their land pillaged by the

24
invading European Roman Catholics.

Having fallen victim to Roman Catholic rule and oppression, Jews and
Muslims were banned from taking up residence within the city walls of
Jerusalem. Even so, the fate of Jews was nevertheless better in the Holy Land
than in western Europe. In Roman Catholic Western Europe, Jews were forced
to wear emblems on their clothes categorising them as Jews, not dissimilar to
what occurred in Nazi-occupied Europe some eight hundred years later.

Crusades on smaller scales then followed, with the power and might of the
Knights Hospitaler and Knights Templar behind them.

The Second Crusade: 1147AD to 1149AD

After Muslim armies regained Catholic-occupied lands in Syria, Pope

Eugenius III proclaimed the Second Crusade in December 1145AD. The
support of King Louis VII of France was instrumental in the Roman Catholic
Church's implementation of this second crusade. Louis VII was a tyrant by any
reasonable measure. Other churches of minority denominations of Christianity
that he considered 'heretical' were burnt down, often with the people inside
them burned alive.

Jews living in Europe were again targeted as part of the preparation for a
second crusade. The prevailing thinking of the Roman Catholic Church was to
annihilate those it considered its enemies at home, before going to war against
the Muslim Saracens in the Holy Land. As a result, many more Jews in Europe
committed suicide en masse, rather than face the alternative of allowing
themselves and their children to fall into the hands of bloodthirsty fanatics
supported and reinforced by the powerful Roman Catholic Church. However, it
seems that Jewish money was itself quite useful to some churchmen, who were

25
more than happy to accept financial bribes in return for protection from
persecution and murder.

In the Germany of the time, the persecution of Jews was particularly brutal.
Many Germans showed enthusiastic support for the second crusade after its
declaration by Pope Eugenius III. The Germans of the time needed little
persuasion. The second crusade was a crusade led predominantly by the kings
of France and Germany, reporting as they did to their Catholic masters in
Rome.

The actual military campaign of the second crusade was led by Louis VII of
France and Conrad III of Germany. They also had considerable support from
England. Normans and Englishmen helped the King of Portugal capture Lisbon
from the Moors in October 1147.

As they advanced east, some crusader battalions headed for Constantinople

while others attacked the Moors in Portugal first, before continuing east.
German and French crusaders were joined by others from Poland, Hungary and
other eastern European Catholic regions. The crusaders continued through
Turkey but suffered a defeat by a Seljuk Turkish army. In the end they
managed to reach Antioch, but with their numbers vastly reduced.

The crusaders then attacked Damascus. Ultimately, the crusade failed and the
crusaders were defeated, but not before inflicting mass murder and brutality
upon all who stood in their way. At this stage, King Louis of France, Conrad III
of Germany, other western Latin rulers, along with the Pope and leaders of the
Catholic Church, badly wanted a scapegoat to blame for their humiliating
defeat.

The leaders of the Catholic Church must have felt a degree of emotional injury
at the thought that their 'God' had allowed them to be defeated. A weakened
Byzantine Empire thus provided them with a convenient and conquerable

26
scapegoat. Consequently, the Roman Catholic Church and its Pope began
discussing a possible crusade against the Orthodox Christian empire of Eastern
Europe.

It is worth noting here that the second crusade had been implemented on a
scale that was, at that time, unprecedented. It was a war on several fronts, from
Spain to Eastern Europe and the Baltics. It would be naive to assume that
religion alone motivated the masses who flocked to the Pope's call. Indeed,
there is evidence that Pope Eugenius III had offered material privileges to
volunteers for this second crusade.

Saladin

Saladin was a Kurd who rapidly rose up through the ranks of the Sunni Muslim
armies of the Middle East. After defeating the Shi'ite Muslim rulers of Egypt,
he took on the crusaders. In October 1187, the crusaders suffered a series of
humiliating defeats, ending with Saladin's army taking back Jerusalem. Saladin
showed far more mercy to his enemies and prisoners than had the Roman
Catholic crusaders. After capturing Jerusalem, Saladin offered Christians their
freedom and allowed them to leave the city unharmed. There is ample evidence
available which shows that the Kurdish Sunni Muslim Saladin was very
tolerant of other faiths, far more so than the Roman Catholics occupying the
Middle East during this period in history.

Treatment of Women

In Roman Catholic Western Europe, women widowed by dead crusader

husbands were able to inherit their money. However, land inherited by a
woman from a crusader carried with it an obligation of military service. Since

27
the woman was rarely considered fit to carry out the military service herself
and thereby become a crusader, it would often transpire that she would be
forced to marry again, to a man who would then be able to fulfil the military
obligation. This would then allow the Catholic Church to draft the man she
married into a crusade. Military requirements always took priority in this
'Christian' world of crusader states. The Roman Catholic Church was always
more than willing to modify Christian doctrine as it pleased, in order to
facilitate war against 'infidels'.

The Third Crusade: 1187AD to 1192AD

A third crusade was proclaimed by Pope Gregory VIII in October 1187AD.

Involved at the centre of this particular crusade was King Richard of England,
commonly known as 'Richard the Lionheart'. The German contribution to the
third crusade was also significant. However, at an early stage the invading
hordes of German religious fanatics loyal to the Catholic Church were
successfully squashed by Saladin's armies, ending the German threat.

After the crusade had been declared by Pope Gregory and firmly endorsed by
King Richard I, anti-Semitism swept across England, with Jews being
slaughtered and their money stolen to fund the crusade. However, when King
Richard saw that the loss of Jewish wealth was having a severe negative effect
on his exchequer, he made a political U-Turn and took measures to protect
Jews, so that their wealth could continue to be exploited by the Roman
Catholic elite nobility in England. Among other atrocities, the pogroms in
England saw a mass suicide of five hundred Jews in York.

Not content with the attempted genocide of Jews and Muslims, the Roman
Catholic Church, with the help of King Richard I of England, turned on their
fellow Christians, capturing parts of southern Italy and also Cyprus from the

28
Byzantine Empire in 1191AD. By this time even the Greek Orthodox
Christians of the Byzantine east were regarded as 'heretics' by the Catholic
Church and its crusading forces.

King Richard I of England thus came to be known as "Richard the Lionheart",

due to his initial successes against 'heretics'. His army advanced onward toward
the Holy Land, where they joined the French forces at Acre 1 and also rejoined
an English advance guard that had already arrived. This advance guard was
commanded by Baldwin, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Siege engines were subsequently constructed by the English and French.

Fearing another massacre, Acre city negotiators were forced to surrender, to
avoid what would have undoubtedly become a slaughter-house, something for
which there was ample precedent. Saladin himself tried to negotiate peace
terms with the crusaders.

King Richard responded to Saladin's attempts at a peaceful resolution by

having two thousand seven hundred Turkish prisoners of war beheaded on the
plains outside the city of Acre. He had plenty of volunteers to carry out the
massacre, drawn from his own army of English Roman Catholic soldiers.
These actions firmly cemented Richard the Lionheart's reputation as a butcher
and mass murderer.

Victorious after a series of brutal battles, the crusaders continued on toward

Jaffa. The people of Jaffa surrendered to the advancing army of crusaders,
fearful as they were of further massacres. Saladin retreated. King Richard and
his fellow crusaders were not, however, able to capture Jerusalem from
Saladin, and further territorial gains were made by this very able Kurdish
Muslim leader. Saladin thus re-captured cities that had previously fallen into
Roman Catholic hands. King Richard had little choice but to begin negotiating

1 Today Acre is a city in the western Galilee region of northern Israel

29
peace terms.

At this time, King Richard was likely to have become insecure after receiving
reports from England that his brother Prince John was taking measures to
attempt to keep the English throne, rather than concede it back to Richard upon
his return. Ultimately, the third crusade was a failure for the Roman Catholic
Church. Thousands had been senselessly and brutally slaughtered, and the
Catholic crusaders did not succeed in their primary goal of taking Jerusalem.

The Fourth Crusade: 1202AD to 1204AD

A fourth crusade was proclaimed by Pope Innocent III in 1202AD. The original
target of this crusade was supposed to be Egypt. Pope Innocent wrote to
Europe's Roman Catholic monarchs, urging them to join his latest holy war,
asking for funds to be raised, and also asking for military information
regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the Muslim armies. To facilitate the
raising of the necessary funding, the Pope imposed a new tax on clerical
incomes.

Unfortunately for the Roman Catholic Church, they had not managed to raise
enough money to fund this latest crusade. Therefore, they turned their attention
to a more manageable goal: The conquest of the Byzantine Orthodox Christian
empire of the east. In June 1203AD, the Catholic crusaders attacked
Constantinople, the capital of the somewhat less brutal Eastern Orthodox
Christian Byzantine Empire. The crusaders used fire-ships to destroy the
majority of the Byzantine fleet.

In April 1204 Constantinople fell, and this resulted in another massacre of its
people by the invading Roman Catholic crusaders. The city was pillaged and
many of the once magnificent buildings were left in ruins. These barbaric acts

30
were committed under the pretext that the Orthodox Christians were not
considered as 'Christian' as the Roman Catholic Christians, in spite of the fact
that they practised their religion according to the original gospels written in
their original Greek language, rather than the Latin translations adopted by the
Roman Catholic west.

Politically, the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church considered Orthodox

Christianity to be a threat to the Pope and the papacy. Money may also have
played a part, because after Constantinople was pillaged and its vast treasures
stolen by the crusaders, much of it was likely to have ended up in Rome.

Consequently, the once magnificent Byzantine Empire was forced to accept

supreme rule by the Pope, from Rome. The Vatican proceeded to dissolve the
Byzantine hierarchy of government and had it replaced by a far more
oppressive western style feudal system of government. In other words, the
Pope and other Catholic Church leaders wanted a government in eastern
Europe that they could easily control.

The fourth crusade therefore failed in its primary objective of conquering the
Holy Land. Instead, the Pope had to settle for the submission of Byzantium to
Rome. There is historical evidence in existence in the form of written texts
describing what happened in Constantinople during its conquest. For example,
an extract from a text written by Gunther of Pairis described the looting of
Constantinople: "Abbot Martin threatened to kill an elderly man unless he
showed him where the more potent relics were kept. He then filled the robes in
his habit with the treasures".

The fourth crusade led to the colonisation of new crusader states in Greece,
along with many other parts of the now fallen Byzantine Empire. The Roman
Catholic Church had made huge military gains across Europe ,and now had
virtual free reign to continue its reign of terror. All this was done in the name of

31
a figure, Jesus Christ, who had promoted peace and the "love of thy
neighbour".

The Crusades in Spain

Other smaller crusades continued in Europe in the 13th century. During this
period, the King of Castille 1, Alfonso X, perpetrated a campaign to expel
Muslims and Jews from their homes in Spain, driving them south into Granada
(southern Spain). The Muslims and Jews who had been expelled were replaced
by thousands of Roman Catholic settlers.

The Baltic Crusades

The crusades in the Baltics were promoted by Pope Celestine III and Pope
Innocent III. These crusades, which commenced in the 1190s, were campaigns
to enforce Roman Catholicism upon the eastern Baltic region 2. Advancing
German Catholic knights were known to be particularly brutal, committing
mass murder against the many pagan tribes who refused to submit and convert
to the Roman Catholic religion.

Pope Innocent III also declared a crusade against the Cathars, a minority
Christian sect in south-western France. In 1209AD, fifteen thousand of these
people were massacred by crusaders operating with the Pope's blessing. Later,
in 1244AD, many Cathars were burned alive without trial by Roman Catholic
religious fanatics loyal to the Pope.

1 Castille was a region of Europe that comprises modern day Spain

2 An area of the Baltics that included regions comprising modern day Latvia
and Lithuania

32
The Crusades in Italy

Interestingly, in the 13th and 14th centuries, crusading was also used as a
political tool by various Popes to eliminate their own political opponents. The
papacy in Rome launched a series of crusades against other Roman Catholic
kings of regions surrounding Rome. This case in point serves as an example of
how religion has often been used as a political weapon by a wealthy religious
establishment against those considered political rivals.

The Children's Crusade: 1212AD

The Catholic Church's attempts to recruit people for their crusades was not
limited to the adult population of Europe. In 1212AD, a children's crusade was
proclaimed. Few were older than fifteen. Children among the rural poor were
targeted and drafted in. Obviously limited in their capacity to engage in
warfare, they mainly attacked small defenceless Jewish communities in
western Europe. After trying to advance further towards the south-east, many
of the children ended up as slaves in Algeria.

Crusades Against Russians

In the 1230s Pope Gregory IX gave his blessing for German Catholic crusaders
to advance into areas that are now part of modern day Russia. But those
Russians who were loyal to the Russian Orthodox Church successfully repelled
them, and the crusaders were defeated decisively by resilient Russian
defenders.

33
Heresy Trials

The crusading mindset evolved and naturally led onto the Inquisitions which
were again instigated and encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church in Rome.
Throughout the crusader period, many heresy trials were held, with people
being burned alive for having opinions or beliefs that differed from those of the
Catholic Church.

The England of this time was no stranger to crimes against humanity. In

1190AD there were anti-Jewish massacres from London all the way north to
York. Peaceful Jewish communities in York were senselessly slaughtered.

The Fifth Crusade: 1217AD to 1229AD

The fifth crusade was proclaimed by Pope Innocent III in 1213AD. This was
essentially a failed attempt to capture Egypt. In spite of relentless hostility by
the Roman Catholic Church, the Muslims governing the Middle East made
four offers of peace between 1210AD and 1230AD to trade Jerusalem on the
basis of a diplomatic treaty. When Pope Honorius succeeded Pope Innocent, he
too did everything in his power to promote this fifth crusade. The Muslim
defenders, who were predominantly peaceful, successful repelled the Latin
Roman Catholic invaders.

King Louis IX of France

Many other smaller-scale crusades then followed. In 1249AD, King Louis IX

of France led another crusade against Egypt. Initially he defeated a Bedouin
Arab garrison at Damietta, whereupon the French executed all of the Bedouin
leaders for resisting the invasion. After suffering heavy defeats when the

34
Muslim armies regrouped, King Louis and his crusaders surrendered. In
1267AD King Louis of France declared a further crusade.

Pope Urban IV and Edward of England

In 1263AD Pope Urban IV began preparations for a new crusade to "liberate"

Jerusalem. At this point the only enthusiastic response came from England. The
English crusade leader, Lord Edward (the great nephew of Richard the
Lionheart) even asked the Mongols for help against the Muslims. But even
with help from the tough Mongol soldiers, the English failed to take key
Muslim positions in Syria. Later, Lord Edward made a truce with the Sultan to
retain some Christian areas in the Holy Land. When Edward returned to home,
he returned to find himself King of England.

The crusaders and their Catholic Church masters still did not give up. In
1290AD, crusaders attacked Acre again, murdering peasants, farmers and
merchants.

The End of the Knights Templar: 1312AD

In 1312AD, Pope Clement V determined that in spite of their many years of

loyal service to the Roman Catholic Church, the Knights Templar had simply
become too powerful, too influential and had amassed too much wealth. In
other words, the Catholic Church considered that they now posed a threat to
the established order.

The regional kings and princes of western Europe were keen to acquire the vast
wealth held by the Templar Knights, so many put pressure on the Pope to cease
his protection of them, in spite of the fact that the Templar Knights swore their
allegiance directly to the Pope.

35
Loyalty notwithstanding, the Pope ordered the dissolution of the Order of the
Knights Templar and allowed the Templar leaders to be burned alive as heretics
and sorcerers. The Pope paved the way for the regional kings and princes to
bring trumped-up charges against the Templar Knights. Hence, there was a
situation with Catholics murdering other Catholics in various barbaric ways,
under the blessing of the Pope and other leaders of the Roman Catholic
Church. This situation arose purely for political reasons. And thus the Pope
successfully quashed any perceived threat to his supreme authority.

The Crusades Against the Hussites

The Hussites were named after the Czech religious leader Jan Hus. To his
misfortune, he was burned alive in 1415AD by the Roman Catholic authorities.
He was considered a heretic due to his movement's demands for reform of the
clergy.

Cardinal Henry Beaufort exclaimed in 1427: "I shall diligently apply myself,
through the grace of God, to the gathering up of Catholic forces for he
extermination of the Bohemian infidels."

The End of the Byzantine Empire

After a brief period back in Orthodox Christian hands, Constantinople once

again saw itself under siege from the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Martin IV
declared another crusade against the Byzantine state and against its capital,
Constantinople.

36
The French Crusade of 1320AD

This crusade is sometimes known as the "Shepherd's Crusade". After crusaders

claimed to have seen visions of Angels, a mob of 10,000 of them marched on
Paris. They murdered Jews as they went and pillaged their property, even
looting some churches too. Hundreds of defenceless leprosy victims found
themselves easy targets. Hundreds of them were burned to death, having had
'confessions' tortured out of them. They were accused of "deliberately trying to
infect the Catholics of France and Germany."

Needless to say, Jews were again targeted, having been accused of persuading
the lepers to wage a kind of biological warfare against the majority Catholic
population. The fact that many of the lepers may have been Catholics
themselves did not appear to enter into the equation. Around two hundred
Jews, including children, were burned to death in a pit at Chinon 1. Catholic
noblemen were thought to have been among the spectators who cheered while
innocent children were burned alive. Again looking to their other familiar
scapegoat, many influential French Catholics of the time also pointed to an
"international Muslim conspiracy" to poison them with leprosy.

In 1365AD an army of around 10,000 crusaders was formed. This crusade was
initiated in England. They attacked Egypt and managed to capture Alexandria.
It would seem that money provided the the prevailing motivation, since
seventy shiploads of looted treasure were subsequently taken back to Europe.

The Crusade Against Nicopolis: 1396AD

The crusade against Nicopolis was announced by Pope Boniface IX in

1394AD. It was an attack by a large Roman Catholic force against the Ottoman

1 A town in France approximately 200km south-west of Paris

37
Turkish army. The result was a victory for the Turkish. This crusade against the
Turkish is considered by some historians to be the last of the crusades.

Throughout the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, the Roman Catholic Popes
continued to raise funds for a war machine targeted against the Ottoman Turks.
In Western Europe there was a high degree of in-fighting. Regional kings and
emperors who did not like the incumbent Pope would form alliances with
Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church to elect a different Pope. The rival
Pope was often termed "anti-Pope". Factions launched crusades against one
another.

Further Aggression Against the Russians

In 1364 King Casimir of Poland, with the Pope's blessing, assembled a

congress to discuss steps to forcibly convert the Russian Orthodox people to
the Roman Catholic religion. The ruling Polish Catholics also considered
Russian Orthodox Christians "heretics".

The Downfall of Constantinople

After the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople, other Popes such as

Nicholas V called for more crusades, but with little success. The fall of
Constantinople to the Ottoman army led to further reprisals by the Roman
Catholic Church. Fifteenth century Spain saw the massacres of Jews and
Muslims and the enactment of discriminating legislation, all with the Vatican's
blessing.

38
Crusades Against Protestants

Future crusades proclaimed by the various Popes were to be directed against

the Protestants of western Europe, following the Reformation. The Protestant
churches came about as a result of a reform movement led by Martin Luther
(see later chapter on the Reformation).

Various massacres were carried out against Protestants. Acts of mass murder
committed directly by the Roman Catholic Church against Protestants included
a massacre celebrated by Pope Gregory XIII in 1572. Further atrocities
included the celebration of the mass murder of Huguenot Protestants in France
on St. Bartholomew's day in August 1572.

The Spanish Armada Against Protestant

England: 1588AD

Some historians regard the 1588 attack by the Spanish Armada as the final
crusade. This was a failed attempt by a fanatically religious Spanish Roman
Catholic king to invade Protestant England. The new Protestant England was
considered heretical and an object of hatred by the Roman Catholic Church.

The Spanish Armada against England was blessed by Pope Sixtus V. Alas, this
final crusade was a total failure. It bankrupted Spain's economy to the extent
that it never fully recovered. Spain was never again to see the kind of military
and economic presence it had had in Europe before the Spanish Armada of
1588.

39
Chapter 3: The Inquisition

The Inquisition in France and Italy

'Heresy' was defined by the Roman Catholic Church as a deviation from

established Roman Catholic orthodoxy. Those heavily persecuted during the
dark age of the Inquisition included Cathars (Manicheans), Beguins,
Waldensians, Jews and Muslims.

Toulouse in France had a trial and execution of a 'heretic' as early as 1022.

Following military campaigns against heretics in the twelfth century,
repression of heresy in France was controlled by two religious orders: The
Dominicans and the Franciscans. These religious orders were set up by the
Pope and remained under the direct control of the Pope.

In the 12th century AD, Pope Innocent III ordered that all members of the
Roman Catholic Church should undertake to persecute suspected 'heretics'.
Burnings of heretics began around 1075AD. The Inquisitions in the Roman
Catholic countries of Europe were put into full force by the Roman Catholic
Church the moment it began to perceive a threat to Catholic doctrine.

In England in 1159AD, under the reign of King Henry II, a community of

German-speaking people fleeing persecution arrived from continental Europe.
They were immediately brought before Catholic Church authorities in England.
Found to be 'heretics', their foreheads were branded with red-hot irons, after
which their clothes were stripped off and they were lashed in the streets of
Oxford. Anyone offering help or charity to these 'heretics' were similarly
punished. These people were subsequently left to die in the cold winter fields
around Oxford.

40
Persecution of Jews escalated in England under Henry III. When King Edward
I came to the throne in a fanatically religious Roman Catholic England, Jewish
persecution became worse still. The Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of
Lincoln enacted laws forbidding the buying or selling of anything from or to
Jews. This included food. Their money, synagogues and possessions were
stolen by the English Crown. Even Jews who had converted to Christianity
were forced to hand over their possessions to the King. However, after some
consideration, the Jews were then forbidden from emigrating because the
English exchequer found them useful for bringing in money and generating
economic wealth.

King Edward I, a fanatically religious and fundamentalist Roman Catholic,

instated a death sentence for any Jew who was seen to question Christianity in
any way. This made it exceedingly easy for false charges to be brought against
Jews. Finally, the Jews were expelled from England by Edward I. They would
not be able to return until the liberating influence of the Protestant Reformation
came to pass.

Pope Gregory IX called an ecclesiastical council in Toulouse, France, in 1229.

The council paved the way for the Roman Catholic hierarchy to appoint
Inquisitors, who were then charged with discovering heretics and anyone who
aided and abetted heretics, after which those found guilty would be burned
alive at the stake. It is hard to imagine how the real 'Jesus Christ' would have
regarded such acts of wanton barbarity, committed in his name over a thousand
years after his death.

Pope Gregory was absent from Rome from 1228 to 1231, and during this time,
many people in Rome started to question the dogma of the Catholic Church.
The Pope was shocked upon learning of this 'heresy' on his return to Rome. He
acted decisively and brutally. Those people whose views differed from those of
the Catholic Church were arrested and publicly burned to death in Rome.

41
Monasteries such as Monte Cassino, Cava and Benedictine were used as
torture chambers, set up to extract confessions.

In 1233 Pope Gregory IX issued three Papal Bulls 1 to France and the other
Catholic countries, proclaiming a "war on heresy". This war on heresy came to
be known by the euphemism "Inquisition". In the case of France, special
powers were granted to the Dominican and Franciscan religious orders.
Inquisitors were then brought onto the scene. They had to be addressed
formerly as "Most Reverend". Inquisitors were essentially judges appointed by
the Pope and sent to act on his behalf.

Those who were poverty-stricken, vulnerable or poorly educated were prayed

upon by the Roman Catholic Church and its representatives and supporters.
Children as young as twelve were rewarded for denouncing 'heretics' and
monetary rewards were paid for the arrest of suspected heretics.

Operating under the orders of Pope Gregory IX, the Dominican Order was
formed in Toulouse in France. In the 1230s, the Dominican Inquisitors carried
out a reign of terror, executing heretics in various brutal ways, frequently by
burning them alive. In 1243 Pope Innocent IV showed gratitude to the
Dominicans for their "good work" and encouraged them to continue.

In Germany, the work of the Inquisitors was brutal in the extreme. In 1231
Pope Gregory IX appointed Conrad of Marburg as Inquisitor of Mainz.
Conrad's torture and burning alive of 'heretics' did however meet with some
resistance, and he was assassinated in 1233. Pope Gregory was dismayed at the
assassination to the extent that he issued another Papal Bull entitled 'Vox in
Rama'. The purpose of this was to intensify the reign of terror by forcing
German bishops to act more strongly against any opposition or heresy against
the Roman Catholic Church.

1 'Papal Bull' refers to an official order given by the Pope.

42
Sometimes a less severe sentence than death was handed down. This was
excommunication by the Catholic Church, followed by a less severe
punishment such as imprisonment, and maybe even less than that in some parts
of Europe. This may sound relatively mild for the time, but it needs to be
understood that this would be the exception rather than the rule, and even so,
the victims of the Catholic Church's excommunication dreaded this
punishment because it meant they lost all rights as citizens. They were not
allowed to be given work, money or any kind of medical assistance. Anyone
who helped them in any way faced a similar fate.

In 1252, Pope Innocent IV issued a Papal Bull entitled "ad extirpanda",

allowing Inquisitors to torture suspects. After formal papal announcement of
the details of the Inquisition, it spread to other European countries where
Inquisitors were likewise appointed. Pope Innocent's Papal Bull allowed an
escalation of the reign of terror in Germany, among other European countries.

In thirteenth century Italy, there was some opposition to the Inquisition, but
Pope Alexander IV sent troops to crush the rebellion, after which he continued
setting up regional Inquisitions across Italy. Any opposition to established
Roman Catholic doctrine in Italy was brutally crushed. Crusades against
heretics continued into the mid-fifteenth century across the country.

In the fourteenth century, a Dominican Catholic extremist, Fernando Martinez,

spent the majority of his time preaching against Jews. He could be regarded as
the 'Julius Streicher' of his day. He even managed to find a way to blame Jews
for the Black Death. Massacres of Jewish communities transpired in Catalonia,
Aragon and Castile. Many Jews ended up in slavery. In Seville alone, four
thousand Jews were murdered around this time. Later, Fernando Martinez was
promoted to a high position within the Roman Catholic Church.

During the early centuries of the Catholic Church Inquisitions, new decrees

43
were announced where Jews had to display emblems on their clothing
identifying themselves as Jews. Severe restrictions were imposed upon them.
This was similar to what was to transpire in Nazi Germany several hundred
years later, although during the time of the Inquisition, the Roman Catholic
Church had more direct involvement in the measure since at this time it ruled
supreme throughout Europe and so had virtually nothing to fear with regard to
international condemnation.

Fifteenth century Prague did not escape the Vatican's attention either. In 1408,
Pope Gregory XII made threats against Czech King Wenceslaus, forcing him to
deal with heretics in Prague. In 1432, Pope Eugenius IV sent Inquisitor
Giacomo della Marca to deal with perceived 'heresy' in Prague.

Bernardus Guidonis

In the early 1300s, Bernardus Guidonis arrived in Toulouse, France. After

becoming the Inquisitor of Toulouse, he was to 'excel' in his work in the eyes
of the Roman Catholic authorities and display enthusiasm to an extent that he
would later author a kind of Inquisitor's Guide.

In September 1316, Bernardus Guidonis (also known as Bernard Gui)

travelled to Lyon to serve Pope John XXII at the papal court. Gui was made
Procurator-General of the Dominican Order and was sent on a series of 'divine
missions' by the Pope.

During his seventeen years of service to the Roman Catholic Church in the
fourteenth century, Gui sentenced forty five people to death. A death sentence

44
often meant being burned alive. During this time, the Catholic Church
simultaneously ran a campaign against the Cathars that amounted to little less
than genocide.

Bernard Gui could not be considered an uneducated man for this time. He was
a writer, diplomat and theologian. It is perhaps difficult to gauge how he
reconciled his atrocities with what Jesus Christ had really stood for and taught
to his disciples. Gui's manual on the prosecution of inquisitions was entitled:
"Practica officii Inquisitions heretice pravitatis".

In his manual, Gui advocated the utilisation of 'tailored' methods of

interrogation for different religious minorities. In his writing, he described the
Jewish faith as "vomit" (despite the fact that Jesus himself had been a Jew). He
went on to describe the customs of the Cathars, whose religion was similar to
Hinduism in some respects, much to Gui's contempt.

One of Gui's methods of gathering evidence involved asking suspected Cathars

about their acquaintances with heretics and whether they had ever knowingly
allowed heretics into their homes. They were questioned on whether they had
ever spoken to anyone who had signalled any kind of disagreement or
opposition to the Roman Catholic Church. His manual also stated that
suspected Cathars were to be questioned about whether they had ever been
brought before any other Inquisitor. They were asked about their family's
ownership of 'heretical books'. This was all seen as 'evidence' for use by the
prosecution.

45
Waldensians were members of a relatively peaceful French religious sect that
was founded in the twelfth century. According to Gui, the Waldensians "added
ancient heresies and errors to their own imaginings". He then went on to list
their so-called 'errors'. One of these was that the Waldensians refused to
consider themselves subjects of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church.
Another 'error' was that the Waldensians took the bible "too literally". For
example, they held to the beliefs: "thou shall not kill" and "judge not, that you
may not be judged". The Waldensians maintained that judgement was a sin and
therefore forbidden by God, and that any judge who condemned someone to
death was disobeying God.

Gui presented all these 'errors' as examples in his inquisition manual as to how
the beliefs of the Waldensians differed from those of the Roman Catholic
Church, and should therefore be considered 'heretical'. He went on to describe
another 'heretical error' - that the Waldensians allowed "even women" to
perform the consecration of the body and blood of Christ. Celebrating mass
that was not presided over by an ordained Roman Catholic bishop was also
considered an 'error' by Gui.

Waldensians, forward-thinking as they were, were also despised by the Roman

Catholic Church for practising what could be considered an early form of
socialism, whereupon a new joiner would be required to hand over all their
money and possessions with the wealth then redistributed by the elders,
according to each member's needs. Gui went on to describe the "verbal
trickery and deceit" employed by the Waldensians in their attempts to avoid
detection.

46
Another sect known as the 'Apostles of Christ' were similarly targeted by
Bernard Gui and his masters within the Catholic Church. This particular sect
merely believed in a 'Church of God' as opposed to the authoritarian (and
significantly wealthy) priesthood comprising the Roman Catholic Church.

Gui maintained that another error of the Apostles of Christ was their belief that
sex was not sinful. One wonders how Gui proposed to bring about the
procreation that would lead to future popes, cardinals and bishops, if all good
Roman Catholics were to live without such "sin". Gui's proposed interrogation
methods for the Apostles of Christ included asking them about what kind of
clothes they wore and when, what they ate and when, and if they had confessed
their sins to priests in the past.

The suspected 'false apostles' (as they were known by the Catholic Church)
were also asked whether they considered that the Roman Catholic Church and
its Pope, cardinals and bishops were "good and holy", and to confirm that they
considered themselves subjects of the Pope and bound to obey him.

It is clear from this early writing by Bernard Gui that the Roman Catholic
Church was more a political institution than a religious one, similarly
hierarchical (and brutal) when compared alongside its Roman Empire
predecessor, although now able to do so much more under the guise of
'religion'.

Gui, in his somewhat twisted sense of logic and reason, goes on to state that

47
false apostles would refuse to confess their heresy, given that many heretics
were burned alive after confessing. He deduced that the suspect apostles would
not wish to suffer the same fate! He went on to state in his Inquisition manual
that because of this refusal to confess, the false apostles should be held in
prison until they did so.

Gui was likely to be implying that torture would be necessary in order to

extract confessions. During the reign of terror that was the Roman Catholic
Inquisition, high-ranking members of the Catholic Church, as shall be shown
later in this chapter, often favoured the use of 'euphemisms' when referring to
convicts being tortured or burned alive, so as not to appear to bring sin upon
themselves. They were, in their own twisted terminology, "keeping their souls
pure".

Next on Gui's persecution list were the sect known as the 'Beguin'. In his
manual, Gui went on to describe previous convictions and burnings for heresy
of Beguin heretics in the regions of Toulouse, Narbonne and Catalonia, from
1317 onwards. He went on to state that Beguins usually chose to be burned
alive rather than give up their "poisonous opinions". He described the Beguins
as "monkeys who act in imitation", in an attempt to further dehumanise them.
Another accusation from Gui was that Beguins secretly collected the ashes of
those burned as heretics.

Such 'dehumanisation' of fellow human beings could not have been further
from the true teachings of Jesus Christ. No interpretation of the Christian
gospels could come even remotely close to such wanton hatred and sadistic

48
cruelty, as that which Bernard Gui, his fellow Inquisitors and the leaders of the
Roman Catholic Church demonstrated time and time again, throughout these
centuries and the many that were to follow.

Another factor which made the Beguin 'guilty' in Gui's eyes was the Beguin
belief that wearing expensive clothes was 'contrary to the command of Christ'.
Many Beguin people even dared to preach against the vast wealth of the
Roman Catholic Church. Again, we glimpse here early evidence of the role of
the Roman Catholic Church as a wealthy political machine, as opposed to the
passive infrastructure of a peaceful religion. Their willingness to burn to death
those opposing their vast wealth goes some way toward understanding their
love of money and wealth, and their willingness to guard it at any cost.

Gui described the Beguin beliefs as the "mad and heretical assertions of the
infected Beguin sect". In his section on how to interrogate Beguins, Gui made
many references to the ultimate authority of Pope John XXII.

Finally, Gui moved onto the Jews in his Inquisition manual. He evidently saved
his most hated victims until last, as his wording became particularly vindictive
at this point: "Treacherous Jews try whenever and wherever they can to pervert
Christians secretly and lead them into Jewish treachery". He affirmed that
converted Jews who returned to, in his words: "The vomit of Judaism" would
be tried as heretics.

Gui finished off with a short section on sorcerers and fortune-tellers. After that

49
he went on to describe the sentencing guidelines, including the sentence of
death by being burned alive at the stake. Gui stated that being burned alive was
a just punishment, lawfully imposed by the Roman Catholic Church upon
heretics, upon anyone providing support, help or shelter to heretics and upon
anyone having any association with heretics.

Bernard Gui keep a record of the sentences he handed down between 1308 and
1322: Forty burned to death, three hundred imprisoned, sixteen houses
destroyed, among other lesser penalties.

The Lateran Council

At the Lateran Council in 1215AD, Pope Innocent III enacted regulations

governing the Catholic Church's attitude toward heretics. The Pope made it
absolutely clear that the secular authorities had a duty to implement death
sentences handed down to convicted heretics, by burning them alive at the
stake.

Pope Innocent III essentially institutionalised a legal system of 'guilty until

proven innocent' for suspected heretics. The legal system of the time also
prevented others from helping to defend or counsel suspects.

In 1228, new laws were enacted in Milan, Italy, whereby convicted heretics
had their houses demolished, their possessions confiscated and the heretics
sentenced to death, usually by being burned alive. The death sentence had to be
carried out within ten days of conviction. The Italian archbishops fully
cooperated with and encouraged the Inquisition in Italy.

In 1231, Pope Gregory IX enacted similar regulations for the capture and

50
condemnation of heretics in Rome. They were to be executed within eight days
of having been sentenced to death. After their execution, the heretic's property
and possessions were apportioned out. One third of the confiscated property
was given to the Inquisitor, one third to the senator of the region whose
jurisdiction the trial was held within, and one third went towards repairing the
city walls. Forfeited bail went to the Inquisitor in its entirety. The Inquisition
had become a highly profitable proposition for the Roman Catholic Church and
its adherents. The Inquisition quickly spread to Sicily, with many burnings of
heretics there too.

In 1234 a Florentine merchant from Paris, Accursio Aldobrandini, suspected

some of his acquaintances of heresy. Fearing that he might be prosecuted for
association with them, he travelled to Rome and appealed directly to Pope
Gregory IX. Far from sympathising or showing any compassion to
Aldobrandini, Pope Gregory ordered the Bishop of Florence to investigate
Aldobrandini and the others suspected of heresy.

Pope Gregory IX was to later proudly exclaim that the Inquisition was so
successful that it even sometimes led to family members, including Children,
denouncing each other as heretics. In the laws of thirteenth century Italy,
children could be used as witnesses in heresy cases. Their testimony was
sufficient to authorise the use of torture against suspected heretics. Families of
convicted heretics were forced to endure further persecution at the hands of the
Roman Catholic Church. Children would often end up living in poverty, due to
the heavy fines imposed upon the families of convicted heretics.

The Catholic Church confessional was supposed to be strictly confidential.

However, this confidentiality was often broken by priests eager to seek out and
persecute heretics.

In the Inquisition of Florence in 1245, Inquisitor Ruggieri Calcagni and Bishop

51
Ardingho cooperated together to pursue their victims. In Florence, the
Inquisition machinery ran at a steady pace, handing down death sentences and
executing convicted heretics on a daily basis. Up to three were executed at a
time.

During heresy trials, verdicts of acquittal were virtually unheard of, though
inquisitors would sometimes liberate prisoners. On the extremely rare
occasions when this did happen, Pope Innocent IV made it clear in 1247 that if
a liberated prisoner came under even the slightest suspicion a second time,
he/she would be punished harshly without even so much as a trial. However,
due to the vast sums of money that could be extorted from the victims of the
Roman Catholic Church, in 1247 Bishop Bertrand secured papal authority from
Pope Innocent IV to commute death sentences in return for huge monetary
payments by condemned heretics.

In the Papal Bull "Ad extirpanda", issued in May 1252 by Pope Innocent IV, all
rulers of Italy were legally required to arrest suspected heretics, after which
they were to be delivered to local Catholic bishops for trial. In addition to the
use of torture being prescribed in this Papal Bull, it was confirmed that the
families of executed heretics were to have all of their property and possessions
confiscated. Pope Innocent IV officially condoned the use of torture and
considered it a legitimate legal tool to be used against suspected heretics.

In 1254, the Council of Albi declared that even entering the house of a
suspected heretic would be enough to bring charges against someone.

By 1255, St. Louis and the Council of Beziers had a well organised scheme in
place for the vast wealth extorted from their victims. St Louis had also
considered it 'saintly' to steal as much as possible from the Jews of
Carcassonne in 1246. Plunder had become a fruitful Catholic Church enterprise
by this time. It was fully endorsed and considered reasonable by the Roman

52
Catholic Church.

In 1257 Pope Alexander IV would tolerate no one questioning the supremacy

of the Inquisition. He ordered the Bishop of Mantua to force the city of Mantua
to fully cooperate with the Roman Catholic Church in its reign of terror against
suspected heretics.

Around 1260 in Italy, Pope Alexander IV ordered the confiscation of property

owned by heretics in Rome and Spoleto 1. He gave an order for their estates to
be sold and the money given over to the Pope himself. The Roman Catholic
Church was, it would seem, not immune to monetary greed, in spite of its
professed 'Christian values'. A transaction recorded in 1261 shows that Pope
Urban IV managed to extort three hundred and twenty lire from confiscations
in Spoleto.

In 1262 the Roman Catholic Church was keen to maintain supreme authority
over all Inquisitions in Europe. Consequently, Pope Urban IV ordered that all
inquisitors were to report to an Inquisitor-General appointed by the Pope
himself. These were usually cardinals. In 1264, Pope Urban IV gave similar
permissions for confiscated wealth to find its way into the hands of the
Catholic Church in Rome.

In 1265, Pope Urban IV reiterated the Papal Order that the Inquisition was to
be considered in a way that did not allow it to be questioned for any reason. He
asserted that it was to be implemented in all Roman Catholic countries, which
at that time meant the vast majority of the European continent. Pope Urban IV,
in his extremely powerful position as the virtual ruler of Europe, further
asserted that any regional ruler or king questioning the authority of the
Inquisition or Roman Catholic Church was to be "appropriately punished".

Around seventy suspected heretics were arrested in Naples in 1269.

1 An ancient city in central Italy in the province of Perugia

53
Simultaneous orders to seize their property accompanied the arrests, so certain
were the officials that death sentences would follow the trials.

Such power of the Pope over virtually all of Europe was facilitated by the fact
that the masses of Europe had been successfully conditioned psychologically
by the Catholic Church into believing that the Pope was essentially the
"gatekeeper to paradise". In other words, the Pope's role was considered to be
alongside that of God. It therefore became surprisingly easy to ensure
obedience by the masses.

The inquisitors themselves were almost guaranteed to be safe from falling

under any kind of suspicion. Only the Pope himself could excommunicate
them. In other words, the inquisitors could commit virtually any kind of crime
with impunity, including 'heresy'. Their commissions as inquisitors could even
outlive the death of the current Pope. They were therefore free to use blackmail
and extortion to make money from those who might otherwise be prosecuted
by them. Throughout the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, corruption
was rife. Anyone acting to remove inquisitors for corruption ended up
themselves being prosecuted for heresy, and then condemned to death.

In 1296, Pope Boniface VIII continued and further encouraged the reign of
Inquisition terror with further Papal Bulls. Inquisitors came to have supreme
power in virtually all regions of Roman Catholic Europe. Anyone showing
opposition would be excommunicated by the Catholic Church, before being
condemned to be burned alive at the stake, often without trial. Frequently, the
orphaned children of the burned heretics would also be held under suspicion of
heresy.

In England, the Inquisition was slightly less barbaric than elsewhere in Europe.
However, King Henry V of England did allow a Roman Catholic Inquisition to
burn people alive in a statute established in 1414. This, and other similar

54
statutes, were repealed by later kings of England, paving the way for the
Protestant Reformation. As shall be described in a later chapter, there was a
brief reversion to brutality in England during the short reign of the fanatically
religious Roman Catholic Queen Mary Tudor.

In Naples in 1305, Fra Tomaso d'Aversa was known to have repeatedly tortured
members of a group known as 'Spiritual Franciscans'. One of his methods was
to capture a child, starve the child for a few days, then force him/her to drink
copious quantities of wine. After becoming extremely drunk, the child could
then easily be persuaded to report members of his/her family or friends for
heresy, thus securing further convictions and satisfying the blood-lust of the
inquisitors and bishops of Naples.

Bishops were encouraged by the Catholic Church authorities and the Pope to
absolve each other and to absolve torturers of any sin they may have
committed by torturing suspects. Thus, inquisitors found easy and satisfying
ways to free themselves of any guilt they might otherwise feel as a result of
their barbaric actions.

Atrocities attributed to the Inquisition of Carcassonne were brought to the

attention of Pope Clement V in 1306. He did little to try to stop it, especially
since men like Bernard Gui were strong advocates of the use of torture against
both suspects and witnesses.

Pope John XXII was known to be particularly vindictive. An enemy of his was
Hugues Gerold, Bishop of Cahors. Pope John had nurtured a grudge against
Gerold for many years, and soon after becoming Pope, he had Gerold arrested
in May 1317 on bogus charges, before having him promptly convicted and
sentenced. Later, Gerold was flayed alive and then burned at the stake. Making
an enemy of the Pope was definitely not something to be taken lightly. The
kind of "forgiveness" preached by Jesus Christ would definitely not have been

55
forthcoming.

In 1319 in Toulouse, three victims of the Inquisition, Guillem Salavert,

Guillem Calverie and Isarn Colli later withdrew confessions that had been
extracted from them under torture. They were later sentenced and burned to
death at the stake. Often victims of the Inquisition were kept in prison for years
while the Roman Catholic authorities patiently waited for them to make
confessions.

In Italy, Pope Benedict XI gave his blessing for a share of confiscated property
to go to the bishops "to aid the persecution of heresy". One can draw parallels
with the Nazis' use of money stolen from their victims to fund the persecution
of further victims, providing what could be described as an 'economic cycle of
persecution'. In 1319, money stolen from 'heretics' was used to build the
Church of Santa Reparata. Pope Benedict XI and Pope Eugenius IV were
known to have shared the proceeds of theft, greed and persecution with the
bishops.

Perhaps surprisingly, given the nature of the barbarity, burnings were a highly
organised and premeditated affair. An example of such organisation was a
statement of expenses found among the accounts of an official named Arnand
Assalit. These were expenses for the burnings of four heretics at Carcassonne
in April 1323. It included costs for wood, vine branches, straw, four stakes,
ropes with which to tie the condemned convicts and a fee paid to each of the
executioners. These were totalled up in a way that was chillingly similar to a
regular modern day ledger.

In 1336 at Angermuende, Friar Jordan had fourteen people burned alive for
heresy.

In 1387, the Waldensians of Piedmont were tortured. It had been very easy for
the torture to be authorised before its use. Often the testimony of one witness

56
was enough for the authorisation of torture to be granted for use against a
suspected heretic. Just 'knowing' a heretic, even one's own husband, wife,
mother or father would be enough to allow someone to be tortured for a
confession, condemned and then burned alive.

In mid-fifteenth century Lille1, the Vicar of the Inquisition and Bishop of

Tournay had a group of heretics burned alive after which they shared out the
proceeds of the victims' confiscated property. Even people who were already
dead were frequently condemned as heretics, with their family's property and
possessions appropriated by inquisitors, forcing scores of women and children
into poverty.

In 1313, Fra Grimaldo, the Inquisitor of Florence, condemned a deceased

grandfather and nobleman known as Gherardo of Florence for heresy. His
grandchildren: Goccia, Coppo, Fran Giovanni, Gherardo, Goccino, Baldino
and Marco were consequently stripped of all their property and possessions.
All money and possessions were seized, including even that which had not
been obtained by inheritance. They were consequently condemned to poverty.

Pope Gregory XI also proved to be devious with money. In 1375, he pressured

the King of Sicily to re-invest confiscated wealth back into the Inquisition. The
Pope also wanted the money used to aid the genocide of the Waldensians,
whom he bitterly despised.

In 1385, an angry Pope Urban VI had some of this enemies dealt with in a less
than forgiving manner. The Bishop of Aquila was tortured for a confession
under the orders of the Pope. In 1385, six cardinals had been accused of
conspiring against Pope Urban VI. After their arrests, Pope Urban stayed
within the vicinity of the torture chamber while the Cardinal of Venice was
tortured from early morning until dusk. Vindictive and full of hatred as he was,

1 A city in northern France

57
Urban VI had wanted to hear the screams of his victim and had also wanted to
feed continuous instructions to the torturer who he had appointed for the task.
The six cardinals kept imprisoned in a dungeon in Genoa.

In 1409, Pope Alexander V continued to ensure his inquisitors were well paid
and the Inquisitions well funded in all of the Roman Catholic kingdoms of
Europe. During his reign, Pope Boniface VIII ensured the secular authorities
understood that the penalty for convicted heretics was that they must be burned
alive at the stake.

In 1486, some magistrates in Brescia1 objected to the burning of some heretics.

The inquisitors were appalled by this and, a short time later, Pope Innocent
VIII intervened and threatened to charge the magistrates themselves with
heresy unless they burned the condemned heretics to death within six days.

In Sicily, an Inquisition was established in 1487. From 1519 to 1526, almost

thirty people were burned alive there.

In 1515, Pope Leo X signalled his approval for the Inquisition to continue,
having tightened the rules to a degree. At the same time, Pope Leo ordered that
heretics accused of witchcraft in Brescia and Bergamo 2 be condemned and
burned alive at the stake. This Pope did everything in his power to prevent
appeals by the convicted heretics.

Around the same period, Cardinal Robert of Geneva (later to become Pope
Clement VII) had a massacre carried out in Cesena 3, and later threatened to
have the citizens of Bologna massacred for heresy. In the sixteenth century,
other chillingly inventive methods of execution for heretics included having
1 Brescia is a city in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy

2 Bergamo is a city in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy

3 Cesena is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy

58
them slowly roasted to death over slow fires. It is perhaps hard to imagine how
the real Jesus Christ would have reacted to such acts of sadistic cruelty.

In 1554, Pope Julius III ordered that all Jewish books were to be burned. Later
in this chapter, it will be shown that many Muslim books were also burned by
the Roman Catholic Church's Inquisition across Europe.

Torture and the Roman Catholic Inquisition

The Inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church was highly organised in its use
of torture. It was fully endorsed, supported and encouraged by the Catholic
Church in Rome and every mechanical and technical detail of the torture that
was carried out against 'heretics' was pre-meditated, in every aspect of its
implementation.

Suspected heretics were usually held in the same building as the headquarters
of the Inquisition for a particular region of Europe. This was so that inquisitors
could enjoy taking an active role in extracting confessions. During the torture,
the word of two witnesses was sufficient to condemn a heretic to death.

Pope Sixtus IV appointed the infamous religious fanatic Tomas de Torquemada

to head the Supreme Council of the Inquisition in Rome. Torquemada had
written a set of rules for use by inquisitors. In Article 15 of these rules,
inquisitors were encouraged to use torture in cases where heresy was
considered to have been "half-proven". Furthermore, if a Catholic priest ended
up torturing someone to the extent that the victim died from his/her injuries,
the priest could easily obtain absolution for any sin he may have committed by
approaching a fellow priest.

Common methods of torture included the rack and torture using water, where
the victim would be subjected to partial drowning. Another method of torture

59
used by inquisitors was slowly roasting a victim's feet while the victim was
tied to a chair.

In many cases, it was actual Roman Catholic priests who carried out the
torture. Many other forms of torture were also used, including the 'Iron Maiden'
whereby a victim would be put inside a hollow statue containing jagged
protrusions and a metal door containing jagged protrusions would be slammed
into the victim, essentially giving them multiple knife wounds simultaneously,
often resulting in a slow and painful death.

In the later years of the Spanish Inquisition, when England began to turn to
Protestantism, the Spanish did not hesitate to capture English Protestants who
were unlucky enough to fall into their hands. This often happened when the
English traders were following shipping routes that happened to take them
close to Spanish coastlines.

On one occasion, a Protestant Scotsman, William Lithgow, was arrested in

Malaga1. He was urged to become a Roman Catholic. Taking his own view of
Christianity seriously, Lithgow refused. Consequently, he was taken by the
Spanish authorities and tortured on the rack for five hours at a time. Later, an
inquisitor condemned Lithgow to a further eleven different varieties of torture,
in order to 'persuade' him to become a Catholic. Lithgow was, however,
relatively lucky, as he was later rescued by English officials just before he was
due to be burned alive at the stake.

An event in the eighteenth century was described in a text written by J Baker

and John Marchant in 1734. It was entitled: "The History of the Inquisition as
it Subsists in the Kingdoms of Spain and Portugal to this Day". The event
described within this piece of historical evidence was the arrest of several
young girls by inquisitors in Aragon.

1 A city on the south coast of Spain

60
These young girls were not arrested because of their religious beliefs, but so
that they could be raped. They were repeatedly raped by the inquisitors under
threat of otherwise being tortured should they not 'cooperate'. They were
shown the torture chamber by the inquisitors who had captured them.

Refusing to eat pork would also be enough to condemn someone to be tortured

and later convicted of heresy and burned alive. The punishment of being
burned alive was later used by the Roman Catholic authorities in the
Netherlands against those Dutch who had converted to Protestantism.

Another innovative torture method included trapping mice against a victim's

chest by putting an upside-down pan over the top of them, and then heating the
pan. Having no way to escape the heat, the mice would panic and burrow their
way into the victim's flesh.

Inquisitors also consoled themselves that even if they accidentally condemned

an innocent Roman Catholic to death, it would be acceptable because the
victim would gain immediate access to paradise upon their execution.

In Spain, the burnings attracted large public crowds who enjoyed the spectacles
even more than traditional bull fights. Evidently torturing human beings to
death was more enjoyable for the Spanish "Christian" Roman Catholics than
torturing an animal to death.

The Roman Catholic Inquisition in Spain

In 1474 AD, Pope Sixtus IV ordered that an Inquisition be established in Spain.

In 1478 he issued the official Papal Bull pertaining to the Spanish Inquisition,
entitled "Exigit Sincerae Devotionis Affectus". In this document, Pope Sixtus
IV, representing the full force of the Roman Catholic Church, officially blamed
civil unrest in Spain on "those who have secretly returned to the observance of

61
the laws and customs of the Jewish faith".

In the fifteenth century, the King and Queen of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella,
were keen to bring the Roman Catholic religion to the whole of Spain, at any
cost. There were no lengths that they were not willing to go to in order to
achieve this aim. When Isabella came to the throne in Spain, she vowed to
"devote [her] life to the extirpation of heresy for the glory of God and the
Roman Catholic faith". The first Castilian1 inquisitors were appointed by the
Pope in September 1480.

After a conspiracy was uncovered against the inquisitors of Seville in Spain,

the inquisitors there ordered many arrests, and the first official burnings in
Spain (these were known by the Latin term 'auto de fe') of those convicted of
heresy took place in February 1481. Six people were burned alive. The
burnings were a well-organised affair and were preceded by a procession from
a convent to the cathedral. The procession was led by a Dominican priest and a
group of inquisitors.

The highly organised spectacle of burnings was surprisingly popular in its

ability to satiate the appetite of the Spanish public's blood-lust, in a similar way
to that provided by the Roman gladiatorial games of a thousand years earlier.
Another seventeen people were burned to death in March 1481. During these
first burnings in Spain, the victims were not simply burned alive in fires. They
were put inside hollow statues and slowly roasted alive in order to make their
death as slow and agonising as was humanly possible.

Burnings in Spain were then increased to around one group of executions a

month. Since the Roman Catholic Inquisition required more victims for what
was becoming an increasingly popular public event, Jews and Muslims were
often tortured or forced in some other way into betraying their friends and

1 Castile was the region coinciding with modern day Spain

62
family to the inquisitors.

Children were often forced by torture or other means into informing on their
parents over various 'heretical acts'. It was not enough that the children of those
condemned to burn be forced to live without parents. The property and
possessions of those executed would then be taken by the Roman Catholic
authorities, with the children then forced to survive in total poverty, or
alternatively sold into slavery.

Even those Jews and Muslims who had converted to the Roman Catholic
religion were not safe and were often targeted and accused of heresy anyway.
Thousands of innocent people living in Seville, Spain, suffered torture and
brutal execution. Roman Catholic friars were eager to discover 'heretics'.

There was one particular documented case of a friar who would climb onto the
roof of St. Paul's Convent on Saturday mornings so he could accuse those in
houses with no smoke coming from their chimneys of being 'heretical Jews'. A
smokeless chimney was enough to put the people living in those houses in the
torture chamber and then condemn them to be burned alive at the stake.

Even Jesus Christ's real adversaries the Romans had shown less brutality than
his so-called "followers" over one thousand years after his death. A person of
any race or religion could become a Roman citizen and would have been
allowed to live in peace, provided they obeyed the rules of the Roman Empire.

By November 1481, three hundred people had been sentenced to death and
burned alive in Seville alone. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain
were pleased with the results, not least because they they were able to
confiscate the possessions of those who had been condemned, thus increasing
their own rapidly mounting wealth. Much of this wealth was used to equip the
Spanish army for the mass murder and oppression of the Moorish Muslims of

63
Granada1.

From 1481 to 1488, over seven hundred people were burned in Seville alone,
with the blessing of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Sixtus, evidently
pleased at the results of the Inquisition in Spain, appointed yet more religious
fanatics to a council directing the Inquisition's activities, including eight
Dominican extremists.

With the support of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain, Pope Sixtus
IV appointed the infamous religious fanatic Tomas de Torquemada to head the
Supreme Council of the Inquisition in Rome. He was also made Inquisitor-
General of Castile. He had been given supreme power over all inquisitors in
Roman Catholic Europe and an even finer degree of control over the then-
powerful and influential Roman Catholic kingdom of Spain.

Around fifty people were burned in 1483 and 1484 in the small Spanish town
of Ciudad Real. Some Jews committed suicide to escape the Inquisition, such
was their desperation. Many escaped to the far more enlightened and tolerant
Muslim countries of the time, including Egypt.

Another fifty two people were burned to death at Guadalupe 2 in 1485. Over
two thousand people across Spain were burned alive over the course of several
years. Dominican friar and Inquisitor Tomas de Torquemada subsequently
expanded the Inquisition, having been given full support by the Roman
Catholic Church and the Spanish monarchy. Queen Isabella of Spain described
him as "an angel from heaven". His many victims were unlikely to have
agreed. By 1502, another one hundred and sixteen people had been burned
alive.
1 A historical province of southern Spain and the name of a modern day city
in southern Spain

2 A small town in Spain, approximately 150km south-west of Madrid

64
In 1490, Torquemada had hundreds of Jewish books burned. Around six
thousand volumes were burned. Further south, the same thing was about to
happen to Muslim books.

Upon Torquemada's death, Diego de Deza took over as Inquisitor-General in

Spain. Many Jews had tried to escape Spain in the mass exodus of 1492.
However, missing their country, some tried to return to Spain as Christians.
Deza issued an edict that all former Jews who entered Spain should be
executed, with their property confiscated by the state.

The well-known Inquisition historian Juan Antonio Llorente ascertained that

during Deza's term as Inquisitor-General, from 1498 to 1507, over two
thousand five hundred people were burned alive and around thirty five
thousand were imprisoned and lost all their property and possessions.

Crimes Committed by Spain and the

Roman Catholic Church Against Muslims

Pope Alexander VI appointed a man named Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros to

the office of Archbishop of Toledo in October 1495, much to the delight of
Queen Isabella. He was also known by the name Ximénes de Cisneros and
often just as Archbishop Ximénes.

After the Moorish Muslim city of Granada surrendered to the Roman Catholic
armies of Spain, Ximénes was not willing to tolerate Islam. He was determined
to convert the Muslims of Granada to the Roman Catholic religion at any cost.

Upon gaining control of Granada, Archbishop Ximénes had thousands of

Muslim books burned. This included everything from advanced medical texts
to religious ones. Ximénes' goal was the total and permanent obliteration of
Muslim culture in all of Spain. Being deprived of their literature and culture,

65
such crimes were to have a severe affect upon Muslims and Arabs for centuries
to come. Many of the oppressed and brutalised Muslims managed to escape to
Arab countries to avoid persecution and murder at the hands of the Spanish
Roman Catholic fanatics.

In 1499, Cardinal Jimenez/Ximénes de Cisneros was made Inquisitor-General

of Spain. He arrived in Granada for the specific purpose of persecuting
Moorish Muslims. The Muslims were treated with such brutality and cruelty
that many begged to be baptised as Roman Catholics after several days of
imprisonment and torture.

Those Moorish Muslims whose lives were spared and who had not managed to
escape Spain, were forcibly converted to Catholicism. After being converted,
they were known as 'moriscos'. Even after having been converted, they still
continued to be targeted by Spanish inquisitors eager to secure more
convictions.

The inquisitors found easy prey in the form of converted Jews and Muslims, no
matter how committed the converts were to the Roman Catholic religion and
the Catholic Church. Thus, many of the converted former Muslims and former
Jews ended up being convicted of heresy and burned at the stake. After being
slaughtered, their possessions and property were taken by the Roman Catholic
authorities.

In 1507, Pope Julius II re-confirmed the appointment of Ximénes as

Inquisitor-General of Castile (Spain). Ximénes remained as committed as ever
to an all-Catholic Spain. As a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal
Ximénes was within the top four most powerful positions within the Catholic
Church.

In 1509, a Spanish fleet blessed and accompanied by Ximénes invaded

66
Mazalquivir1, a Muslim city in North Africa. Ximénes, wearing a Franciscan
costume and riding a mule beside the soldiers, carried a large silver cross and
spent much of his time praying.

They moved on to the city of Oran2. After Oran surrendered to the Spanish
Roman Catholic army that was carrying out an invasion of North Africa,
Cardinal Ximénes sat and prayed whilst his soldiers murdered, raped and
pillaged the local Muslim population. Approximately four thousand North
African Muslims were slaughtered on this day in Oran, on 16th May 1509 AD.

Ximénes joyfully declared that the 'victory' was due to Christ and he
announced official possession of the city. Bodies of men, women and children
lined the streets of Oran.

In eastern Spain in 1521, tens of thousands of Muslims were massacred.

Mosques were turned into churches. Even after many Muslims continued to
accept baptism into the Roman Catholic faith in Polop 3, over five hundred of
them were nevertheless murdered shortly after their baptism.

After his death, Ximénes was praised by many, including Pope Leo X. Many
high-ranking officials within the Roman Catholic Church declared Ximénes
worthy of sainthood. The many victims of Ximénes included over three
thousand five hundred innocent people burned to death at the stake and almost
fifty thousand people punished with lesser sentences, including being stripped
of their homes and all of their possessions. These figures do not include the
thousands of Moorish Muslims massacred by Ximénes' army in Mazalquivir
and Oran in North Africa.

1 A coastal city in modern day Algeria, North Africa

2 A city in modern day Algeria, North Africa

3 A city near the east coast of Spain, about 140km south of Valencia

67
The Spanish Inquisition in the Sixteenth
Century

An inquisitor named Diego Rodriguez Lucero was in control of Cordoba 1 in

1506. Lucero became known for his appetite for young women. When the
parents of young women he wanted as mistresses refused to hand them over, he
had the parents taken away, convicted of heresy on trumped up charges, and
burned to death. He then took the young women and was even known to have
had children with some of them. Inquisitor Lucero's appetite for rape was
surpassed only by his appetite for sadistic cruelty. One of Reverend Inquisitor
Lucero's favourite phrases was: "Give me a Jew and I will give you him
burned".

Children were also known to have been tortured in the early sixteenth century
in Cordoba. Under threat of further torture, children were forced to learn
Jewish prayers so that they could then be more easily convicted of heresy by
Lucero and his fellow inquisitors, being being burned alive.

The Inquisition historian Juan Antonio Llorente had access to the actual
records, and these showed that during the years of the Inquisition in Andalusia
alone, over two thousand five hundred people were pre-meditatively murdered
by those representing the Roman Catholic Church.

By 1526, the Muslims of Aragon had undergone extreme oppression at the

hands of the Roman Catholic Inquisition. During the heresy trials, a standard
piece of evidence used to prosecute Muslims for the 'crime' of practising their
religion was for the inquisitor to ask whether or not they knew who
'Muhammad' was. The first burnings of heretics in Granada took place in May

1 Known as 'Cordova' in English, this is a city in Andalusia in modern-day

southern Spain

68
1529.

Paedophilia also existed within the Catholic Church of this historical period.
During the reign of Pope Innocent VIII, Friar of the Order of St. Jerome,
Joseph Peralta, raped a boy of fourteen. The friar was punished with
confinement to his monastery whereas the child victim of his crime was
blamed for his rape and was then lashed to death in public.

In Sicily, over seventy people were burned alive between 1511 and 1516.
Thirty five people were burned alive in 1513 alone. Many had confessed under
torture.

Slavery was also common in Spain in the late fifteenth century. African slaves
were found to be a good source of cheap labour. There is no evidence in the
bible or otherwise that Jesus Christ himself found slavery to be acceptable in
any way or for any reason. On the contrary, Jesus Christ, a Jew himself, often
celebrated Jewish ceremonies which were themselves celebrations of innocent
people liberating themselves from slavery.

On 14th May 1558, a letter was written by the Inquisitor-General of Spain,

Fernando de Valdes: "...Together with this, and at the same time, the law of
Moses, which had been thought to have been extinguished in these kingdoms,
began to renew itself in Murcia1, where many guilty people were found, some
of whom were punished in a public Auto". 'Auto' was the Latin term for a
public event where one or more convicted 'heretics' were burned alive at the
stake.

In 1562, nineteen Jews and several Muslims were burned alive in Murcia.
More Jews were burned the following year. In 1569, some people in Murcia
even took the somewhat dangerous step of complaining to the Catholic Church
authorities in Rome that over five hundred people had been burned alive in
1 A city in south-eastern Spain

69
their city.

In 1563, the Archbishop of Granada made an agreement with Pope Pius IV that
all remaining Moorish Muslims were to be forcibly converted to the Roman
Catholic faith. Any speaking or writing of Arabic was banned. Any remaining
copies of the Qur'an were burned. Further laws against Islam were then enacted
whereby all Muslim children between the ages of three and fifteen were to be
taken from their parents and 're-educated' according to the doctrine of the
Roman Catholic Church.

In the late sixteenth century, thousands more of the remaining Muslim Moors
were murdered by Spanish Roman Catholics; they slaughtered men, women
and children. The Pope proclaimed the Spanish victors "Champions of
Christendom".

In Toledo in 1590, a cobbler named Alonso de Salas was tortured to death. The
majority of people brought before the Inquisition in Valencia 1 and Zaragoza2
between 1580 and 1610 were known to have been tortured. The torture, and
often the mere threat of it, led to confessions as well as suicides. In the late
fifteenth century, there were many burnings in Zaragoza. Victims included
Micer Pablo Lopez de Villanueva and his father Juan Fernando Lopez de
Villanueva, both of whom were burned to death at the stake. In 1596, torture of
'heretics' was continuing apace in Valencia.

Torture was known about and even encouraged by those at the very highest
ranking positions of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1591, the secretary of the
Suprema in Madrid, Pablo Garcia, wrote a detailed 'torture guide' for
inquisitors. The attention to detail in the document was startling. It prescribed a
highly pre-medicated and controlled approach to every aspect of the physical
1 A city on the east coast of Spain

2 A city and province in north-eastern Spain

70
torture itself, in addition to what the inquisitors were supposed to say to the
victim during their torture.

The Inquisition also found its way to the Spanish Canary Islands in the
sixteenth century. During the reign of Tomas de Torquemada, almost nine
thousand people were burned to death and almost one hundred thousand
suffered lesser sentences. These figures come from the historian Juan Antonio
Llorente, whose sources were the actual records of the Inquisition itself.

The Moorish Muslims were continuing to suffer in 1609. By this time, the
Roman Catholic rulers of Spain wanted them driven from Spain permanently.
During this period in the early seventeenth century, thousands of Moors fled to
the mountains but were hunted down and massacred by soldiers following the
orders of the Roman Catholic Church. Many of the Moors starved to death.
Many Moorish women were raped by Spanish soldiers, who then took their
children and sold them into slavery.

By 1615, the majority of Moorish Muslims who had been living in southern
Spain had been either massacred or driven out of the country. The historian
Llorente suggested that up to one million Muslims had been driven out of
Spain or murdered. The Roman Catholic Church's pursuit of an all-Roman
Catholic Spain resulted in what essentially amounted to the genocide of the
Moors of southern Spain.

The Spanish Inquisition in the Eighteenth

Century

As late as 1728, another forty five Moorish Muslims were condemned to death
by the Inquisition in Spain. By this time the majority had converted to
Catholicism under threat of death. Muslim converts were referred to as

71
'moriscos' (Jewish converts to Catholicism were referred to similarly as
'conversos'). 'Moriscos' continued to be a convenient and easy target of the
Spanish Inquisition and were often accused of practising Islam before being
tortured and condemned to death.

The Roman Catholic Inquisition in Portugal

In 1376, Pope Gregory XI ordered the Bishop of Lisbon to appoint a

Franciscan Inquisitor for Portugal. This Inquisition was to be funded by
confiscations of property and possessions from those deemed to be guilty of
heresy.

The Roman Catholic kingdom of Portugal was under the reign of Manoel I in
April 1497. Manoel ordered that all Jewish children under the age of 14 be
taken from their parents, forcibly baptised as Roman Catholics, and then
permanently taken away to be 're-educated' according to the Roman Catholic
faith.

In 1506, a Portuguese mob, encouraged by local Catholic Dominican friars, ran

through the streets of Lisbon, seizing Jews, including Jews who had previously
converted to Catholicism. The lucky ones were killed immediately. The less
lucky amongst them were taken and thrown on bonfires to be burned alive.
Around five hundred people were brutally murdered during this event in
Lisbon in 1506. The following days saw a continuation of the atrocities; almost
two thousand people were murdered.

When John III took the throne as King of Portugal in 1521, he was keen to
copy the Spanish example and instate an organised reign of Inquisition terror in
Portugal too. Jews were increasingly targeted by regional friars in Portugal, in
part owing to a lack of Muslims and other minorities to persecute. Had

72
Muslims and other minorities been present in significant numbers in Portugal,
these too would undoubtedly have faced similar persecution.

The Inquisition in Portugal was officially established in May 1536, after a

Papal Bull issued by Pope Paul III. Pope Paul III and King John of Portugal
worked together to appoint inquisitors. Cardinal Henry was appointed
Inquisitor-General in 1539. The first burning in Portugal was in Lisbon in
1540. Burnings in other smaller cities in Portugal continued in the following
decades.

After Martin Luther and others began the Protestant Reformation, the new
Christians were also added to the death list by the Portuguese Roman Catholic
authorities, and many Lutherans were subsequently burned alive in Portugal.
There was a burning in the small Portuguese city of Coimbra in 1567. In
similar fashion to the atrocities in Spain, Muslims who had converted to
Catholicism were often targeted and accused of heresy by the Inquisition in
Portugal.

Refraining from eating pork would be enough to condemn a Jew or Muslim.

For Muslims, refraining from drinking wine or singing Moorish songs was
enough for them to be condemned by the Portuguese Roman Catholic
inquisitors.

Later in the sixteenth century, Pope Gregory XIII granted powers to Cardinal
Henry to put people on trial for 'sodomy'. Presumably, this was to include
anyone suspected of homosexuality.

There is abundant historical evidence that even as late as the seventeenth

century in Portugal, children as young as twelve were having confessions
extracted from them by torture.

The Inquisition in Portugal was still continuing in the late eighteenth century,

73
with many prisoners committing suicide amid appalling prison conditions.
After the Reformation began, one could also be convicted of heresy in Portugal
for being a Protestant.

In January 1639 in Lisbon, another eleven heretics were burned to death.

The Roman Catholic Inquisition in England

In 1325, Pope Benedict XII wrote to King Edward III, complaining about the
lack of an Inquisition in England.

Later, a reformation of the Catholic Church in England was initiated by King

Henry VIII. His motives were in part due to a desire for a Church of England
that was not answerable to Rome, thus increasing England's autonomy as a
sovereign state. After much resistance, Henry VIII eventually succeeded in
bringing about this reform, which was seen by many as a component of the
larger Protestant Reformation taking place in continental Europe during the
same period.

In England there was, however, a brief return to Roman Catholic brutality

when Mary Tudor became Queen. She was the daughter of Henry VIII and
Katherine of Aragon. A 'devout' Roman Catholic loyal to her Spanish mother,
Mary Tudor became commonly known as 'Bloody Mary' on account of her
atrocities, which included the burning to death of Protestants.

Fortunately for England, Mary Tudor's reign, and consequently her 'reign of
terror', was brief. When the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne,
one of her first acts was to repeal the heresy laws that had been re-instated by
Queen Mary. After England became decidedly Protestant thanks to Queen
Elizabeth I, many reforms were put in motion. Jews were also allowed back
into England.

74
The Roman Catholic Inquisition in Ireland

In Catholic Ireland, the Franciscan Bishop of Ossory, Richard Ledred, pursued

heresy with a vigour that the Roman Catholic Church would have been proud
of. Ledred succeeded in persuading the secular authorities in Ireland to
prosecute 'heretics'. The bishop was delighted when he got the chance to burn
some heretics to death in 1325.

Bishops and inquisitors often cooperated together in countries where

successive Popes had established an Inquisition. Ireland was no exception.

Scandinavia and the Nordic Countries

The Inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church did not take hold in Denmark or
Scandinavia, paving the way for the Protestant Reformation to gain early
momentum in these more forward-thinking and enlightened cultures. Liberal
values and tolerance was to gain an early hold in the Nordic countries. Such
values have existed to the present day.

The Catholic Church Inquisition in Goa,

India

Goa is now a state in modern day India, but in the sixteenth century it was
under colonial Portuguese control, Portugal having savagely conquered this
part of India. Not even Hindus were safe from Roman Catholic oppression and
persecution. Around 1545, an Inquisition was set up in Goa. Children were
taken from their parents to be brought up as Roman Catholics. Seven people
were burned alive for heresy in Goa in 1574. Another four were burned alive in
1585. Sixty five people were burned to death in Goa, India, from 1571 to 1580

75
by the occupying Roman Catholic Portuguese oppressors.

In 1676, Hindus and anyone else accused of not having converted to

Catholicism were still being burned alive for heresy in this part of India. As
late as 1768, innocent Indians were being burned to death by the Portuguese
Roman Catholic invaders, merely for practising their own religion, Hinduism,
in their own country.

The Roman Catholic Inquisition in South

America

The Inquisition, perpetrated by the Roman Catholic Church and its adherents,
was not confined to Europe by any means; it reached a truly global dimension.
The Spanish perpetrated the Inquisition equally, if not even more savagely, in
the Spanish-occupied South American territories.

In the 1530s, Episcopal Inquisitor Bishop Juan de Zumarraga had Native

Americans1 burned simply for promoting their native local religions.

In 1627, Francisco Maldonado de Silva was arrested for heresy in Chile.

Eleven years later, inquisitors sentenced him to burn.

As late as 1649, there was a public burning in Mexico City, presided over by
Inquisitor Manozca. The zeal with which Spain and the Roman Catholic
Church attempted to force Catholicism upon South America was particularly
brutal. Torture had become routine in Mexico by the seventeenth century.

The use of Torture was also prevalent in Colombia and Peru as a means of
converting the populace to the Roman Catholic faith and then ensuring that
they did not deviate from Catholic Church doctrine. Lesser sentences imposed

1 Often (incorrectly) referred to as 'American Indians' or 'Red Indians'

76
in South America included being forced to become a 'galley slave' for a
number of years, a punishment which often amounted to death.

Trials often dragged on for many years through attempts to elicit confessions.
Manuel Henriques, a prisoner in Lima, Peru, was kept imprisoned for almost
thirty years before being burned alive in 1664.

Under the control of Roman Catholic Spain and Portugal, slavery flourished in
Latin America and Africa. In Brazil in 1737, there is historical evidence that a
plantation owner named Pedro Pais Machado tortured one of his slaves to
death.

There is further recorded evidence that, in 1740, a wealthy resident of Bahia,

Brazil, named Garcia de Avila Pereira Aragao, was known to have tortured a
three year old slave girl by burning her face. He also tortured a six year old boy
by dripping hot candle wax on him, laughing as the children screamed in pain.
Aragao was evidently well known for his sadistic indulgences.

Atrocities such as these were highly unlikely to have been committed by the
native tribes of Brazil. Although the various Popes and the Vatican were
unlikely to have known about individual cases such as these, these individual
cases were nevertheless an accurate reflection of a Roman Catholic Church that
itself promoted a reign of terror in its attempts to force Catholicism upon the
world at large.

Throughout the centuries, the Roman Catholic Church was fully aware of, and
indeed promoted and encouraged, the burnings, the use of torture, the crimes
against humanity and the atrocities against men, women and children, that were
perpetrated in the name of the Roman Catholic religion, however "un-
Christian" that may have seemed to anyone with even a vestigial sense of
human compassion.

77
78
Chapter 4: The Counter Reformation

The Counter-Reformation was essentially the term, perhaps more appropriately

described as the "euphemism", for the reaction of the Roman Catholic Church
to the Protestant Reformation of Martin Luther, John Calvin and others. The
Reformation began as a result of a justified protest against the corruption,
brutality and barbarity of the Roman Catholic Church, its leaders and its
representatives. During the period of the Reformation and Counter-
Reformation, it became fashionable to accuse Jews, Muslims, Protestants and
other minorities of 'witchcraft' in addition to traditional accusations of 'heresy'.
It was essentially another weapon for use in the Inquisition arsenal.

Witchcraft and the Roman Catholic Church

Around 1330 AD, Pope John XXII proclaimed: "Many are Christians in name
only. They bind themselves to demons and make images, rings and mirrors for
magical purposes. They make a pact with hell". Such was the neurotic attitude
of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church at that time, and it was to continue
for several more centuries.

Unsurprisingly, many Jews were accused of witchcraft. A trial in Frankfurt,

Germany in 1407 involved the alleged sale of a child to a Jewish sorcerer. In
the 1420s in Dauphine, a province in south-eastern France, around one hundred
and twenty women and sixty men were burned to death for witchcraft.

In 1426, Pope Martin V ordered one of his own people, preacher Bernardino of
Siena, to stand trial in Rome for witchcraft. In 1437, Pope Eugenius IV
pressured his inquisitors to work harder to bring 'witches' to justice, which
invariably meant having them burned alive, sometimes by being agonisingly

79
roasted over slow fires.

There were many trials from 1428 to 1500 in the Alpine regions of Italy. From
1459 to 1462, in Arras, northern France, there were many witchcraft trials and
many burnings.

In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued a Papal Bull supporting and further
encouraging the efforts of the Inquisition, and this led to further pursuit of
'witches', among others considered heretics by the Roman Catholic Church.

Burning people alive for witchcraft took off with some measure of popularity
in Germany. Towards the end of the fifteenth century, in the town of
Ravensburg1, around fifty people were burned to death for witchcraft over a
period spanning five years. In Geneva, Switzerland, around five hundred were
burned alive over three months.

At one time, in Savoy, France, almost one thousand innocent people were
condemned to death for witchcraft. In Spain, around thirty five people were
burned alive for witchcraft in the Biscay province in 1507. In 1517, there were
burnings for witchcraft in Catalonia.

Not far from the Vatican in northern Italy, thousands of people were burned
alive for witchcraft, all under the approving eye of the Roman Catholic
Church. Old women proved to be especially easy targets.

In England and Scotland, around thirty thousand people were burned for
witchcraft and heresy.

Between 1500 and 1550, a religious reform movement known as Anabaptists

were gaining influence in Germany. They were relatively peaceful, but were
nevertheless hunted down by Roman Catholic German bishops, such as Bishop
Von Waldeck. In Italy in 1542, Pope Paul III re-confirmed anti-Protestant
1 A town in southern Germany close to the Swiss border

80
inquisitions, equating Protestants with 'witches'.

In the Netherlands in 1567, over one thousand Protestants were executed by the
Roman Catholic authorities there, under King Philip II and Margaret of Parma,
Governor of the Netherlands. Later that century, the newly formed Protestant
Dutch Republic managed to rid itself of Spanish and Catholic Church influence
after which persecution for heresy was abolished.

In 1540, the Society of Jesus was established by Pope Paul III. Members of this
strict Roman Catholic society came to be known as 'Jesuits'. Pope Paul used
them as a means of opposing Protestantism in Europe and also for forcing the
Roman Catholic religion upon the newly discovered lands of America, China,
Japan, India and Brazil.

From September 1567 to August 1570, in France, Juan de Maldonado, a

professor of the Jesuit College in Paris, lectured Roman Catholics to
vigorously oppose Protestant 'heretics' and 'witches'. On August 24th, 1572,
Roman Catholic mobs slaughtered around three thousand Protestants in Paris.
This was on St. Bartholomew's Day and came to be known as the "St.
Bartholomew's Day Massacre". Towards the end of the sixteenth century and
beginning of the seventeenth century, a Jesuit named Martin Del Rio continued
to spread hatred against minorities in France until his death in 1608.

Pope Paul IV reigned from 1555 to 1559. He was well known for his hatred of
Jews and Protestants. Pope Paul considered all of them 'heretics' and urged the
continued persecution of Protestants and Jews living in Rome. Pope Paul IV
was himself a former Inquisitor of Rome.

During the control of the Netherlands by Franciscan Roman Catholics, many

hundreds of innocent people were burned alive in Amsterdam for 'witchcraft'
between 1535 and 1564. Franciscans and Dominicans were Roman Catholic
Orders of preaching monks, answerable only to the Pope.

81
Pope Gregory IX (1227 to 1241) had endorsed the Franciscans and Dominicans
as instruments to be used by the Roman Catholic Church against 'heretics'.
This, and later endorsements by the Catholic Church, led to the Dominican and
Franciscan Orders being utilised as a pool of recruits from which to appoint
inquisitors.

Thousands of 'witches' were burned alive in Germany and France during this
fanatical period in history. Between 1562 and 1630, there are estimated to have
been something in the order of one hundred thousand witchcraft trials across
Europe, with around fifty thousand executions, the majority of which were
burnings at the stake.

Accusations of witchcraft, followed by torture and brutal executions by

burning alive, had become to a greater or lesser extent a 'sport' in Roman
Catholic Europe, and one that was fully condoned, sanctioned and promoted by
the Roman Catholic Church.

In Germany, the first decades of the seventeenth century saw brutal oppression
of Protestants by Roman Catholic bishops. Bavaria was engulfed by witch-
hunts, and these too were perpetrated by German Catholic bishops. Two
successive bishops of Bamberg had around one thousand five hundred people
executed for witchcraft. Two bishops of Würzburg executed around one
thousand two hundred people, three bishops of Mainz had another one
thousand eight hundred people executed and Archbishop Ferdinand of Bavaria,
who ruled from 1612 until 1650, had more than two thousand people executed
for witchcraft.

Also in Germany, the harsh winter of 1586 on the banks of the Rhine led to
around one hundred and twenty people, most of them women, being accused of
cursing the weather, after which they were promptly burned alive. Confessions
had been extracted from them under torture.

82
In the Basque region of Spain from 1608 to 1609, dozens of people were tried
for witchcraft and burned alive at the stake.

Roman Catholic regions of Germany were still carrying out torture, executions
and burnings for witchcraft as late as 1628. In 1615, this included the torture
and execution of a sixteen year old girl. Many other children in Germany were
accused of witchcraft for having been baptised as Lutherans instead of Roman
Catholics.

On 28th November 1619, in Milan, Italy, two people were executed for
witchcraft after being condemned by a Milan court. On 20th March 1623, Pope
Gregory XV enacted a Papal Bull entitled "Omnipotentis Dei". In this Vatican
order, the Pope officially advocated the death penalty for 'witchcraft', even for
first time offenders. Anyone accused of having "apostatised to Satan" was
targeted.

Roman Catholic Poland remained relatively peaceful until 1648, when a more
militant Roman Catholic movement reared its head. At this time, anyone
suspected of witchcraft, heresy, of being a Jew, Muslim or Protestant, could
easily become a target. Burnings to death then followed in Poland too, though
the savagery was practised to a lesser degree than in the Roman Catholic
countries farther west in Europe. The Polish did not demonstrate quite the same
level of brutality and sadism as was in existence in Spain, Germany, France
and Italy during this period in history.

In Ireland, a witchcraft statute was enacted by the Irish parliament in 1586.

One arrest involved a Protestant minister, John Aston, who was charged with
"using magic". People were still being prosecuted for witchcraft in Ireland as
late as 1661.

Witchcraft was heavily pursued by the Roman Catholic Church in France. It

was the custom in France to capture suspected 'witches', then strip and beat

83
their children in public while their parents were burned alive.

One source of historical evidence from the Inquisition records estimated that
over a one hundred and fifty year period, from the beginning of the fifteenth
century, some thirty thousand innocent people were burned alive for
'witchcraft' in France alone by the Roman Catholic Church authorities there.
The liberalising influence of the French Revolution and Napoleonic era were
yet to come to pass in France.

The following Popes declared that "all good Catholics" had a duty to burn
witches: Pope Innocent VIII, Pope Calixtus III, Pope Pius II, Pope Alexander
VI, Pope Julius II, Pope Leo X, Pope Adrian VI and Pope Clement VII.

All exploited the use of Papal Bulls to institutionalise the mass murder and
atrocities that ensued. Anyone deemed a threat to the Roman Catholic Church
was considered a legitimate target by these "good Christian" Popes, however
delusional those threats were in reality.

The Abolition of Witchcraft in a few

Pockets of Civilisation

One of the earliest countries to abolish witch-hunts and trials for witchcraft
was the Protestant Dutch Republic (the modern day Netherlands). After
managing to rid itself of oppressive Spanish rule and that of the Roman
Catholic Church, the Netherlands entered a golden age and prospered like no
other country in Europe. Such a forward-thinking and enlightened attitude was
thanks, in no small part, to the Dutch Protestant House of Orange.

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King William III of England

In England, it was the fear of a return to the oppression of the Roman Catholic
Church that led to a second - though largely peaceful - English revolution. At
this time, a group of influential Protestants in England's parliament secretly
conspired with the Dutch House of Orange to take measures to sustain
England's liberal Protestant form of Christianity (known as 'Anglicanism').
Consequently, a Dutch invasion force led by the Protestant Prince William of
Orange landed on England's south-east coast in November 1688.

Known as the "Glorious Revolution", Prince William of Orange was welcomed

by the British people as someone who could unite the country against the
tyranny of Roman Catholic rule. He was made King William III of England,
after which William III enacted a series of sweeping reforms of the English
constitution at the core of which lay the 1689 Bill of Rights, a document which
arguably formed the very basis of global democracy and a document which
helped to form the very foundation of the United States Constitution.

The Netherlands has remained one of the most socially progressive and
advanced countries in the world to the present day.

Continuing Atrocities by the Roman

Catholic Church

In the Basque region of Spain, six 'witches' were burned alive in Logrono in
1610. Over one thousand of those who had been interrogated for witchcraft
were children under the age of twelve. Even as late as 1781, a Spanish woman
named Maria de los Dolores Lopez was burned alive at the stake for heresy.

In Roman Catholic Hungary, there were about a hundred witchcraft trials in

85
each decade between 1710 and 1750. In the German Empire at the end of the
seventeenth century, the majority of Protestant rulers had abandoned witchcraft
trials, but they were still continuing in the majority of Roman Catholic courts
in Germany.

The Spanish Inquisition during the

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation began in the early sixteenth century. Martin Luther
was born in the town of Eisleben, Saxony 1, in 1483. Luther was the type of
character who worked hard, studied hard and became well educated in the
humanities early on in his life. He opposed what he saw as corruption within
the Roman Catholic Church. Many of those appointed by Pope Leo X wanted
Martin Luther burned alive for his opposition to financial and other corruption
within the Catholic Church.

In 1518, Luther was summoned to Augsburg 2 by the Roman Catholic

authorities in Germany. Due to his high intelligence, strong educational
background and standard of conduct, Luther successfully prevented the
Catholic Church authorities from mounting a case against him. However, as
has already been demonstrated, the Roman Catholic Church was not an
institution to give up easily. A Papal Bull was issued by the Pope in 1520,
forbidding any country from tolerating the teachings of Martin Luther.

This move signalled the beginning of what is known as the 'Reformation'.

Unfortunately, but inevitably, the Reformation also had the effect of providing
the Roman Catholic Church's Inquisition with a steady supply of new victims.

1 Saxony is a state located in the south-eastern part of modern-day Germany

2 A city in Bavaria, Germany

86
Burnings of Lutheran books followed.

Pope Julius II established an Inquisition in Naples 1 around the beginning of the

sixteenth century. Later, in 1540, many Jews living in Naples escaped to the
much more moderate Muslim country Turkey, to avoid further persecution
from the Roman Catholic Church. In June 1561, in Naples, almost two
thousand people were murdered, many of them burned alive. Over one hundred
elderly women were among the victims.

In response to Martin Luther's Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church

convened the 'Council of Trent' in 1545. Its principle aim was to use the already
well established machinery of the Inquisition against Protestants. Spain and
Portugal were to draw much encouragement and inspiration from this action by
the Catholic Church in Rome.

A doctor from Burgundy2, named Hugo de Celso, was a Lutheran who was
later put on trial in Toledo 3 before being burned alive. Francisco de San Roman
of Burgos, a Lutheran living in Spain, was also burned alive. More burnings of
Lutherans took place in Valladolid and Seville in Spain, from 1559 onwards.
On several occasions, burnings of Protestants were attended by Spanish
Royalty amid celebrations and processions. The use of torture to obtain
confessions was still in full swing during this period. One victim was Doctor
Agustin de Cazalla, Canon of Salamanca. He confessed under torture to being
a Lutheran.

In 1559, Pope Paul IV ordered the burning of houses where Lutheran meetings

1 Naples was a separate kingdom at this time but is now a city in modern day
Italy

2 A region comprising parts of modern day France and Switzerland

3 A city in Spain

87
were known to be held. In May of the same year, the house belonging to Pedro
de Cazalla and his wife Leonor de Vivero was razed to the ground. Later, these
people were both burned to death in public.

Fourteen suspected Protestants were burned alive in the first burnings of 1559.
A second series of burnings were perpetrated in Seville in September 1559.
Around twenty people were burned on this occasion. Many had been tortured
first. One victim from this group named Dona Maria de Bohorques was only
twenty years old. She was first tortured before being burned alive.

Desiring a more active role, and no doubt encouraged by Pope Paul IV, King
Philip II of Spain personally took part in the burnings of 8th October 1559.
Around thirty people were burned to death in what was seen by the Spanish as
a spectacle similar in popularity to a bull-fight.

In the Spanish province of Granada, which had previously been part of an

affluent Muslim area of southern Spain, seven Muslims were burned alive in
1560. A further two were burned in 1562, another two in 1566 and four
Muslims were burned to death by the Spanish Roman Catholic authorities in
February 1567. In Andalusia, Jews had long since been expelled, so the
Catholic authorities now turned their full attention towards persecution of
Muslims, encouraged and spurred on by the blessing and approval of the
Catholic Church in Rome.

In 1577 and 1578 in Valencia, Spain, suspected heretics were arrested for no
other reason than because they were not seen eating at any time throughout the
day, and were therefore suspected of being Muslims observing Ramadan 1. In
late sixteenth century Spain, all those of Muslim and Jewish descent were
legally required to register with the Inquisition. Again, one can see startling
similarities here with the later Nazi Race Laws of Hitler's Germany.

1 A Muslim festival that involves fasting during daylight hours

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From 1545 to 1621, over two hundred and thirty Muslims were burned alive in
Spain. The majority were murdered in Zaragoza. By 1590, the jails in Cordoba
were overflowing with Muslim prisoners, whose 'crime' had been to peacefully
practice their religion. Many Muslims were tortured in the torture chambers of
Valencia and Zaragoza. Entire Muslim villages would frequently be destroyed
and all inhabitants massacred in the Spanish Roman Catholics' relentless
persecution of 'heretics'.

In the Ebro valley in Aragon1, in the 1580s, Roman Catholics also murdered
many innocent Muslims, as they believed doing so would "please God". In the
village of Pina de Ebro, around seven hundred Muslim men, women and
children were massacred by Roman Catholics who considered doing so their
"divine duty".

Atrocities in the Netherlands and Belgium

In Belgium too there was the punishment of being burned alive for being a
Lutheran. In 1522, the Augustinian Friars of Antwerp, who had converted to
Protestantism, were burned alive for heresy. Atrocities against Lutherans by
Belgians loyal to the Catholic Church reached its peak in the mid-sixteenth
century. In 1568, five hundred people in Brussels were arrested and condemned
to death. Some were beheaded, some hanged, and still less fortunate people
were burned alive. No Lutheran was safe from being murdered in Belgium
over this period.

The Roman Catholic authorities in Holland and Belgium also tortured already
condemned prisoners by burning or otherwise mutilating their tongues so they
could not say anything or scream while being hanged or burned alive in their
actual executions. No mercy whatsoever was shown to Protestants in Holland

1 A region located in the north east of Spain

89
by the Spanish Catholic authorities there. In a similar fashion to the other
Roman Catholic regions of Europe, the money and property of those
condemned were confiscated by the Catholic authorities. King Philip of Spain
insisted his actions against the Dutch were "for the defence of the Catholic
faith".

King Philip of Spain despatched the Duke of Alva to deal with the Dutch.
Alva's task was to set up an Inquisition in the Netherlands. The Dutch called
this Inquisition the "Council of Blood", on account of its notoriety. Many
innocent Dutch people were tortured. Upon returning to Spain, the Duke of
Alva boasted that he had executed almost twenty thousand people in the
Netherlands.

Around sixty thousand people fled the Netherlands in a mass exodus by those
attempting to save their families and children from the bloodshed which had
been inflicted upon them by the Roman Catholic Church, its supporters and its
infamous ally Spain.

King Philip II of Spain

In Valladolid, Spain, in May 1559, twenty five Lutherans were burned alive.
Local preachers urged the public to watch the brutal executions and over one
hundred thousand people eagerly observed the spectacle. By some measures,
even the Roman gladiatorial games of fifteen hundred years earlier could be
considered less sadistic and cruel. In October of the same year, three hundred
thousand 'good Christian Catholics', accompanied by four hundred troops,
came to watch fourteen Lutherans burned to death.

King Philip II of Spain was known to have said to one convicted heretic who
approached the King and protested against the atrocities:

90
 "I would myself bring the wood to burn my own son if
he were guilty of heresy as you are".

Few would have doubted the King's word. Around thirty five more Protestants
were burned alive in Seville from 1559 to 1560. Another eighteen were burned
alive there in 1562, along with three Muslims. From 1563 to 1577, many more
were tortured and burned alive in Seville.

A well-known Lutheran named Julianillo Hernandez was tortured for three

years in prison and then burned alive by the Roman Catholic authorities,
merely for being a Lutheran. He was gagged shortly before his execution to
prevent him from saying anything against the Roman Catholic Church while he
was burned.

A Protestant Englishman named Nicholas Burton was kept in a dungeon in

Spain for two years, before being sentenced to death and burned alive. Another
Protestant Englishman, William Brook, suffered the same fate.

Around one hundred more innocent people were burned to death in Spain in
1562, mainly Lutherans and Muslims. By this time, burnings of people had
become as common, and indeed as popular with the Spanish Roman Catholic
masses, as bull fights.

In 1581 in Teruel, Spain, Diego de Arcos was arrested for practising Islam. He
was burned alive by the Inquisition in Valencia.

In sixteenth century England, the 'devout' Roman Catholic Queen Mary Tudor
(commonly known as "Bloody Mary") was busy trying to convert the
Protestants of England back to the Roman Catholic faith, by any means
necessary. Taking inspiration from King Philip of Spain, Queen Mary had
many English Protestants burned alive. Around three hundred innocent
Protestants were burned alive in England, during this period in the country's

91
history. Many more were tortured to death in England's torture chambers.

An English Protestant, William Gardiner, fell into the hands of the Portuguese
Inquisition in Lisbon, in 1552. After objections to the religious hypocrisy
taking place in Lisbon, Gardiner was tortured before being slowly roasted alive
by the Portuguese Catholic authorities.

Atrocities in England

On 31st May 1557, King Philip II of Spain appointed Dominican monk

Bartolome de Carranza to assist in the removal of Protestants in England. In
1556, Carranza demanded that the Protestant Archbishop Thomas Cranmer of
Canterbury be burned alive by the Roman Catholic government of Queen Mary
Tudor. More than thirty thousand people fled England in fear of the reign of
terror perpetrated by Mary Tudor and Bartolome de Carranza. In England,
Carranza's notoriety led to him becoming known as the "Black Monk".

The Roman Catholic Church threw the full weight of its support behind Queen
Mary Tudor of England. The Papal Legate, Cardinal Pole, was instrumental in
the brutality inflicted upon the Protestants of England. Books were burned and
Pope Paul IV praised those who were working in England in the service of the
Catholic Church. When Pope Paul IV died, Pope Pius IV took over and
continued the persecution of Protestants across Europe.

In addition to the massacres of Protestants in England under Queen Mary,

many Protestants were slaughtered in France under King Henry II. Back in
Spain, in 1565, twenty six English Protestants were captured by the Spanish
and burned alive.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Spanish were keen to further
please the Roman Catholic Church and its seemingly relentless lust for blood,

92
by forcing Catholicism upon all of their conquered territories in South
America.

A Final Show of Arrogance by the Spanish

Spanish arrogance led to what many historians regard as the last Roman
Catholic crusade. It was fully supported by the Catholic Church in Rome and
by Pope Sixtus V. In 1588, the Spanish Armada sailed against Protestant
England. The armada's destruction and Spain's failure marked the beginning of
the end of an empire that many rational people would have regarded to be the
very epitome of evil.

The successful defence of England by Protestant Queen Elizabeth I led to a

golden age of tolerance and progress for Britain, having narrowly escaped the
continued oppressive rule and tyranny of the Roman Catholic Church.

Atrocities in Mexico

In Mexico, Protestants were burned to death with traditional zeal by the Roman
Catholic authorities there. The Inquisition in Mexico was set up around 1570,
by King Philip II of Spain. In 1573 and 1574, around eighty people were
condemned and then burned to death in Mexico. Almost forty of these were
Protestant English sailors who had been unfortunate enough to fall into Spanish
hands.

One of the Inquisitors of Mexico was Alonso de Peralta. Peralta took office in
1594 and had many people burned alive in Mexico from 1594 to 1596. In
1594, around one hundred people were tortured and murdered there because
they were suspected of having Muslim ancestry. In December 1596, three
siblings were tortured and then burned alive for heresy in Mexico. These

93
innocent people were Isabel, Mariana and Luis de Carvajal. They were the
nieces and nephew of the Governer of Nuevo Leon, Luis de Carvajal y la
Cueva. There is historical evidence that there were still burnings of people in
Mexico as late as 1659.

A thirteen year old boy named Gabriel de Granada was put on trial by Mexican
Roman Catholic inquisitors, having accused him simply of "being Jewish". His
trial went on for three years, from 1642 to 1645. He was forced to implicate all
members of his family for the 'crime' of being Jewish. His mother was arrested
and later starved to death in prison.

Roman Catholic priests in Mexico were often discovered to be raping young

women. After being caught, they invariably received relatively light sentences
to the extent that, in 1626, Pope Urban VIII urged all his Archbishops to
"politely remind" priests of their responsibilities.

For example, in 1583, Juan de Saldana wanted to have sex with a local native
American girl. After she rejected his advances, he had her arrested and flogged
until she finally agreed to be raped by Saldana. Juan de Saldana held a high
rank in his Franciscan Order, and was a guardian of the Convent of Suchipila.
His "guardianship" was purported to have included the rape of some of the
nuns resident at the convent.

Also in Mexico, people were burned to death for such things as refusing to eat
pork and for praying to Christ instead of keeping with the Roman Catholic
tradition of praying to the Virgin Mary. Torture was commonly used by the
Inquisition in Mexico. In 1587, some people were even burned alive for
wearing silk.

Jealousy permeated the ranks of the Roman Catholic Church and its
inquisitors. In Mexico, in 1660, Manuel de Tovar Olvera was accused of being
in league with Satan because he was able to control a herd of mares alone even

94
though such a task usually required ten men or more!

Atrocities in Peru and Chile

In Peru, a Roman Catholic Inquisition was established in November 1570. It

was set up in Lima1, by Servan de Cerezuela. In 1581 and 1587, many
Protestants were burned alive in Peru. Among the victims were two Flemish
people named Miguel del Pilar and Jan Bernal.

Such atrocities committed by the Roman Catholic authorities in South America

continued well into the seventeenth century. Many Jews were burned alive by
the Inquisitions in Peru and Chile between 1626 and 1639. One such Jew was
respected surgeon Francisco Maldonado de Silva. He was kept imprisoned for
thirteen years before being burned alive in Lima.

Many were tortured by the inquisitors of Peru, some as young as eighteen years
of age. A rich merchant in Lima named Manuel Bautista Perez was prosecuted
and burned to death mainly so that his wealth could be taken by the Roman
Catholic officials who had accused him. A Roman Catholic Inquisition was re-
established in Peru as late as 1814. Three thousand people were put on trial for
heresy in the two hundred and fifty years of Peru's Roman Catholic Inquisition.

In the early eighteenth century, in Lima, the Inquisition suspected the captain
of a ship of being in league with the devil and decided to prosecute him,
because he had been able to steer his ship from Portugal to Chile in less than
half the current recorded time for the journey!

1 The capital city of Peru, South America

95
Burning of Books

One inquisitor representing the Roman Catholic Church in the late sixteenth
century stated:

"The truth is that the doctrine of heretics is primarily

communicated and distributed through the medium of
books. The typical enemy of the Catholic faith has
always relied upon this pernicious medium".

Burnings of books followed across all of the Roman Catholic kingdoms of

Europe and South America.

The Courage of Protestants in the

Netherlands

The Dutch people of the Netherlands were courageous in their embrace of

Protestantism. The Spanish Catholic authorities, then controlling the
Netherlands, burned Protestant men at the stake, but were also known to
execute Dutch Protestant women by burying them alive. Several priests were
also burned alive for going against the Roman Catholic religion by getting
married.

In the Netherlands, a family of six, including two daughters and their husbands,
were burned alive by the Spanish Catholic authorities for converting to
Protestantism.

It seems there was practically no limit to the degree of brutality the Roman
Catholic Church and their Spanish allies were capable of descending to in their
relentless acts of barbarity and atrocities against innocent civilians. One
practice in Holland was that Lutheran women were burned alive while giving

96
birth. Historical evidence of this practice was provided by William Harris Rule
who wrote two volumes entitled "History of the Inquisition" in 1874.

Even so, the brave Dutch people of the Netherlands continued to refuse to have
Roman Catholicism forced upon them. One truly exceptional Dutch figure who
featured in the promotion of tolerant Christian values was born at the Castle of
Dillenburg in Nassau1 on 25th April 1533, to Lutheran parents. He was known
as William of Orange. Later, his great grandson would become King William
III of England.

Following the onset of the reforming influence of Protestantism in the

Netherlands, many fled there to escape persecution. The Jewish philosopher
Baruch Spinoza came from a family who had fled Portugal's savage Roman
Catholic Inquisition to live without persecution in Protestant Holland.
Protestantism found itself in harmony with the Dutch attitude of intellectual
values and liberty, as opposed to the ignorance and sadistic cruelty of Rome,
Italy, France, Portugal and Spain.

Atrocities in Portugal, Brazil and Goa

In 1603 in Lisbon, Diogo de Asumpcao was burned alive for practising

Judaism.

In Valencia in 1609, many Muslims were driven to commit suicide by the

Roman Catholic soldiers of Spain. Muslim children were frequently murdered
in Valencia, often leaving their parents with little to live for, thus leading many
of them to suicide. Such desperation was similar to the Jewish suicides during
the Crusades of the previous centuries.

'Moriscos' was the Latin term given to Muslims who had been converted to

1 A part of modern day Germany, near Cologne

97
Catholicism. Since they were still regarded with suspicion and treated as
'heretics', they generally fared no better in Spain than actual Muslims, despite
their conversion to the Roman Catholic religion.

In May 1610, Philip III of Spain signed an expulsion order, whereby all those
who had ever practised Islam were forced out of Spain. From 1609 to 1614,
three hundred thousand people were forced to leave Spain during this period of
'ethnic cleansing' supported by the Roman Catholic Church.

As late as the eighteenth century, Catholics suspected of being descendants of

Muslims were not able to obtain work in Valencia and were prevented from
taking public office jobs. They were also prevented from marrying. Again, we
see parallels with the Nazi Race Laws in Germany several centuries later.

In 1624 in Madrid, another ten Jews were burned alive for heresy.

In Goa1 in 1632, an inquisitorial official named Francisco Pereira was not

allowed to marry his fiancée because it turned out that her ancestors had
Muslim blood. In Coimbra and Beja in Portugal, between 1620 and 1640,
around two hundred and fifty people were burned alive, many of them simply
for having Muslim ancestry.

By 1671, Portugal could easily be considered to have caught up with Spain in

terms of the level of brutality perpetrated in its own Roman Catholic
Inquisition. Hundreds of Lutherans were tortured and murdered in Portugal in
1671.

In 1696, an English woman named Elizabeth Vasconellos was living in Brazil.

She was a Protestant who refused to convert to the Roman Catholic faith.
Consequently, the Portuguese authorities who controlled Brazil allowed the

1 Goa is a city in western India but was ruled by the Catholic Portuguese
during this period in history

98
Roman Catholic Inquisition there to send her to Lisbon, Portugal for trial. In
Lisbon, she was tortured and then condemned to burn alive. Her torture in
Lisbon included being partially burned until she gave her torturers a
confession.

Catholic Church Oppression in Germany

The insidious influence of Vatican oppression soon found its way into Southern
Germany, from 1543 onwards. In Franconia1 in Germany, Protestants were
forced to convert back to Catholicism by the Bishops of Würzburg and
Bamberg. Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn became Bishop of Würzburg in 1573
and remained so until 1617. He forced the Roman Catholic religion upon the
populace by giving them a choice between that and exile.

In 1586, over 60,000 people were forced to convert back to Catholicism under
threat of exile, encompassing fourteen towns and two hundred villages. Bishop
of Bamberg Ernst von Mengersdorf followed suit, threatening Protestants with
exile in 1595. Due to a climate of fear, mass conversions back to Catholicism
inevitably followed in Bavaria. Bavarian government officials were also forced
to take oaths as Roman Catholics, under threat of dismissal.

Efforts against Protestants in Germany were promoted by Pope Clement VIII.

In September 1598, an edict was issued ordering all Protestant preachers to
leave Grätz, Germany within two weeks. Many Protestants received death
threats.

1 A region of Germany comprising northern parts of Bavaria and a region of

north-eastern Baden-Württemberg

99
Catholic Church Oppression in Poland

In Poland during the latter half of the sixteenth century, Protestants at one time
actually outnumbered Roman Catholics. However, the Catholics were,
nevertheless, far more powerful. Their wealth and political power vastly
exceeded that of the Protestants in Poland.

The Jesuit chaplain of the King of Poland, Peter Skarga, fostered persecution
of Polish Protestants to the extent that nobles were regularly evicting
Protestants from their estates and replacing them with Roman Catholics. The
Polish education system was tightly controlled by Catholics, and the Polish
judiciary was overwhelmingly controlled by Roman Catholic judges. In 1598,
a Papal Nuncio gloated that "Catholicism is now pushing heresy to its grave".

Catholic Church Oppression in Austria

At the end of the sixteenth century and beginning of the seventeenth century,
Protestants in Salzburg, Austria were similarly threatened with exile by
Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raittenau, unless they embraced the Roman
Catholic faith. During this period, Protestants were stripped of their churches
and citizenship and only Roman Catholics were allowed citizenship in Vienna.

The Austrian Catholics received the full support and encouragement of Pope
Gregory XIII, who helped by sending the Papal Nuncio, Germanico Malaspina.
By 1628, the Roman Catholic Church had been successful in its eradication of
Protestantism in Austria.

100
Catholic Church Oppression in Seventeenth
Century Germany

The next militant Catholic ruler in Germany surfaced in the form of Emperor
Ferdinand II. Ferdinand reigned from 1619 to 1637 and maintained a strong
allegiance to the Catholic Church in Rome. He started what came to be known
as the "Thirty Years War", which was essentially a long and brutal war
instigated by members of the Catholic Church and defended by Protestants,
fought primarily in Germany, but which is also known to have included small
regions of other continental European countries.

Unquestionably loyal to the Roman Catholic Church, Emperor Ferdinand II

was supported by Roman Catholics in Bavaria, and in 1629, he issued the
'Edict of Restitution", the principle aim of which was to capture land from
Protestants and to re-establish a Roman Catholic Empire in Germany at any
cost.

The Papal Nuncio Giovanni Caraffa helped with the persecution of Protestants
in Germany, by order of the Pope. Protestant schools were closed, fines and
prison sentences were imposed upon Protestants, and almost forty thousand
German Protestant families fled to avoid further persecution.

Catholic Church Oppression in Hungary

Similar persecution of Protestants occurred in Hungary towards the end of the

sixteenth century and the early part of the seventeenth century.

Continuing Oppression of Muslims

Even the customary high standards of personal hygiene by Muslims were

101
regarded with contempt by the Inquisition. People demonstrating high
standards of hygiene were suspected of being Muslims by the Roman Catholic
inquisitors.

Such blatant oppression of a peaceful ethnic minority in Spain and Portugal

was very similar in character to Nazism, and such racism would yet see a
revival in Spain in later centuries under General Franco.

Spain's new "Sport"

In 1680, in the Plaza Mayor of Madrid, around fifty people were burned to
death in a huge public spectacle designed to appeal to the "Christian" masses.
By this time, entertainment was needed in order to placate the poverty-stricken
people living in an almost bankrupt Spain. Spain's state of near-bankruptcy in
the seventeenth century was due in large part to the expulsion of revenue-
generating Jews and Muslims. In 1691, in Majorca, another forty people were
burned alive for heresy.

The Catholic Church and Eighteenth

Century Europe

The crimes against humanity committed by the Roman Catholic Church

continued well into the eighteenth century. A brave Protestant named Isaac
Martin was in Malaga, Spain, in 1714, when he was captured by Spanish
inquisitors and accused of being a Jew. After many months of being
imprisoned, tortured and having his family threatened, he and his family
eventually managed to escape home to England. They were extremely
courageous and lucky to have escaped from Spain alive.

102
In 1718, Sardinia ceased to be under Spanish control and gained independence
from the Spanish monarch. However, local Roman Catholic bishops in Sardinia
continued to condemn people for heresy. The persecution of innocent people
accused of heresy did not disappear in Sardinia until the late eighteenth
century.

Under King Philip V of Spain, almost one hundred people were burned alive
between 1700 and 1746. Among these were five Jews who were burned alive
in Cuenca1 in 1721, three more burned alive in Valladolid in 1722 and a further
twelve burned alive in Granada in 1723.

Between 1720 and 1727, almost one hundred people were burned to death in
Spain. During this period, Spain was under the control of a Frenchman, King
Philip V. He was the grandson of King Louis XIV of France. Before allowing
Philip to take the throne in Spain, Louis XIV told his grandson that he should
never forget that he was French. Louis XIV insisted that above all, Philip was
to remember that he was a Roman Catholic, hence the continuation of burnings
for heresy in Spain under the rule of King Philip V.

In southern Spain in 1723, the Roman Catholic churches in a town called

Aguilar de la Frontera, near Cordoba, displayed the sanbenitos 2 of those who
had been burned alive since 1594. Evidently, these Roman Catholic churches
were proud of their 'achievements'.

In Portugal, the barbarity was continuing apace. Eight 'heretics' were burned
alive in Lisbon in 1732 and a further seven met the same demise in 1735.
Twelve more were burned in 1737 and another eleven were burned to death in
1739. The majority of those slaughtered had been accused of being Jewish.
1 A modern day province in central Spain

2 A garment which convicted heretics were forced to wear on the way to their
execution

103
Amazingly, the Roman Catholic Inquisition would continue into the nineteenth
century.

The Catholic Church and Nineteenth

Century Europe

In Valencia, Spain, from 1784 to 1805, Franciscan friar Miguel de Palomeres

tortured and raped several young women. He was known to enjoy sado-
masochistic indulgences, perpetrated against vulnerable young women. In
1805, two women named Pasquala Monfort and Josefa Marti complained about
the Franciscan friar to the authorities, but to little avail. Nothing was done
against Palomeres for his crimes. The women had merely wanted to become
nuns, but were told by Palomeres that the sado-masochistic activities were a
necessary part of their "confessions".

When the great Napoleon came to power in France, he suppressed the savagery
of the Inquisition and, fortunately, he also did so in Spain after Spain
surrendered to Napoleon in December 1808. After Napoleon's ending of the
Inquisition in France and Spain, the Roman Catholic Church and its supporters
complained bitterly and sought to bring the Inquisition back. Bishops in Spain,
loyal to the Vatican, tried their utmost to continue the work of the Roman
Catholic Inquisition.

In 1811 in Mexico, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla was charged by the Inquisition

with heresy, but at that time given a more humane death sentence by being
shot.

In July 1826, Cayetano Ripoll, a schoolteacher from Valencia, Spain, was

sentenced to death for heresy and hanged. He had been arrested in 1824 and
imprisoned for two years. Such events make for a stark contrast against the far

104
more civilised Protestant England, Protestant Scandinavia and Protestant
America of this period in history.

Direct Involvement by the Roman Catholic

Church

The remainder of this chapter will show how the crimes against humanity and
atrocities depicted in the first part of this chapter and in the previous chapter
can be attributed to direct action by the Catholic Church in Rome and its
various Popes.

In January 1547, a session of the Roman Catholic Church's Council Of Trent

was attended by two Legates, two Cardinals, ten Archbishops, forty seven
Bishops, two Proctors, five Generals of the Orders and two Abbots.

The decisions reached during the session were instated in law through thirty
three canons. These Roman Catholic Church laws were derived from the axiom
that: "Neither the heathen nor the Jews are capable of reaching a state of
grace and of adoption as children of God". With the blessing of the Pope and
the Roman Catholic Church, an army of French Catholics carried out a barbaric
massacre of Protestants in Vassy, France.

In 1530, Pope Clement VII officially denounced Lutheranism as "heresy".

Later, Pope Paul IV, who reigned from 1555 to 1559, made no attempt to hide
his evident hatred of Lutheranism. He attempted to re-establish the Roman
Catholic Inquisition in France in 1557, evidently attempting to seize upon the
opportunity that appeared to present itself, by way of the fact that France had a
Catholic king at the time in the form of Henry II. Pope Paul was keen to further
persecute and murder the few Protestants living in France during this period.

Pope Paul IV had a lot of success with his Inquisition in Italy. He even installed

105
spies among his own inquisitors, such was the state of his own paranoia. In the
city of Ancona1, in the Papal States, twelve converted Jews were burned alive
in 1556. Many others were burned alive within Rome itself under the brutal
and barbaric reign of Pope Paul IV. He personally supervised the brutal
expansion of the Roman Catholic Inquisition. His right-hand man also assisted
him greatly: Ghislieri, who would become the future Pope Pius V. Paul IV also
demanded that Venetian heretics be surrendered to him by the Venetian
authorities, so they could be burned alive in Rome.

Paul IV, in his barbaric leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, became so
unpopular for his crimes against humanity that it led to some of his own people
turning against him.

In January 1559 Pope Paul IV declared a "List of authors and books against
which the [Roman Catholic Inquisition] orders all Christians to be on their
guard, under threat of censure and punishment".

Such authors were to be condemned and burned alive, by order of the Vatican.
Paul IV was also a strong advocate of the use of torture as a means of
extracting confessions.

Pope Pius IV succeeded Paul IV. Upon taking office, Pius IV had some of his
rivals, including Cardinal Carlo Caraffa, sentenced to death and executed upon
being convicted of various invented charges. Pope Pius also threw the full
force of his support behind the massacre of around two thousand Waldensians
in Calabria2. He even went so far as to rebuke the Duke of Savoy for refusing
to slaughter Waldensians in Piedmont.

In December 1566, Pope Pius V gave further powers to the Roman Catholic

1 Now a city on the east coast of modern day Italy

2 A region in the south of the Italian peninsula

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Inquisition in a Papal Bull entitled: "Inter multiplices". Pius V encouraged
further heresy trials in Rome and these later resulted in people being burned
alive in Rome itself over the years following the Pope's latest Papal Bull.
Examples of those burned alive included Bartolommeo Bartoccio, burned to
death in 1569 and Aonio Paleario, burned to death in 1570.

Pope Pius V also imposed his reign of terror and persecution upon Venice,
where there were almost a hundred heresy trials during this Pope's reign. In
Italy, Protestantism was brutally crushed. Needless to say, homosexuals were
also a target; Pope Pius wanted them burned alive as well.

The sixteenth century Popes were no strangers to economic corruption and the
abuse of power for personal financial gain. The Popes frequently carved out
principalities (i.e. land grabs) for their nephews and other family members.
They achieved this by ordering the detachment of ecclesiastical territory from
the Roman Catholic Church. Nepotism was rife. Pope Pius V made his great-
nephew, Michele Bonelli, a cardinal in March 1566 and later made him his
chief minister.

In 1568, Pope Pius V issued another Papal Bull entitled "In coena Domini".
The purpose of this was to increase persecution of heretics, which by this time
included Protestants throughout Europe. In 1569, Pope Pius congratulated the
Duke of Alba for the ruthless efficiency of his infamous "Council Of Blood" in
the Netherlands, where non-Catholics were being executed en masse.

As a symbol of his appreciation of the brutality, the Pope sent the Duke of Alba
a sword and a jewelled cap. The sword had inscribed upon it:

"Accipe sanctum gladium, munus a Deo in quo dejicies

adversurios populi mei Israel1".
1 Approximate translation: "Accept this sword as a gift by virtue of your
service against the people of Israel"

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Pope Pius V despatched troops to assist Roman Catholics in France under King
Charles IX and gave orders to them "to not take any Huguenot1 prisoner but to
slaughter every one of these heretics". This Pope and Vatican used the Papal
Bull entitled "Regnans in excelsis" to assist Roman Catholics in England in
plots to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I.

In 1572, Pope Gregory XIII was so delighted at news of the massacre of

'heretics' in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in Paris, that he held a special
Mass at the Church of St. Mark and another one at the Church of St. Louis. An
engraving from 1572 shows the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day being
celebrated in a 'Te Deum2' in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Pope Gregory XIII
promoted further civil unrest in Ireland against Protestants. In 1579, he sent
Papal Nuncio3 Nicholas Sanders to Ireland to incite a rebellion against Queen
Elizabeth I of England.

In 1578, Pope Gregory XIII ordered fleets in Spain and Venice to launch an
onslaught against the Turkish, thereby increasing the Roman Catholic Church's
persecution of a relatively tolerant Turkish Muslim culture. Between 1572 and
1585, Pope Gregory XIII also imposed crippling taxes upon his subjects in
order to raise further funds for the Counter-Reformation, a term that was
essentially a euphemism for the persecution of Protestants. Such funds would
allow that persecution to continue unabated.

In December 1580, a secretary of Pope Gregory XIII wrote to the Papal Nuncio
in Madrid that:
1 The 'Huguenots' were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of
France

2 An early Roman Catholic religious service

3 A Papal Nuncio is an envoy or diplomatic representative sent by the Pope,

representing the Catholic Church

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 "The murder of Queen Elizabeth I would be a fine deed,
and no sin at all".

Born in December 1521, Felice Peretti joined the Franciscan Order at the age
of twelve. He became a Catholic preacher and was later appointed Vicar-
General of the Franciscan Order by Pope Pius V. Pius V made Peretti a
Cardinal in 1570 and in 1585, Peretti became Pope Sixtus V. In 1587, Sixtus V
gave large financial subsidies to King Philip II of Spain for the Spanish
Armada against Protestant England.

Pope Sixtus V, who reigned from April 1585 to August 1590, seemed to be no
more disposed toward diplomacy than his predecessors. He was also
significantly preoccupied with money and taxation of the papal territories. He
managed to collect ten million scudi1 during his five year reign. On 13th
August 1590, Sixtus V announced that his fleet "had successfully captured
three Turkish ships and had taken them in triumph to Genoa".

The French Royal Family also allied itself with King Philip II of Spain in order
to present a united Roman Catholic front against Protestantism. Philip II
provided large sums of money and troops to the French while he prepared his
armada against England, in order to allow the French Catholics to wipe out
Protestants in France too.

The ultimate objective of King Philip II of Spain was the annihilation of all
Protestants throughout Europe, essentially a form of genocide against any non-
Catholics in existence, and he was fully supported in this endeavour by the
Catholic Church in Rome and its Pope, Sixtus V.

By February 1587, King Philip II of Spain and Pope Sixtus V had reinforced
their alliance with a formal treaty between Spain and the Roman Catholic
1 1 scudo was equal to one hundred baiocchi and contained approximately
3.077g of gold

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Church. In England especially, Philip II and Pope Sixtus V were keen to
succeed where Queen Mary Tudor had failed, despite the latter's mass burnings
of Protestants.

Repeated attempts were made on the life of Queen Elizabeth I by the Roman
Catholic Church, King Philip II of Spain and by high-ranking English Roman
Catholics such as the Duke of Norfolk, but they were all unsuccessful, much to
the disappointment of the Pope. Their inability to murder the Queen of England
was in large part due to the unrelenting vigilance of the Queen's Chief Minister,
Sir William Cecil. The Scottish Roman Catholic Mary Queen of Scots was also
complicit in an assassination plot on Queen Elizabeth I, but this too failed and
the she was captured and put on trial for treason.

In 1588, Pope Sixtus V supported the Duke of Savoy in his savage attack
against non-Catholics in Geneva. He also helped the King of Poland to crush
any freedom of thought in Poland that may have been perceived to be in
opposition to the Roman Catholic doctrine. Sixtus V then took steps to try to
re-establish the Roman Catholic religion in Lutheran Sweden.

Not one to readily embrace a realistic chain of reasoning, Pope Sixtus V was
known to have fantasised about crushing the Ottoman Turks, and he even
hoped to re-conquer Egypt and the Holy Land. He unquestioningly believed
that a Roman Catholic State would be established around the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

Between 1576 and 1598, wars of religion ensued in various parts of France.
Opposition to non-Catholics solidified in the form of the 'Catholic League'.
This militant Catholic organisation was fully supported by Catholic clergy and
its primary objective was the eradication of 'heresy' and the eradication of all
opposition to the Roman Catholic Church.

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Pope Benedict XIV

In the mid-eighteenth century, a strong current of oppression that was

continuing to be institutionalised by the Roman Catholic Church was
continuing unabated. Pope Benedict XIV was widely regarded as an
"enlightened Pope" in Europe. However, he nevertheless condemned native
rites in China and India and maintained himself in a light that was still a strong
reflection of Vatican intolerance.

The "Myth of Benevolence" of Thomas

More

Thomas More is often portrayed as a very peaceful Roman Catholic figure and
has become a popular and symbolic representation of peace among Catholic
Church apologists. More is also commonly portrayed as a "poor victim" of the
"evil" King Henry VIII of England. Contrary to popular belief among Catholic
Church apologists, the reality is somewhat different.

The factual reality shows that Thomas More was an active and bitter adversary
of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. Putting the unrealistic
romanticism aside regarding the "peaceful" figure of Thomas More often
depicted in historically inaccurate plays and films, More's true nature was
evident from his writing alone. Thomas More wrote several times under the
pseudonym 'Gulielmus Rossaeus'.

Thomas More was considerably self-righteous with regard to his Catholicism.

He hated the Muslim Turkish, and in his writing (under pseudonym) he
referred to "heretical" Protestants in a characteristically indignant fashion:

"There is no born Turk so cruel to Christian folk as is

111
 the false Christian that falleth from the faith".

He wrote this in his 'Dialogue of Comfort', which was first printed in London
in 1553. Thomas More had good reason to write under the secrecy of a
pseudonym considering the power and influence of his enemies, eventually and
inevitably leading to his demise.

The Myth of Impartiality by the Roman

Catholic Church

Many modern historians, specifically Roman Catholic Church apologists, like

to argue that allegiance to the Catholic Church by various European states was
voluntary and not enforced in any way by the Vatican, and that therefore the
Catholic Church in Rome was not responsible for the many atrocities
committed in its name. However, the discerning and less easily persuaded
reader of history can place this view in the rather dubious and unsubstantiated
light within which it belongs. Such will be proven by way of the historical
evidence presented in the remainder of this chapter.

Pope Leo X, among others, issued Papal Bulls such as "Pastor Aeternus" and
"Unam Sanctam" attempting, successfully in the majority of cases, to further
Vatican power and influence in all Roman Catholic countries of Europe.
Organised campaigns to influence the very constitutions of those countries
invariably resulted in success for the Roman Catholic Church. The Church
ensured that all regional monarchs remained totally loyal to the Pope and his
appointees and supporters.

On the surface, such a feat may seem difficult. However, the Roman Catholic
Church achieved this through a very simple means that has been proven to
work time and time again throughout history, against the easily-led, the

112
psychologically weak, and the uneducated: "Fear".

By instilling fear into the ignorant masses, fear of being excommunicated from
the Roman Catholic Church, fear of going to hell, fear of being punished, the
Catholic Church centred in Rome was able to exert the kind of influence that
could only be described as vast and all-encompassing, vast influence over the
Roman Catholic masses of Europe, culminating, through clever use of
psychology and considerable financial acuity, in total allegiance and the
securing of supreme power and authority. Such "brainwashing" has been used
throughout history, the most well-known and infamous case being the Nazi
party of Germany.

The Thirty Years War

Following the Protestant Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church now saw
Protestantism as a significant threat to its supreme authority, in addition to its
traditional enemies of Orthodox Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

Contrary to Christian doctrine, a Catholic "military" organisation supported by

the Roman Catholic Church, known as the 'Catholic League', was formed in
Germany in July 1609. After its formation, the Catholic League began the task
of raising funding for military campaigns. Such funding would later come in
useful in helping to prolong a war which was to last some thirty years. The
Catholic League was heavily supported and funded by Pope Paul V, Pope
Gregory XV and Pope Urban VIII.

The Thirty Years War was one of Europe's most destructive historical periods.
It took place largely between 1618 and 1648, and although it may be difficult
to attribute the conflict to a single cause, it was essentially a rebellion by
Protestants against the brutal oppression of the Roman Catholic Church and its

113
adherents. A majority of the most powerful European Kings and Emperors of
lands comprising the former Byzantine Empire were by this time loyal to the
Pope, the Bishop of Rome and leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

The Thirty Years War began with the Bohemian 1 Revolt, which broke out on
23rd May 1618. There were fewer Catholics than there were Protestants in
Bohemia at this time, but the Catholics nevertheless had far more power and
influence, and indeed, were not afraid to use it. The monarchy and the whole of
the ruling class of Bohemia was Roman Catholic.

The Roman Catholics of Bohemia were solidly behind the religious orders of
the Catholic Church, which included Jesuits and Dominicans. At this time, the
Counter-Reformation was in full swing, the term 'Counter-Reformation'
essentially serving as a euphemism for the oppression of Protestants and others
deemed 'heretics' by the Roman Catholic Church.

After the Roman Catholic armies began to make large gains against the
Protestants, the 'Edict of Restitution' was enacted in March 1629. Its
jurisdiction was across all lands of the Holy Roman Empire, which had fallen
under the control of the Roman Catholic Church as far back as the Fourth
Crusade. Before the Fourth Crusade, it had been an Orthodox Christian
Byzantine Empire.

Louis XIV of France and the Catholic

Church

Louis XIV, King and Emperor of France from 1643 to 1715, was historically
one of France's most powerful leaders, perhaps second only to Napoleon.

1 Bohemia was a historical region that now forms the western region of the
modern day Czech Republic

114
Under Louis XIV France became Europe's leading power and was the
aggressor in many wars and conflicts throughout this period.

More significantly for the victims of Louis XIV was his strong allegiance to
the Roman Catholic Church. Huguenots (French Protestants) were brutally
oppressed by Louis XIV from 1661 onwards. Protestant churches were
destroyed and restrictions were forced upon Protestant clergy, including the
restriction that they were not allowed to visit those dying in hospitals and were
not allowed to teach in French schools.

Financial incentives were offered to those who agreed to convert to the Roman
Catholic religion. The reign of oppression inflicted by Louis XIV upon French
Protestants and also those Protestants living in the foreign countries he
conquered enjoyed support from North German Catholic bishops.

Protestant women were forbidden to become midwives and the regime of Louis
XIV encouraged Roman Catholics to commit crimes of violence against non-
Catholics, in order to bring about further conversions. Other minority groups
whose views differed from mainstream Roman Catholic orthodoxy, such as
Jansenists, were also oppressed.

Louis XIV, being totally loyal to the Catholic Church in Rome, swore to
eradicate 'heresy'. A powerful leader of the Catholic Church in France, the
Bishop of Montauban, urged Louis XIV to use whatever oppressive means
were necessary to achieve the total eradication of heresy in France.

Consequently, further oppressive legislation was enacted against French

Protestants in 1684 and such legislation was heavily promoted and supported
by successive figures occupying the post of Archbishop of Paris throughout the
oppressive reign of Louis XIV, resulting in large numbers of French Protestants
fleeing their home country.

115
Chapter 5: Suppression of Freedom and Liberty

Galileo

Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy, on 15th February 1564. He was a man
who was considerably ahead of his time in terms of his scientific prowess and
was responsible for large advances in knowledge in the areas of physics,
astronomy, mathematics and philosophy. His work on physics was later built
upon by other great physicists, including Isaac Newton. During his life, Galileo
contributed significantly to telescope technology, helping to improve this
Dutch invention.

Most perilously for Galileo, he broke with the doctrine of the Roman Catholic
Church by promoting the Copernican model of the known universe, which
opposed the Catholic Church's view that the Earth was at the centre of the
universe. Consequently, Cardinal Francesco Barberini was appointed by his
uncle, Pope Urban VIII, to investigate Galileo's suspected 'heresy'.

Subsequently, the infamous Roman Catholic Inquisition was employed to

investigate Galileo. The victimisation and oppression of Galileo by the Roman
Catholic Church began in 1616, when the Inquisitor of Florence confronted
Galileo at his house in Florence. He served upon Galileo a formal summons to
attend Rome within thirty days to answer charges that were being considered
against him by the Inquisition. He narrowly escaped further action against him
that time, but unfortunately for Galileo, the ordeal was far from over for him.

Some years later, in October 1632, after he had written several more books and
papers, Galileo was again summoned to appear before the feared Inquisitor of
Florence. This time, at the age of sixty eight, Galileo fell ill, in large part due to

116
the stress and anxiety of being bullied and oppressed by the Catholic Church
for many years, culminating in this latest summons. He had had the threat of a
trial and possible torture hanging over him for years, and by this time he was
quite frail.

Dominicans, Jesuits and other fundamentalist Roman Catholics, including the

Popes who reigned throughout Galileo's time, were bitterly opposed to his
scientific facts. The poor man was inevitably put on trial in Rome for heresy.
On 16th June 1633, Pope Urban VIII ordered that Galileo be "interrogated and
threatened with torture" by the Inquisition. On the same day, the following was
recorded in conclusion to a meeting of the Holy Office of the Inquisition:

"Sanctissimus decreed that the said Galileo is to be

interrogated on his intention, even with the threat of
torture and, if he sustains, he is to abjure vehement
suspicion of heresy in a plenary assembly of the
Congregation of the Holy Office, then is to be
condemned to imprisonment at the pleasure of the Holy
Congregation, and ordered not to treat further, in
whatever manner, either in words or in writing, of the
mobility of the Earth and the stability of the Sun;
otherwise he will incur the penalties of relapse.

"The book entitled the 'Dialogue of the Lincean Galileo

Galilei' is to be prohibited. Furthermore, that these
things may be known by all, he ordered that copies of
the sentence shall be sent to all Apostolic Nuncios, to
all Inquisitors against heretical pravity, and especially
the Inquisitor in Florence, who shall read the sentence
in full assembly and in the presence of most of those
who profess the mathematical art".

117
This sentence was, however, not as bad for Galileo as it might have been,
probably owing to his strong network of influential friends. If the Jesuits had
got their way, Galileo would have been put on trial for heresy and then burned
alive at the stake. Instead, Galileo was forced to admit to heresy before being
sentenced to imprisonment. Having been threatened, oppressed and humiliated,
Galileo was forced into giving the following official statement to the
Inquisition:

"I, Galileo Galilei, son of the late Vincenzo Galilei,

Florentine, aged seventy years, arraigned personally
before this tribunal and kneeling before you...swear
that I have always believed, do now believe and by
God's help will for the future believe, all that is held,
preached and taught by the holy Catholic and apostolic
Roman Church. But whereas...after an injunction had
been judicially intimated to me by this Holy Office, to
the effect that I must altogether abandon the false
opinion that the sun is the centre of the world and
immovable, and that the Earth is not the centre of the
world and moves, and that I must not hold, defend or
teach in any way whatsoever, verbally or in writing, the
said doctrine, and after it had been notified to me that
the said doctrine was contrary to holy scripture...I
wrote and printed a book in which I discuss this
doctrine already condemned, and adduce arguments of
great cogency in its favour, without presenting any
solution of these; and for this cause I have been
pronounced by the Holy Office to be vehemently
suspected of heresy, that is to say, of having held and
believed that the sun is the centre of the world and

118
 immovable, and that the Earth is not the centre and
moves.

"Therefore desiring to remove from the minds of your

Eminences, and of all faithful Christians, this strong
suspicion, reasonably conceived against me, with
sincere heart and unfeigned faith, I abjure, curse and
detest the aforesaid errors and heresies, and generally
every other error and sect whatsoever contrary to the
said holy Church; and I swear that in future I will never
again say or assert, verbally or in writing, anything
that might furnish occasion for a similar suspicion
regarding me; but that should I know any heretic or
person suspected of heresy, I will denounce him to this
Holy Office, or to the Inquisitor and Ordinary of the
place where I may be. Further I swear and promise to
fulfil and observe in their integrity all penances that
have been or that shall be imposed upon me by this
Holy Office...So help me God and these his holy
gospels which I touch with my hand.

"I, Galileo Galilei, have abjured, sworn, promised and

bound myself as above; and in witness of the truth
thereof I have with my own hand subscribed the present
document of my abjuration and recited it word for word
at Rome, in the Convent of the Minerva, this 22nd day
of June, 1633".

Galileo's book 'The Dialogue' was listed in the Roman Catholic Church's next
edition of the 'Index of Forbidden Books', where it remained until 1822.

119
The Catholic Church's Attitude toward
Freemasons

Before reading this section, it is worth noting that to this day, no evidence has
ever been found that Freemasons are collectively anything other than a
peaceful, principled, charitable and law-abiding society.

In the 1730s, the Roman Catholic Church's paranoia continued with the fear
and hatred of secretive societies. In April 1738, Pope Clement XII condemned
all Freemasons. He made this official by means of a Papal Bull entitled "In
Eminenti". This Papal Bull was further endorsed by Cardinal Firrao, Secretary
of the Vatican State, on 14th June 1739.

The Pope and the Roman Catholic Church made it absolutely clear in this
Papal Bull that Freemasonry was to be considered a capital offence by all
Roman Catholic kingdoms. Following the orders of Pope Clement, Cardinal
Firrao wrote to the Inquisitor-General of Portugal, Cardinal da Cunha, ordering
him to hunt the Freemasons down.

One victim in the mid-eighteenth century was a Swiss Protestant, John

Coustos. Along with other prisoners, he was beaten and tortured. Prisoners
were not allowed to say anything while in prison, under threat of further
torture. He was tortured for three months in Portugal before being sentenced to
four years in the galleys, a harsh punishment which often resulted in death.

The Pope and leaders of the Roman Catholic Church expected information
about Freemason activities to be extracted through torture and fed back to them
in order to fully access the 'threat' that Freemasons were supposed to present.
In 1743, Inquisitor da Cunha made dozens of arrests in his attempt to find out
if suspected Freemasons had ever said anything against the Roman Catholic
Church. No evidence was found against the Freemasons that they were

120
anything other than a peaceful non-aggressive society.

In May 1751, Pope Benedict XIV re-confirmed the Papal Bull against the
Freemasons. Despite the fact that the Freemasons were not known to be
anything other than peace-loving, the Roman Catholic Church objected to the
very tenets of Freemasonry, specifically secrecy, freedom and the admission of
people from any class or religion into their society.

Pope Benedict XIV was also known to have written a venomous and hate-filled
letter to the master of Neopolitan lodges in Naples, alleging the existence of
ninety thousand Freemasons in Naples. In reality, only about two hundred were
there. A couple of centuries later, General Franco would carry out his own
campaign of terror and brutality against Freemasons, in his search for 'phantom
scapegoats'.

In 1746, King Ferdinand VI of Spain succeeded King Philip V. In July 1751,

Ferdinand's confessor, a Jesuit named Francisco Ravago, urged him to issue an
edict against Freemasons. A friar named Torrubia published a book in 1752, in
which he stated that all Freemasons were homosexuals who should be burned
alive.

Such an opinion reflected the Roman Catholic Church's hatred of homosexuals,

in addition to its hatred of Jews, Muslims, Protestants and now Freemasons.
The sheer scale of hatred, prejudice and paranoid invention of 'phantom
scapegoats' within the Roman Catholic Church throughout the past thousand
years allows one to easily draw parallels with Nazism and Fascism.

Needless to say, philosophers were also regarded with contempt and suspicion
and were hunted down by the Roman Catholic Church.

121
Pope Gregory XVI and Democracy

The Roman Catholic Church has, on many occasions throughout history, made
a concerted attempt to crush freedom of thought and democracy. Historical
evidence of this is included within this chapter in the form of quotes from
Papal Encyclicals1. On 15th August 1832, Pope Gregory XVI wrote a Papal
Encyclical which he addressed to "All Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, and
Bishops of the Catholic World".

The title of the Papal Encyclical was "Mirari Vos [On Liberalism and
Religious Indifferentism]".

In this quotation we see the Pope condemning what the Catholic Church
termed "indifferentism". 'Indifferentism' was essentially the view that other
religions also deserved respect, as opposed to simply being condemned as
"heresy" by the Roman Catholic Church. After denouncing indifferentism,
Pope Gregory XVI then went on to denounce as "wicked" those holding the
view that any religion that maintains morality is acceptable:

"Now We consider another abundant source of the evils

with which the Church is afflicted at present:
indifferentism. This perverse opinion is spread on all
sides by the fraud of the wicked who claim that it is
possible to obtain the eternal salvation of the soul by
the profession of any kind of religion, as long as
morality is maintained."

The Pope later went on to attack freedom of thought:

"This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that

1 A Papal Encyclical is a letter sent by the Pope to all Bishops of the Roman
Catholic Church

122
 absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that
liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone."

He then went on to condemn free speech in the form of books and other texts:

"We are horrified to see what monstrous doctrines and

prodigious errors are disseminated far and wide in
countless books, pamphlets, and other writings which,
though small in weight, are very great in malice."

"The Church has always taken action to destroy the

plague of bad books. This was true even in apostolic
times for we read that the apostles themselves burned a
large number of books..."

This next citation refers to the 'Index of Forbidden Books', which also included
the books written by Galileo Galilei until they were taken off the list in 1822:

"This also was of great concern to the fathers of Trent,

who applied a remedy against this great evil by
publishing that wholesome decree concerning the Index
of books which contain false doctrine."

Gregory XVI then went on to triumphantly quote from a previous Pope:

" 'We must fight valiantly,' Clement XIII says in an

encyclical letter about the banning of bad books, 'as
much as the matter itself demands and must
exterminate the deadly poison of so many books; for
never will the material for error be withdrawn, unless
the criminal sources of depravity perish in flames.'
Thus it is evident that this Holy See has always striven,
throughout the ages, to condemn and to remove suspect

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 and harmful books. The teaching of those who reject
the censure of books as too heavy and onerous a burden
causes immense harm to the Catholic people and to this
See. They are even so depraved as to affirm that it is
contrary to the principles of law, and they deny the
Church the right to decree and to maintain it."

This next citation was an attempt by Pope Gregory XVI to undermine

democracy, democracy being something which the Roman Catholic Church
vehemently opposed, lest it be used to challenge the supremacy of the Pope
and his cardinals. Gregory XVI attempted to prove that democracy was not a
"Christian" way to govern, by presenting the somewhat dubious example of
Christian soldiers dying for their cause by following the orders of their
superiors without question:

"This they proved splendidly by their fidelity in

performing perfectly and promptly whatever they were
commanded which was not opposed to their religion,
and even more by their constancy and the shedding of
their blood in battle."

It is perhaps hard to gauge how the Pope managed to reconcile his tirade with
the notion that the real Jesus Christ did not believe in warfare but instead
consistently promoted peace and non-aggression as a means to salvation.
Gregory XVI continued his tirade with some statements bordering on racism
and targeted at minorities, and finishing with a statement condemning Martin
Luther and Protestantism:

"These beautiful examples of the unchanging subjection

to the princes necessarily proceeded from the most holy
precepts of the Christian religion. They condemn the

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 detestable insolence and improbity of those who,
consumed with the unbridled lust for freedom, are
entirely devoted to impairing and destroying all rights
of dominion while bringing servitude to the people
under the slogan of liberty. Here surely belong the
infamous and wild plans of the Waldensians, the
Beghards, the Wycliffites, and other such sons of Belial
[the devil], who were the sores and disgrace of the
human race; they often received a richly deserved
anathema from the Holy See."

"For no other reason do experienced deceivers devote

their efforts, except so that they, along with Luther,
might joyfully deem themselves "free of all." To attain
this end more easily and quickly, they undertake with
audacity any infamous plan whatever."

This next quotation from Pope Gregory XVI's papal encyclical was essentially
an implication that all Christian countries should be run by the Roman Catholic
Church, with a situation such as that which existed during the period of the
Inquisition, where many thousands were tortured and burned alive at the behest
of the Catholic Church in Rome:

"Nor can We predict happier times for religion and

government from the plans of those who desire
vehemently to separate the Church from the state, and
to break the mutual concord between temporal
authority and the priesthood. It is certain that that
concord which always was favourable and beneficial
for the sacred and the civil order is feared by the
shameless lovers of liberty."

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This later quote may be an implicit condemnation of Freemasons or indeed any
other religion or group that was not wholly answerable to the Catholic Church
authorities in Rome:

"But for the other painful causes We are concerned

about, you should recall that certain societies and
assemblages seem to draw up a battle line together
with the followers of every false religion and cult. They
feign piety for religion; but they are driven by a passion
for promoting novelties and sedition everywhere. They
preach liberty of every sort; they stir up disturbances in
sacred and civil affairs, and pluck authority to pieces."

Pope Pius IX: Kidnapper, Religious Zealot

and Paedophile

In June 1846, Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti became Pope Pius IX. In

November 1849, an Italian Republican uprising was in full swing and the
Republicans were seeking the integration of Papal territories in Italy into a
more democratic and Republican state. Conflict between the Republicans and
the Roman Catholic Church eventually led to Pope Pius IX fleeing to the
neighbouring Kingdom of Naples1.

From his self-imposed exile and safe haven in Naples, the Pope denounced the
Republican movement as the "outrageous treason of democracy". A close
confidant and ally of Pius IX was Marcantonio Pacelli, grandfather of the
future Pope Pius XII. A year later in 1850, Pius IX returned from exile to the
Vatican, but not without significant help from Jews in the form of a sizeable
1 The Kingdom of Naples comprised the southern part of the Italian
peninsula

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loan from the Rothschild Bank.

Hypocritically, some might say, Pope Pius IX and his allies within the Catholic
Church subsequently blamed the Jews for the Republican uprising in Italy. He
then used his power to force Roman Jews back into ghettos within the city of
Rome.

In 1858, during the pinnacle of Pope Pius IX's reign of anti-Semitic hatred and
terror, a six year old Jewish boy, named Edgardo Mortara, was kidnapped in
Bologna1, Italy by the Papal Police, on bogus charges of illegal baptism. The
child was held captive in the 'House of Catechumens' in Rome and then
forcibly converted to the Roman Catholic religion.

There is historical evidence that the child was sexually abused by Pope Pius IX
and that he would often hide the child under his habit under the pretext that he
was merely "playing with the boy". The child's parents published pleas for his
safe return in the New York Times. Even Emperor Napoleon III of France
protested and asked for the child's release, albeit to no avail.

The Pope told the child's parents that they could only have their son back if
they converted to the Roman Catholic religion. They refused. Edgardo Mortara
remained a prisoner of the Roman Catholic Church throughout his teenage
years and was later forced into the Catholic priesthood.

The Syllabus of Errors

The notorious Syllabus of Errors (Latin: Syllabus Errorum) was a document

issued by the Roman Catholic Church under Pope Pius IX on December 8,
1864. It was essentially a condemnation of democracy in all its forms.
Statements the encyclical condemned as "false" included the following:

1 At that time Bologna was part of the Papal Territories

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 • Human reason, without any reference whatsoever to
God, is the sole arbiter of truth and falsehood, and of
good and evil

• All the truths of religion proceed from the innate

strength of human reason; hence reason is the ultimate
standard by which man can and ought to arrive at the
knowledge of all truths of every kind

• In the present day it is no longer expedient that the

Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of
the State, to the exclusion of all other forms of worship

• Protestantism is nothing more than another form of

the same true Christian religion, in which form it is
given to please God equally as in the Catholic Church

• The Church ought to be separated from the State, and

the State from the Church

• Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion

which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider
true

• It has been wisely decided by law, in some Catholic

countries, that persons coming to reside therein shall
enjoy the public exercise of their own peculiar worship

• The Roman Pontiff [the Pope] can, and ought to,

reconcile himself, and come to terms with, progress,
liberalism and modern civilization

All of these statements were considered "falsehoods" and "heresy" by Pope

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Pius IX. After his death on 7th February 1878, a group of irate people in Rome
tried to throw his coffin into the Tiber River.

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Chapter 6: Racism, Nazism and Fascism

La Civiltà Cattolica

In the late 19th century, the Jesuit Roman Catholic newspaper 'La Civilta
Cattolica' became notorious for its venomous anti-Semitic hatred and blatant
racism.

From 1881 to 1882, a series of articles were written by Giuseppe Oreglia di

Santo Stefano, ludicrously claiming that Jews regularly crucified and drained
the blood of Christian children. In 1891, Civilta Cattolica published articles
claiming that Jews were responsible for the French Revolution and was
perpetrated by Jews in order to attain "civic equality", as if trying to obtain
equal rights as citizens was in itself a crime.

This 'newspaper' later published the statement:

"The Jew was created by God to act the traitor

everywhere".

This was in response to the wrongful arrest in France of the French army
officer Alfred Dreyfus in 1898, on charges of treason. Dreyfus was later
acquitted. The Civilta Cattolica later went on to state that France should repeal
the 1791 Act that allowed Jews living in France equal citizenship rights.

Other articles called for further segregation and oppression of Jews. It can
easily be argued that such an attitude against the Jewish people by the Roman
Catholic Church's official newspaper, with its publication of such blatantly
racist articles in the late nineteenth century, gave persuasive force to the
twisted ideology of those Nazis who came from Roman Catholic families, such

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as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich.

Pope Pius X and Democracy

Pope Pius X became very busy writing papal encyclicals against democracy.
Specifically, he wrote against people who the Roman Catholic Church termed
"Modernists". Modernists were essentially those following the principles of
democracy and freedom of thought.

On 18th November 1907, Pius X wrote an encyclical entitled 'Praestantia

Scripturae (On the Bible Against the Modernists)', in which he wrote about the
need by Roman Catholics to promote the censorship of books that were
deemed 'heretical' by the Roman Catholic Church:

"We exhort them also to take diligent care to put an end

to those books and other writings, now growing
exceedingly numerous, which contain opinions or
tendencies of the kind condemned in the encyclical
letters and decree above mentioned; let them see to it
that these publications are removed from Catholic
publishing houses, and especially from the hands of
students..."

On 1st September 1910, Pope Pius X wrote another papal encyclical against
'Modernists', entitled "The Oath Against Modernism". It was to be sworn to by
all clergy, pastors, confessors, preachers, religious superiors, and professors in
all Catholic seminaries. This particular encyclical attempted to reinforce the
supreme authority of the Roman Catholic Church by belittling the value of
solid historical research coupled with empirical evidence. In effect, its primary
purpose was to denounce the intellectuals of the period:

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 "I condemn and reject the opinion of those who say that
a well-educated Christian assumes a dual personality -
that of a believer and at the same time of a historian, as
if it were permissible for a historian to hold things that
contradict the faith of the believer."

In this papal encyclical Pius X again stressed the need for censorship of
'heretical' books:

"...in all cases it will be obligatory on Catholic

booksellers not to put on sale books condemned by the
[local] Bishop..."

The Catholicism of the Nazi Party Leaders

This sub-chapter shall explore the Roman Catholic roots of the foremost
leaders of the German Nazi Party and shall explore the extent to which Roman
Catholic upbringing, education and conditioning was likely to have had an
effect on the childhood and youthful psychology of some of history's most
notorious war criminals and mass murderers.

It is important to study the childhood experiences, family life, upbringing and

education of these figures in order to assess possible links between the
institutionalised racism, anti-Semitism and lack of tolerance existing within the
Roman Catholic Church through the previous years and centuries (evidence of
which can be found in earlier chapters of this narrative) and any psychological
underpinnings that may have promoted, caused or fostered the crimes against
humanity and genocide committed by these powerful and influential Nazi
politicians.

Such a study is reasonable in the light of modern psychology, because it has

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been proven time and time again, by well educated psychologists, that
cognitive pre-conditioning during childhood gives a large indication of a
human being's actions and their response to stimuli in later life.

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was born on 20th April 1889, in Braunau, Austria-Hungary.

Hitler's mother was a devout Roman Catholic. She had him confirmed a
Roman Catholic at a Cathedral in Linz on Whit Sunday in 1904. Hitler's father
sold the family business in 1897, after which the family moved into lodgings in
Lambach1.

While growing up in Lambach, his family lived opposite a Roman Catholic

Benedictine monastery. In 1897 and 1898, the young Hitler attended a choir
school attached to the monastery. He was mentored by Padre Bernhard Gröner.

Hitler was fascinated by Roman Catholic Church rituals and black-robed

monks. He was also very impressed with the abbot's authority and would later
write:

"Again and again I enjoyed the best possibility of

intoxicating myself with the solemn splendour of the
dazzling festivals of the Church...It seemed to me
perfectly natural to regard the abbot as the highest and
most desirable ideal, just as my father regarded the
village priest as his ideal".

On his way to the choir school, Hitler would pass a stone arch upon which was
inscribed the monastery's coat of arms. The coat of arms of Abbot Theodorich
von Hagen included a swastika symbol. Hitler grew to like the abbot at the

1 Lambach, Austria is between Linz and Salzburg

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monastery, and during this period, the young Hitler expressed a desire to one
day become a priest within the Roman Catholic Church. He often played make-
belief games at home where he would pretend to deliver sermons.

At the age of nineteen, Hitler wanted to become an artist. A friend's father

described him as: "A young man who had failed at school and thought too
highly of himself to learn a trade".

After moving away from home, Hitler lived with his friend Gustl Kubizek in
Stumpergasse, Vienna. Hitler was known to be afraid of sex and women and he
once told his friend that he believed that there should be no sex before
marriage, in accordance with his Roman Catholic upbringing. Hitler also
obsessively rallied against prostitution.

Joseph Goebbels

Joseph Goebbels was born on 29th October 1897. His parents were religious
Roman Catholics who ultimately wanted their son Joseph to become a Roman
Catholic priest. Goebbels was sent to a Roman Catholic school in Rheydt 1, in
the Rhineland, Germany. His mother took him to church regularly.

Prelate Mollen remembered the young Goebbels to be very keen on his Roman
Catholic religion. He obtained high grades in religious education. Goebbels'
further education was actually funded by a Roman Catholic charity known as
the 'Albertus Magnus Society'. He applied for a university scholarship from
Albertus Magnus in September 1917 at the age of nineteen. His letter, dated
5th September 1917, included the following:

"I herewith most humbly appeal to the Diocesan

Committee of the Albertus Magnus Society for some

1 A town in Germany approximately 20km south-west of Düsseldorf

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 financial support...[My continuing education] entirely
depends on the charity of my Catholic fellow-
believers...I am confident that my former religious
teacher, Herr Oberlehrer Johannes Mollen, will
confirm my statements to be true".

Prelate Mollen later recommended Goebbels in a character reference that

included:

"Herr Goebbels comes from decent Catholic parents

and can be recommended on account of his religious
attitude and his general moral demeanour".

At the University of Bonn, Goebbels joined a Roman Catholic student union

known as 'Unitas'.

Years later, Goebbels became the Nazi regime's 'Reich Minister of Public
Enlightenment and Propaganda'.

Joseph Goebbels is widely believed to have been the Nazi most responsible for
promoting the genocide that ensued. Goebbels' propaganda played a central
role in the Nazi ideology of racism and of Aryan racial superiority.

Magda Goebbels

Magda Goebbels, the wife of Joseph Goebbels, had a Roman Catholic

upbringing. She grew up in a convent boarding school and was later educated
by Roman Catholic nuns. Her further education continued in a similar vein,
with Frau Goebbels on one occasion selected to give a speech in the presence
of a Cardinal.

History demonstrates and proves that the wives of male politicians have often

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had a large influence on their husbands' political careers. In this context, it is
highly unlikely, if not impossible, that Magda Goebbels would not have had
considerable influence on her husband's genocidal inclinations.

Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Heydrich was born on 7th March 1904, in Halle an der Saale 1.
Heydrich was christened in the St. Elisabeth Catholic Church in Mauerstrasse.
His mother was a devout Roman Catholic and she brought Heydrich up in a
strict religious environment. She led the young Reinhard in his evening prayers
and each and every Sunday the entire family attended Mass.

The early incarnation of the Gestapo was formed as a counter-intelligence

division within the SS. The overall head was Heinrich Himmler, who recruited
Heydrich in 1933. A Roman Catholic priest named Wilhelm Patin was later
recruited by Reinhard Heydrich into this branch of the SS in 1933. In 1934,
Heydrich was appointed head of the Gestapo by Heinrich Himmler.

Reinhard Heydrich was the Nazi who began Hitler's "Final Solution" of mass
extermination and genocide. Heydrich appointed Adolf Eichmann 2 to be the
architect of the Holocaust.

Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Himmler was born on 7th October 1900 into a Roman Catholic

1 Near Leipzig in eastern Germany

2 Many years later Eichmann was captured from Argentina by Israeli Mossad
agents, flown to Israel, put on trial and then sentenced to death for crimes
against humanity and war crimes

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family in Munich, Bavaria. His parents were devout Roman Catholics.
Himmler also grew up a devout Roman Catholic, and even by the age of
nineteen, he was still a regular attendee at his local Roman Catholic Church.
Aged nineteen, Himmler wrote in his diary:

"Come what may, I shall always love God, pray to Him

and adhere to the Catholic Church and defend it, even
if I should be expelled from it".

Every Sunday, Heinrich Himmler and his parents attended Mass in the Roman
Catholic Michaelis Church in Kaufingerstrasse in Munich, Germany.

In Bavaria, in southern Germany, the Dominican Order of the Roman Catholic

Church had been the driving force behind anti-Semitism for centuries. It would
therefore be naive to assume that such endemic anti-Semitism within this
religious organisation would not have had an effect on Himmler from an early
age.

In many respects, Himmler was the second most powerful and influential Nazi
after Hitler himself. After Hitler, Heinrich Himmler was the ultimate authority
behind the Nazi genocide and many other crimes against humanity. As head of
the SS (which included the Gestapo), Himmler was directly responsible for
coordinating the Nazi genocide and mass extermination activities. This, of
course, included the extermination of around three million Polish Catholics,
much to the later embarrassment of the Roman Catholic Church.

Cardinal August Hlond

August Hlond was born in Poland in 1881, not far from the Czech border. He
was educated in Poland and later studied in Italy. He was made a Cardinal of
the Roman Catholic Church in 1927. Cardinal Hlond embodied the anti-

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Semitic attitude of the Roman Catholic Church towards the Jewish people in
the twentieth century.

In a pastoral letter written in 1936, in the years leading up to the Nazi

genocide, Cardinal August Hlond described Polish Jews in a somewhat racist
light:

"There will be a Jewish problem as long as the Jews

remain...It is a fact that the Jews fight against the
Catholic church, they are free-thinkers, and constitute
the vanguard of atheism, bolshevism and revolution. It
is true that the Jews are committing frauds, practising
usury, and dealing in white slavery. It is also true that
in the schools the Jewish youth is having an evil
influence, from an ethical and religious point of view,
on the Catholic youth."

It would seem the "good Christian" Cardinal Hlond was not very well educated
or enlightened, due to the inherent contradictions in his statement. How could
Jews be the "vanguard of atheism" if Judaism was, in itself, a monotheistic
religion? It would seem from his statement that he was also blaming Jewish
children for various things.

It is fair to say, on the balance of probabilities, that high-ranking members of

the Roman Catholic Church such as Cardinal August Hlond were in large part
responsible for the later German acceptance of Nazi crimes against humanity
and genocide. The racist statement above was indeed similar to persuasive
statements made by Joseph Goebbels and other leading Nazis in the run-up to
the genocide that included the mass murder of children. According to Cardinal
Hlond, Jewish children were also to be held accountable for the imaginary
conspiracy theories that Cardinal Hlond and others like Hitler, Goebbels and

138
Himmler subscribed to.

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Chapter 7: General Francisco Franco

Franco's Childhood

Francisco Franco Bahamonde was born in December 1892, in the north-

western Spanish region known as Galicia. He grew to be only five foot three
inches tall. Coming from a family with a tradition of service to the Spanish
navy, the young Franco grew to have an interest in the sea. He attended
Spanish primary schools specialising in the preparation of Spanish boys for
navy entrance examinations. Franco failed the exams and thus failed to enter
the navy by this means.

The young Franco despised his father, who showed favouritism towards his
brothers and suffered from gambling and drinking problems. Later, Franco's
father left his mother. His mother was a devout Roman Catholic who forced
her conservative and anti-liberal views onto her son. Franco nevertheless
continued to long for his father's approval. After repeated disappointments, he
turned to his mother for emotional support.

Franco took on his mother's religious convictions and became a religious

Roman Catholic like her. He regularly attended Catholic Communion with his
mother. Franco grew to reject everything his father stood for, including alcohol,
gambling and women. He made a forceful effort to be the opposite of his father
and believed he was being a 'good Catholic' by following in the footsteps of his
mother. He was equally adamant in aligning with his mother's contempt for
liberal views.

Franco's emotional development was affected by Spain's loss of Cuba in 1898

and the failures that the Spanish experienced in their colonial war against

140
Morocco. He deeply resented the loss of Spanish territories abroad. Later in his
life, in 1941, when he was close to declaring war on the side of the Nazis,
Franco would reflect upon his childhood experiences: "We saw our childhood
dominated by the contemptible incompetence of those men who abandoned
half of the fatherland's territory to foreigners". By 1898, Spain had lost the few
remaining parts of its dwindling empire.

At the end of the nineteenth century, Spain also suffered heavy defeats at the
hands of the Americans. After this, its inferior and badly equipped navy
became further depleted and resources for the training of new recruits
inevitably suffered.

Franco was sent to a middle-class school by his mother, in the Spanish naval
town of El Ferrol. He was known to be a fairly average pupil, having few close
friends. He did, however, show an interest in his sister's friends. Franco's
school was run by a local priest who firmly believed in corporal punishment as
an aid to education. Franco progressed to a local military academy in 1907 and
also joined a pious Catholic society known as "Adoracion Nocturna".

Persecuted by his peers for being small and thin, Franco was bullied a lot
during his teenage years. Being of average intellectual ability, he experienced
little in the way of formal education and instead concentrated on army skills. In
those days, that mainly involved the skills of horse-riding and shooting. Franco
had little interest in learning any foreign language and was never able to master
English during his lifetime.

Franco's Youth

In Barcelona, July 1909, there were anti-war demonstrations by Socialists

protesting against the Spanish government's colonial brutality and the needless

141
loss of life suffered by young Spanish conscripts. The leader of the region
encompassing Barcelona declared martial law in order to crush what was
essentially a peaceful protest. Some liberals were even sentenced to death.
Franco was an army cadet in Toledo at this time. He believed that the protesters
were traitors and that the war against the Moroccans was fully justified.

By 1910, there was a rapidly widening gap between civil and military society
in Spain. Appalled by the left-wing for their stance against war and
conscription, Franco labelled them 'pacifists' and to demonstrate his
convictions, he applied to fight in Morocco himself.

Franco the Soldier

At this time, Morocco was ruled by a Muslim Sultan. Before the First World
War, both the French and Spanish had fought over Morocco due to its strategic
importance. Thus, Franco also despised the French over his perception of them
standing in the way of Spain's continued colonisation of North Africa. He
arrived in Morocco in 1912 and would spend the next ten years there. In
February 1914, Franco was promoted to the rank of captain, aged twenty one.
What little spare time he had was spent engaging in one of his few hobbies -
the hunting of animals.

Franco was wounded in June 1916 but survived, after which he was promoted
to the rank of Major. He was ambitious and favoured promotions over war
medals. There were rumours at the time that his injuries had left him sexually
impotent, but this was never proven one way or the other. After his promotion
to Major, he returned to mainland Spain. By this time, he had still not made
many close friends and was considered to be very socially inept. He did not
have girlfriends either, at least not until 1917. In 1917, Franco took a shine to a
fifteen year old school girl. Her name was Carmen and she was the daughter of

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a rich family from Oviedo1.

Carmen was in a convent at the time and, in spite of Franco's espoused Roman
Catholic religious convictions, he was something of a paedophile. He schemed
to arrange for her to come and live with him. She refused at first but Franco
continued to harass her with letters, though the letters were intercepted by nuns
in the convent where Carmen was staying. Not giving up easily, Franco started
regularly attending Mass in order to get closer to the fifteen year old. It is
likely he was attracted to her because she resembled his mother and also
because she was committed to Catholicism, despite the fact that she was under-
age by any reasonable measure.

Civil Unrest in Spain

The health of Spain's dwindling economy improved during these years, largely
due to the fact that Spain's neutrality during the First World War allowed the
country to sell industrial products to both sides, giving a much needed boost to
an otherwise failing economy. Socialist unions in Spain did not give up and
continued to encourage strikes in the hope of bringing about democratic
elections and constitutional reform.

In August 1917, martial law was imposed in Spain after strike action by
railway workers. The army was sent in by a conservative Prime Minister who
was sympathetic to Spain's military generals. The army murdered eighty
people, wounded one hundred and fifty and a further two thousand people were
arrested. Of those arrested, many were known to have been tortured and
mutilated. This guaranteed a halt to the strike.

One of the regiments that helped to carry out these brutalities was commanded

1 A small city in northern Spain

143
by Major Franco. There were also reports that the mining villages had been
subjected to looting, beatings, torture and rape. Many right-wing Spanish army
officers, including Franco, favoured what they thought to be the traditional
Spanish virtues of "hierarchy, unity and militant Catholicism". Evidently many
pined for the return of the days of the Inquisition.

Spanish Atrocities in North Africa

Franco returned to North Africa in October 1920, commanding a battalion of

the Spanish Legion. It was formed primarily of criminals and other outcasts.
Discipline was harsh and men could be shot for even minor disciplinary
infractions. In one incident, Franco even had a legionnaire shot by firing squad
for refusing to eat his food.

Moorish villages were then attacked by Franco's men and atrocities committed
against the Muslim Moors, included beheadings followed by the exhibitioning
of severed heads as trophies. Such conduct was common among Franco's
soldiers. He made no attempt to limit the violence and atrocities committed by
those under his command. On the contrary, historical evidence points to the
fact that Franco encouraged such actions by his battalion.

In 1922 a philanthropist, the Duquesa de la Victoria, had gathered a team of

volunteer nurses. She received a tribute in 1922 in the form of a basket of roses
which also contained the severed heads of two Moorish North Africans neatly
arranged in the centre of the basket. One may find it hard to reconcile such
actions by those calling themselves Roman Catholics with genuine Christian
values.

General Primo de Rivera visited Morocco in 1926, to find one battalion of the
Spanish Legion displaying severed heads on their bayonets. There is ample

144
historical evidence that Franco felt pride at the level of brutality in spite of his
professed Roman Catholic convictions. He kept a diary in which he condoned
the murder and mutilation of prisoners in North Africa. He also presided over
punishment beatings of Moorish prisoners, a practice which would come to
service Franco well in the later Spanish Civil War.

Franco's diary turned out to be quite revealing. He once wrote that he had
firmly opposed some Legion captains who had attempted to stop their men
from shooting unarmed women. In his writings, Franco admitted to having
laughed at attempts to save the lives of Moorish women since they were
"factories for baby Moors". Incidentally, Franco admitted a heavy propensity
for revenge. So much for the Christian virtue of 'forgiveness'. In 1921, Franco
and twelve other volunteers returned from a village proudly carrying and
displaying the severed heads of twelve tribesmen.

Franco's Rise through the Military Ranks

Franco did, however, portray himself as the 'selfless hero' back in Spain, where
he proudly published his diary in 1922. He officially returned to Spain in
January 1923, receiving a military medal for his "bravery" from the King of
Spain. In June 1923, Franco was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.
He married in October 1923 and was promoted to full Colonel in February
1925. In March the same year, he was awarded a gold Roman Catholic
religious medal from the King.

Aged thirty four, Franco was promoted to Brigadier General in February 1926.
At the time, a common myth was widely circulated that he was the youngest
general in Europe since Napoleon. Unfortunately for Franco and his
supporters, this was not in fact true.

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While stationed in Madrid and away from the battlefield, Franco left the hard
work to his colonels and spent much of his time at the local cinemas of the day.
The remainder of his time he spent socialising with military associates. His
association with military peers was the closest he ever came to genuine
friendship.

By this time in Spain, the King had become little more than a figurehead and
Spain was actually governed by a military dictator, General Miguel Primo de
Rivera. During his dictatorship, Primo strengthened the nationalist movement
in Spain, helping to pave the way for Fascism to secure a foothold in the
country.

During Easter 1926, there was a 'Corpus Christi' procession at the San
Jeronimo Roman Catholic Church in Madrid. Franco was in command of
troops lining the streets and he was hailed a "legendary hero of Africa" by the
religious Roman Catholic masses.

In Spring 1929, Franco was officially invited to the German army's General
Infantry Academy in Dresden. He was impressed. From early on, Franco
supported the Germans and sympathised with them over their defeat in the
First World War. He was vehemently opposed to the Treaty of Versailles, a
treaty which mandated Germany to keep to certain conditions as a result of
German aggression during World War One.

In 1930, the Spanish dictator Primo was sent into exile in Paris. King Alfonso
XIII sought another dictator in Primo's place. Although he generally supported
the monarchy at the time, Franco was bitterly disappointed at the exile of
Primo. He also hated his brother Ramon, whose opinions differed markedly
from those of Franco. At one time, Franco even stated that his brother Ramon
"had to be shot" for his organisation of strikes and opposition to the monarchy.

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A Brief Period of Democracy in Spain

Municipal elections took place in Spain in April 1931, the results of which
turned out to be against the monarchy. Afterwards, King Alfonso XIII quietly
withdrew from the political scene in Spain. The results left Spain open to the
establishment of the Second Republic. Again, this left Franco bitterly
disappointed. These events marked the downfall of Spain's monarchy and it
would not be until the 1975 coronation of Alfonso's grandson, Juan Carlos, that
the monarchy would be restored in Spain.

As a result of democratic elections, on 12th April 1931 a provisional

government took over in Spain which comprised a majority of Socialists and
Liberal Republicans committed to a significant reform programme. Franco was
appalled. The Minister for War, Manuel Azana, became Prime Minister on 14th
October 1931 and was to later become President of the Republic in 1936.

In 1931, Azana began a series of reforms that included significant reductions in

army officer numbers. He did however offer generous retirement terms, which
included a continuation of full pay to those military officers who were made
redundant.

Fearful of an uprising or coup, the leaders of Spain's Second Republic sought

to pacify influential military leaders such as General Franco. In February 1932,
Franco was given the military governorship of Corunna 1, though it did little to
endear the new democratic government to Franco.

During the period from 1931 to 1932, the right-wing dominated Spanish Civil
Guard repeatedly took to shooting civilians involved in peaceful protests. Some
of the protesters were merely landless labourers protesting against appalling
living conditions. Some of the Civil Guard soldiers were also known to have

1 A coastal city and province in north-western Spain

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killed women and children.

The First Military Coup

There was a failed coup by a right-wing faction in August 1932, led by José
Sanjurjo against Azana's democratically elected government. The attempted
coup had been planned mainly by disgruntled army officers and they in turn
had plenty of disgruntled soldiers to draw upon.

Following the failure of the coup, a conspiratorial committee was formed by

high-ranking army officers in order to plan a future military coup more
successfully. Conspirators raised funds to buy arms and established cells within
the army aimed at subversive tactics.

The Nationalist movement was made official by the formation of a Spanish

Fascist party, known as 'Falange Espanola'. It was established by the son of
dictator Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera in October 1933.

Splits within the government caused President Alcala Zamora to call a general
election in November 1933. After the elections a right-wing Roman Catholic
authoritarian party known as 'CEDA1' gained a majority. CEDA had wealthy
backers and, after their victory, they proceeded to reverse the previous reforms
by implementing measures to slash wages, repress union members, evict
tenants and raise rents. Franco supported and had voted for CEDA. This right-
wing Roman Catholic party then allied itself with right-wing military figures,
including Franco.

In January 1934, Franco was promoted to Major-General, aged forty two. By

this time, he was becoming increasingly anti-Socialist and anti-Communist.
Franco and his religious Roman Catholic allies in the CEDA party were

1 In Spanish: Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas

148
adamant that the left-wing should never be allowed to have any power, even if
voted in democratically.

The Demise of Democracy in the Second

Spanish Republic

Martial law was subsequently imposed in regions involved in strike action, and
Franco was put in charge of repression in Asturias and Catalonia by the
Minister for War. The declaration of Martial Law allowed Franco to use
whatever brutal means were at this disposal. He was known to have even
utilised Moorish mercenaries because he knew they would not hesitant to
murder Spanish civilians.

Franco was becoming good at killing his own people and knew how to get the
job done. Striking miners were gunned down by Franco's soldiers and he had
the working-class districts of the mining towns shelled and bombed. His
actions resulted in large numbers of deaths among women and children. Franco
was committed to crushing the spirit of the working-class protesters at any
cost. These crimes against humanity did, however, cause an international
outcry and unsurprisingly had the effect of increasing public support for
Socialism and Communism.

In 1935, the extreme right-wing prepared for another coup. While this
preparation was taking place, Franco was recalled to Madrid in May 1935 to
take up the post of Chief of the General Staff. After taking office, he
immediately increased funding to the army and granted increased power to the
generals to deal with left-wing protesters.

After a brief spell as a political prisoner, Azana helped to form a coalition of

Republicans and Socialists known as the 'Popular Front'. Franco was deeply

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shocked. He responded by further allying himself with the military high-
ranking officers who were busy preparing to launch another coup.

Inevitably, new elections were called and this alarmed the army generals about
the possibility of reduced influence by the right-wing religious Catholic party
CEDA. During 1935 and 1936, many more Spanish army officers joined the
Nationalists.

On 16th February 1936, the liberal Popular Front party won by a narrow
margin. Subsequent to these democratic elections, a more liberal cabinet was
appointed and this sparked further plans for a militant uprising by the extreme
right. Franco tried to instate Martial Law with help from political and military
allies still in power. His actions were illegal and were not even supported by
the Spanish Civil Guard or the police.

Franco's Rise to Power

Franco then tried to persuade others in government who were on the verge of
losing power to allow him to 'reverse' the election results via more militant
means. There was fierce resistance from right-wing extremists and also among
fundamentalist Roman Catholics against the handing over of power to the
liberal Popular Front party, despite the fact that the Popular Front had won the
election through a legal and democratic process.

Ultimately, power was handed back to the Popular Front, with Azana as leader.
Azana immediately dismissed General Franco from his post as Chief of the
General Staff. Full of bitterness, Franco was then ready to destroy the Popular
Front government at any cost. The democratically elected Popular Front
government tried its best to deal with other high-ranking rebel army officers,
but such a task was not easy given the power and influence over troops and

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equipment that the rebel army officers had.

Left-wing activities against the somewhat corrupt Roman Catholic Church

clergy reinforced Franco's hatred of liberals and reformists. He gave
enthusiastic support to Benito Mussolini in Italy, before joining the military
rebellion in Spain himself.

Franco made his decision to join the rebellion during a stay in the Canary
Island of Tenerife in July 1936. Franco himself then instigated a military coup
by declaring Martial Law in the Canary Island, under the pretext of "preventing
anarchy". He then proceeded to use the Canary Islands as a safe base from
which to force Spain into civil war.

The Spanish Civil War

From his safe base in the Canary Islands, Franco began the civil war in Spain
by broadcasting threats of "exemplary punishment" against all those supporting
the democratically elected Popular Front government, despite the fact that they
were legally governing the Spanish Republic. He promised "no pardon" for
those who resisted him and his fellow military rebels. Running further away
from his enemies in Spain, Franco established a headquarters in Tetuan in
Spanish Morocco.

Franco thus successfully initiated an era of mayhem which was to last for many
years across the whole of Spain. Fundamentalist Roman Catholics in the rural
regions of Spain aligned themselves with Franco's right-wing extremists.

Franco went on to declare defence of the Spanish Republic a "crime

punishable by death". During the first six months of the Spanish Civil War,
around fifty thousand Spaniards were summarily executed by General Franco's
forces. Summary executions were later extended to include anyone who had

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even secretly supported the Popular Front. It was not long before Franco's
extremist rebels gained the full support of the Spanish army. The Spanish Civil
War was in fact more a military coup than a civil war.

In villages across Spain, mass murder ensued at the hands of Franco's army,
with civilians being buried in mass graves. By August 1936, the Spanish Civil
War, if the term 'war' could indeed be used to describe it, had become a
campaign of mass extermination of Spanish civilians by Franco's army. With
plenty of experience and practice behind him, Franco reverted to the methods
he had used in North Africa during his younger years.

Republicans who supported democracy were still able to resist across much of
Spain, and so Franco asked his Fascist and Nazi allies in Italy and Germany
respectively for much needed assistance. This come in the form of war planes
and military equipment. He made a direct appeal to Adolf Hitler for help, and
Franco and his people also liaised with Nazi party representatives in Morocco.
To reinforce his plea for assistance, Franco subsequently sent emissaries to
meet Hitler in person, in order to renew his request for war planes and
armaments.

Nazi volunteers were then recruited by Hitler to transport the war planes and
equipment to Franco's army of rebels in Spain. In August 1936, Franco ordered
further executions of his political opponents.

Franco's troops proceeded to advance from Morocco into southern Spain.

Many women were raped by his men and many prisoners of war continued to
be murdered. There is ample historical evidence available which proves that
Franco hired Muslim mercenaries to attack Spanish Republicans, in spite of the
fact that Franco hated Islam.

The mercenaries were paid in the form of loot. Throughout this period, Franco
portrayed his role in the civil war, or perhaps more accurately his role in the

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escalating mountain of atrocities and crimes against humanity, as that of, in his
words: "A Catholic Crusade".

On 14th August, two thousand prisoners were murdered by Franco's troops in

the city of Badajoz1. The slaughter of civilians in the city went on for weeks.
Such actions earned Franco and his fellow Nationalists sincere admiration
within Nazi Germany. The Nazis described his success as a "systematic and
thorough cleansing". Italian and German air force pilots assisted Franco with
the bombing any villages across Spain that were suspected of harbouring
Popular Front Party supporters.

After the capture of Almendralejo 2 by Franco's forces, around a thousand

prisoners were shot, including one hundred women. Captured women were
often raped by Franco's men before being executed.

There was a massacre in Talavera de la Reina 3 on 3rd September 1936.

Journalist John Whitaker later recalled that there appeared to be no end in sight
to the murder of simple workers and peasants. People were slaughtered simply
for carrying a trade union membership card, for being a Freemason or for
having voted in favour of the (democratic) Spanish Republic.

Official Support of Franco's Regime by the

Roman Catholic Church

On 14th September 1936, Pope Pius XI gave his blessing to the "Christian
heroism" of Franco's Spanish Nationalists in their "heroic" attempt to

1 A city and province in the west of Spain, close to the Portuguese border

2 A town in the province of Badajoz

3 A small city in Spain approximately 100km south-west of Madrid

153
annihilate civilian supporters of the democratically elected and legal
government of the Spanish Republic.

On 30th September 1936, a pastoral letter was issued by the Roman Catholic
Bishop of Salamanca, Enrique Pla y Deniel. In this letter, the bishop gave
wholehearted support to Franco and his army of murderous fanatics. The word
"Crusade" was used in the letter, to describe Franco's war of annihilation and
atrocities against the democratically elected Spanish government and its
supporters.

Bishop Pla y Deniel even went so far as to submit his text to General Franco
for approval before having it officially published. Franco was delighted to have
been given the full support of the Roman Catholic Church. At this stage, any
guilt he might have felt was fully assuaged and he was able to proceed safe in
the knowledge that he was fighting and perpetrating crimes against humanity in
the name of the Roman Catholic Church and with absolute impunity.

Franco's 'devout' Catholic wife Dona Carmen also encouraged his "divine
mission". It is worth considering that the Catholic Church in Rome had
awarded their full support to Franco in spite of his well known allegiance to
Hitler and Nazi Germany. It is absolutely clear that Franco was spurred on in
his "crusade" by the endorsement of the Roman Catholic Church and its
leadership.

Franco's Decisive Move Toward Nazism

Franco and his fellow Spanish Nationalists, like their Fascist counterparts in
Italy and Nazi counterparts in Germany, embraced a notion of 'cleansing' their
motherland. Also like the Nazis, they took on the psychological mechanism of
'dehumanising' their perceived enemies. In Spain, these 'enemies' took the form

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of Liberals and Socialists. Such 'dehumanising' was similar to the approach the
Nazis took when exterminating Slavs and Russians. In other words, this was
how a war of annihilation was justified.

One of Franco's captains, Gonzalo de Aguilera, was known to have stated:

"Someone who squats down on his knees to clean your boots in the street is
bound to be a Communist, so why not kill him right away and be done with it?
No need for a trial - his guilt is self-evident from his profession".

Following his initial 'successes', Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany increased their
assistance to Franco.

The journalist John Whitaker also witnessed a mass execution in the Tagus
Valley1. Seven trucks arrived containing around six hundred exhausted
prisoners of war. All of them were murdered with machine guns by Franco's
men. The prisoners had already surrendered and made no attempt to resist the
war crimes which were perpetrated against them. They had been defenceless.

On 27th September 1936, there was another massacre near Toledo 2. Footprints
were seen trailing through streets of blood. John Whitaker later reported that
Franco's Nationalists had been boasting about how "grenades were thrown in
among two hundred screaming and helpless people" in the San Juan Bautista
hospital.

Further Support Given to Franco by the

Roman Catholic Church

The Vatican, under Pope Pius XI, blessed those who were "defending the rights

1 A region that lies a short distance south of Madrid

2 A city in central Spain approximately 70km south of Madrid

155
and honour of God". The Pope made a contrast between the "barbaric atheist
Republic" and the "Christian heroism" of Franco and his allies.

One of Franco's army captains, Captain Gonzalo de Aguilera, told foreign press
journalists: "We are going to kill and kill and kill". Gonzalo de Aguilera, a firm
follower and admirer of General Franco, went on to say: "The regeneration of
Spain requires the extermination of a third of the male population.....We'll
[also] be done with this nonsense of equality for women....If a man's wife is
unfaithful to him, he should shoot her like a dog".

Needless to say, Intellectuals were also targeted by Franco's forces, including a

well known elderly philosopher named Miguel de Unamuno. Similarly to Nazi
Germany, intellectuals were considered a threat to Fascist ideology. A well-
educated and enlightened philosopher, Miguel de Unamuno, was once known
to have characterised Franco's hypocrisy as: "a brand of Catholicism that is not
Christian and of a paranoid militarism bred in the colonial campaigns".

On 1st October 1936, Cardinal Isidro Goma y Tomas sent a telegram to Franco
congratulating him on his recent victories. By this time Franco had declared
himself Head of State and the Cardinal congratulated him on this, too. The next
day Franco replied: "I could receive no better help than the blessing of Your
Eminence".

Franco set up his new headquarters in the Episcopal Palace in Salamanca 1. It

had been awarded to him by Bishop Pla y Deniel.

Franco's captain in the north, Gonzalo de Aguilera, gave out further press
releases, describing the Spanish masses as "animals". He went on to denounce
the poor people of Spain as: "slave stock who could easily be killed through the
introduction of disease and by destruction of the sewage systems". Perhaps
unsurprisingly, he also admired the Nazis.
1 A city and province in western Spain

156
On 12th October 1936, Franco was given a special tribute in the Cathedral of
Salamanca. A Dominican Catholic priest, Father Fraile, praised Franco for
"recuperating the spirit of Spain".

In November, Franco addressed cheering crowds with proclamations that Nazi

Germany and Fascist Italy were "the bulwarks of culture, civilisation and
Christianity in Europe". Franco was highly likely to have known and been
encouraged by the fact that leading Nazis, including Himmler, Goebbels, Hitler
and Heydrich, also had Roman Catholic family backgrounds, just like Franco.
He was, therefore, able to closely identify with the German Nazis from a
religious angle as well, hypocrisy notwithstanding.

On 22nd December, Cardinal Goma arrived from the Vatican to take the
official step of full diplomatic recognition of Franco's dictatorship by the
Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic Church was quick to draw parallels
between Franco and the "Catholic warriors" of the past. Consequently,
Cardinal Goma ordered that a sword be displayed in the Cathedral of Toledo.
One can only wonder in amazement at the Roman Catholic Church's blatant
endorsement of crimes against humanity as late as the twentieth century.

It would seem that Franco's spirit of Catholicism did not cause any dissonance
with his apparent love of sadistic cruelty. Franco was very fond of ordering
summary executions by the slow, agonising death of garrotte strangulation, a
barbaric method of execution by any reasonable measure.

Continuing Atrocities by Franco's Regime

In April 1937, Basques living in northern Spain were systematically oppressed

and brutalised, with German help. In Guernica, near Bilbao, over sixteen
hundred people were slaughtered and over a thousand wounded by Franco and

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his Nazi allies. Franco encouraged his supporters to commit war crimes against
his enemies, and this included murder, rape, looting and torture.

On 19th June 1937, thousands of Basques were executed in Bilbao despite

having surrendered to Franco's forces. After the massacre, Franco
enthusiastically thanked his friend Adolf Hitler for his help and support in
carrying out this massacre, in addition to the many others.

Cardinal Goma gave official Catholic Church support to Franco's crimes

against humanity and atrocities by labelling the Basques "communists and
heathens". The Vatican and the Pope signalled their approval, thereby
indicating further official support by the Roman Catholic Church to Franco's
crimes against humanity and atrocities. A text was published by the Vatican on
1st July 1937 legitimising Franco's rebellion. It was signed by two cardinals,
six archbishops, thirty five bishops and five vicars-general.

A short time later the Republicans lost a further twenty thousand troops. In
August 1937, Franco's troops discovered hundreds of Basque refugees trying to
flee persecution and mass murder in Spain. Franco had all of them summarily
executed before they could escape to freedom.

By 1938, Franco had managed to obtain total control of Spain. Secure in his
position as authoritarian dictator of all of Spain, he proceeded to launch an
anti-American propaganda campaign and gave the Nazis big concessions in
mining enterprises in Spain and Spanish Morocco.

In November 1938, Franco ordered another offensive against the remaining

Republicans, armed as his army was with new equipment from Germany. The
offensive resulted in massive loss of life by Republicans merely trying to
defend themselves.

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Direct Support from the Pope

Following further fascist gains by Franco at the beginning of 1939, the Pope
wrote to him again showing the Vatican's sincere gratitude, and thanking
Franco for Spain's "Catholic victory". At this point in time, Franco's "Catholic
victory" had cost well over half a million lives. It was to cost many more in the
days, months and years to follow, under Franco's Fascist regime.

On 19th March 1939, Franco received news from Cardinal Goma that the
newly elected Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli) had sent Franco his blessing. A
broadcast was made by Pope Pius XII on Vatican Radio on 16th April. In this
broadcast, the Pope gave praise to Franco for his execution of "the most noble
and Christian sentiments", referring to Franco's brutal takeover of Spain.

The Beginning of Franco's Love Affair with

Nazism

By this time Franco had firmly allied himself with Adolf Hitler. He had
regarded the democratically elected Republican side in the civil war as being
"under the control of Freemasons, Bolsheviks and Jews". However, there were
not many Jews left in Spain at this time due to the Spanish Inquisition of the
previous era, so it was not so easy for Franco to utilise them as scapegoats.

Franco proceeded to appoint two high-ranking Roman Catholics in his illegal

government. These were Father Juan Tusquets and Father Jose Maria Bulart.
They were to help Franco continue the process of ethnic cleansing across
Spain.

The number of executions committed after the civil war by Franco's regime
was in the order of thirty thousand innocent civilians. On 31st March 1939, a

159
treaty of friendship was signed by Franco and Hitler providing "relations of
comradeship and the exchange of practical military experiences between the
respective armed forces". Despite professed neutrality, Franco's Spain was,
contrary to popular belief by many Spanish and Catholic Church Francoist
apologists, firmly aligned with Nazi Germany.

In May 1939, Spain officially cancelled its membership of the League of

Nations1. Franco then massively increased trade relations with Nazi Germany,
with significant arms shipments being channelled from Spain to Germany to
help the Nazi war effort. Notwithstanding this allegiance, Germany pushed
Franco not to reveal his friendship with the Nazis to Britain and France, since
the Germans wanted Britain and France to continue to believe Spain was
neutral. This was part of the German war strategy, probably a tactic to aid
German spying and espionage activities against the Allied Forces.

The Second World War broke out with Germany's invasion of Poland, after
which Franco made a further agreement with the Nazis to allow German
submarines to be re-supplied from Spanish ports. Specifically, these were the
Spanish ports of Cadiz2, Vigo3 and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria4. Throughout
World War Two, German U-Boats were serviced at these and possibly other
Spanish ports as well.

By this stage Franco was greatly assisting the Nazi war machine. He allowed
Nazi reconnaissance planes to fly with Spanish markings in order to conceal
their true identities from the Allied Forces. He also allowed the Germans to

1 The League of Nations was the predecessor to the United Nations

2 A city and port on the southern coast of Spain

3 A city and port on the north-west coast of Spain

4 A large city located within the Spanish Canary Islands

160
establish bases on Spanish airfields so they could run operations against Allied
shipping.

Some of the remaining Republican prisoners who had not yet been executed
were used by Franco's regime as slave labour. In addition to the tens of
thousands of executions, the suicide rate in Spain rocketed between 1939 and
1942. Around two hundred thousand people died from malnutrition. In 1940
alone, around one hundred thousand Spanish children died from disease and
starvation.

Franco further decreed that for the Roman Catholic faith to prevail in Spain,
minorities such as Freemasons and Jews were to be annihilated. The days of
the Spanish Inquisition had returned. Franco was particularly paranoid about
Freemasons and formed grand delusions about them conspiring against Spain
and the Catholic Church.

It is worth considering that there is no historical evidence the Freemasons were

anything but peaceful. Finally, Franco moved his oppression machine onto
women. He banned women from any activity outside the home without the
express permission of their husbands.

In another speech, Franco swore to oppose "the Jewish spirit which permitted
the alliance of capital with Marxism". It is hard to fathom exactly what
rationale Franco had in mind with this apparent collection of contradictions.
There seemed to be no limit to Franco's irrationality in his desperate search for
new scapegoats. Indeed, he had already butchered his left-wing enemies in
Spain and had more than satisfied his lust for blood in the slaughter of North
African Muslims during his earlier years of "combat" there.

At the end of December 1939, Franco bolstered his racist rhetoric by

denouncing "those races marked by the stigma of their greed and self-interest".
This presumably did not include the looting carried out by Franco's troops

161
during the civil war. In any event, his racist rhetoric was likely to have been a
decisive nod toward Nazi anti-Semitism in Germany and in the Nazi-occupied
countries of Europe, in addition to those countries where significant sympathy
for Nazism prevailed, such as Croatia, Hungary and Austria.

After Franco's speech, a delighted Adolf Hitler sent gifts to him which included
a new Mercedes car. In early 1940, Franco attacked Jews and also Protestants
in England in a radio broadcast during which he gave a long speech in favour
of Nazi ideology. The leading Nazi Joseph Goebbels (also a professed Roman
Catholic) signalled his approval to Spain in "getting something in return for
German money, aircraft and blood".

In September 1940, Franco allowed Nazi Germany to use Spanish military

bases. These included bases at Mogador1 and Agadir2. Further Nazi invasions
of Norway, Denmark and Holland resulted in Franco congratulating Hitler on
his victories. In 1940, the Spanish Ambassador Jose Felix de Lequerica was in
Paris when the Germans invaded and occupied France. Lequerica signalled his
agreement to Hitler that "Jewish ferment" was to blame for the outbreak of
war in France, a war that Germany started.

There is evidence that Franco offered to enter the Second World War in 1940
on the side of Nazi Germany, having been impressed with Germany's quick
defeat of France. The Americans covertly offered bribes to Franco in the form
of American aid to Spain in return for Spain's continued neutrality, but Franco
nevertheless made another offer to Nazi Germany to join the war on their side.

Much to Franco's disappointment, Hitler was not particularly interested in

having Spain on his side, knowing that Spain's ability to wage war was rather
feeble, and also knowing that Spain wanted more territory in North Africa.
1 A city in western Morocco, now known as 'Essaouira'

2 A city and province in the south-west of Morocco

162
However, Franco never gave up his admiration for Adolf Hitler. He openly
stated: "One appreciates as always the sublimity and good sense of the
Führer".

In October 1940, Spain enjoyed a high-profile visit by leading Nazi Heinrich

Himmler, who also incidentally had a Roman Catholic religious background
like Franco. Himmler received the highest honours during his visit to Spain;
Madrid's streets were draped with Nazi swastikas.

The Franco Regime's Support of the Nazis

In late 1940, Franco made an offer to Hitler to seize Gibraltar from the British.
This was in addition to his offer to give the Germans military bases in Spanish
Morocco. In early November 1940, an agreement was signed by Fascist Italy,
Nazi Germany and Spain. One clause in the agreement was that Spain would
contribute to a war against Great Britain, after being given military support and
equipment by the Germans. Franco also considered an invasion of Portugal as
Portugal was an ally of Britain at the time.

In recent times, a myth appears to have been propagated by Franco's apologists

that he had been cleverly deceiving Hitler and Nazi Germany all along, but all
available evidence demonstrates to the contrary. In actual fact, Franco was
considerably honest and sincere in his admiration of the Nazis and in his
dealings with Adolf Hitler.

In early 1941, after receiving a message from top Nazi Joachim von
Ribbentrop, Franco reiterated his unswerving allegiance to Nazi Germany and
expressed his gratitude to Ribbentrop for Germany's assistance to Spain. Hitler
later abandoned the idea of using Spain to help him capture Gibraltar because
he knew he would be needing troops for his planned invasion of the Soviet

163
Union.

After Japan attacked the United States, bringing America into the Second
World War, Franco's regime used Spanish spies, working undercover as
journalists in the United States, to provide intelligence information to the
Japanese, via Madrid.

Germany's invasion of the USSR prompted a wave of public celebrations all

over Spain. Franco did not hesitate to send volunteers to assist the Nazis'
invasion of Russia in 1941. Instead of officially entering Spain in World War
Two on the side of the Nazis, Franco took the much more cowardly approach
of sending Spanish 'volunteers' to help the Nazis instead. He knew that this
(somewhat cowardly) scheme would prevent the Allied forces declaring war
upon and invading Spain, the one potential event which Francisco Franco was
most frightened of.

The Blue Legion

Franco's Spanish Nazi volunteer unit was known as the 'Blue Division'. They
were sent to fight alongside the Nazis, against the Russians. Spain had in effect
committed a covert and cowardly act of war against Russia.

In July 1941, Franco made another pro-Nazi speech. This one was intended to
be strongly anti-American. Franco's propaganda machine was populated by
religious Roman Catholics loyal to the Pope but also sympathetic to the Nazi
German cause.

At the same time, Franco continued to allow the refuelling of German U-Boats

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in Spanish ports.

After the Blue Division joined Hitler's soldiers, the Nazi Führer was very
impressed with the brutality of the Spanish troops. Hitler stated: "They [The
Spaniards] flout death. Our men are always glad to have Spaniards as
neighbours in their sector". In January and February 1942, the Spanish Blue
Division troops assisted the Germans in launching a savage offensive against
the Russians after advancing toward Leningrad.

In 1943, there was still a plentiful supply of Spanish volunteers eager to fight
alongside the Nazis, though some of them were conscripted by Franco's
regime. Following high numbers of fatalities and desertions, the Blue Division
was disbanded by Franco. Many of the Spanish volunteers did, however,
choose to remain behind to continue to assist the Nazis. These remaining
volunteers were from that point onward collectively known as the 'Blue
Legion'1.

As late as 1944, the Blue Legion were still helping the Nazis, in spite of the
fact that by that time, Germany was losing the war on several fronts. There
were also Spanish volunteers fighting in the notorious SS throughout the later
years of World War Two.

Franco's Continuing Racism and Anti-

Semitism

During the later years of the Second World War, Franco's Under-secretary of

1 Legion Espanola de Voluntarios

165
the Presidency, Captain Luis Carrero Blanco, remarked: "the power of evil
incarnated in the British/Soviet coalition is managed by the Jews". Franco
allowed foreign divisions of the Nazi SS to operate in Spain throughout the
Second World War.

It is clear that both Spain and the Roman Catholic Church knew about
Himmler's SS extermination squads operating in Soviet territory in 1941. News
of mass extermination of Russian civilians in the USSR was brought back to
Spain by returning Blue Division soldiers. They had witnessed the mass
murder of Polish, Lithuanian and Russian civilians and the also the starvation
of Russian prisoners of war. The Spanish also refused to allow Jewish refugees
trying to escape Nazi atrocities in France to enter Spain.

Throughout October and November 1940, Franco continued signing off death
sentences for Republican prisoners of war being held in overflowing prisons.
The executions continued on an almost daily basis. Around this time, Spain's
economic breakdown under Franco led to massive increases in prostitution,
begging and poverty.

When the Germans invaded the USSR in June 1941, Franco was delighted at
this move against Communism. He immediately started discussions with
regard to Spain sending volunteers to fight with Germans against Russians.
During this time Franco gave more speeches showing unflinching support for
Nazi Germany. At the beginning of 1942, Franco again reiterated Spain's
fidelity to the Roman Catholic Church.

Franco and the Final Years of World War

Two

In 1942 and 1943, the Nazi regime of Germany placed new orders for ships

166
and pistols that were to be manufactured in Spain. The Spanish proved to be
very useful to the Germans in their war effort, and supporters of Franco's
regime were more than willing to help.

Towards the end of World War Two, the Spanish were also extremely helpful to
the Nazis in their export of tungsten to the Germany. Tungsten was, at this
time, a highly sought after and versatile metal that was used to manufacture
many kinds of ammunition and other forms of military equipment, such as
aeroplane engines and propellers. It was vital to the Nazi war effort, and the
Spanish were instrumental in supplying it to aid Nazi Germany's war machine.

Fearing invasion by Allied forces and also fearing the possibility of an

uprising, Francisco Franco took the somewhat cowardly step of hiding out in
various castles and mountain retreats as early as 1942. Increasingly fearful as
he was, in 1943 Franco begged Hitler for more armaments so that Spain could
attempt to prevent the Allied forces from crossing the Iberian Peninsula.

In 1944, after it became obvious that Germany faced defeat, Franco continued
to believe Germany would nevertheless remain a large industrial power in
Europe. He was adamant that Spain would remain a friend to Germany even
after defeat. Likewise, Franco wanted Spain to remain Germany's 'best friend'
in Europe and was willing to help with Germany's reconstruction after the war.

Fearing an uprising by supporters of the Spanish monarchy, Franco insisted in

a letter to Don Juan (the heir to the Spanish throne) that his military rebellion
against the Second Republic had been "Spanish and Catholic". Throughout the
remaining years of the Second World War, Franco continued his unrelenting
barrage of propaganda trying to reinforce his regime's "strong Catholic
principles".

By 1944, the Nazi atrocities and genocide were starting to be revealed to the
world. Even at this time, Franco's Roman Catholic propaganda machine

167
continued unabated in his regime's praise for Hitler, even though Nazi
Germany was by that time losing the war anyway.

In 1945, mass executions of Republican prisoners of war were still taking place
in Spain. Many in Spain were predicting the demise of the country and its
dwindling economy and this led to mounting pressure from various groups for
a restoration of the Spanish monarchy. The pressure groups believed this
would bring stability to Spain. However, there was still considerable resistance
to such a move.

Two influential religious Roman Catholics, Alberto Martin Artajo (President of

'Catholic Action') and Joaquin Ruiz Gimenez, derided the monarchists and told
them that they and the Roman Catholic Church, along with the Spanish army,
remained steadfastly loyal to Francisco Franco and his regime.

The End of the Second World War

At the end of World War Two, Franco continued to hold onto his "Catholic
principles" and stated that:

"Spain could never be joined to other governments that

do not hold to Catholicism as their first principle".

In the first months of 1945, almost a hundred Nazi spies were still operating in
Spain. They were gradually being hunted down by the Americans, though it
took time due to Spain's continuing complicity with the remaining Nazi war
criminals. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Spain also kept up good diplomatic relations
with Japan right up until April 1945, despite previous Japanese atrocities
against the Allies and against the Chinese. Japanese World War Two atrocities
were similar in scale to those of the Nazis.

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Franco's fascist propaganda machine responded to news of Hitler's death by
publishing a "final tribute to a fallen hero". Franco's press went on to reminisce
about the rise of the Nazis: "A great sensation of purity, revolution and the
disappearance of filth was felt in the Berlin of those times!"

Nazi war criminals given refuge in Spain after the war included the SS Special
Operations Chief, Otto Skorzeny and Belgian Fascist leader and SS officer
Leon Degrelle. Other countries harbouring Nazi war criminals and showing
reluctance to allow their extradition included Argentina, Ireland, Portugal,
Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.

At the end of the war, an undated sheet of instructions was discovered that was
meant for Spanish diplomats. The document was found in the archives of the
'Fundacion Nacional Francisco Franco'. It stressed the importance of reaching
influential Roman Catholics abroad. The document encouraged the promotion
of Spain's role as: "Teacher to peoples and apostle of the new Christian era
that is approaching".

Allied investigations after the Second World War proved that Spain had
acquired gold from the Nazis during the war that was likely to have been stolen
from Jews.

Franco's Regime After the Second World

War

Even after the end of the Second World War, Franco continued to espouse his
regime's Catholic credentials and the Roman Catholic Church remained in full
control of Franco's Ministry of Education. In Madrid, on 2nd April 1945,
Franco proudly declared that several hundred Irish Catholics had previously
come to the assistance of his fascist rebellion and had fought against Spain's

169
democratically elected and legal government during the coup.

On 1st October 1945, a celebration was organised for Franco, now portraying
himself as a hero and victor of the Second World War. The Roman Catholic
Church participated in the ceremonies in the form of the Bishop of Madrid,
Leopoldo Eijo y Garay. The services and ceremonies were held in the Church
of San Francisco el Grande. Catholic Church support was also extended to
Franco by the Papal Nuncio, Monsignor Cicognani.

At the end of October in the same year, another ceremony honouring Franco
was held in a cathedral and was blessed by the Primate, Archbishop Pla y
Deniel.

In 1946, further documents were uncovered that revealed the degree to which
Franco had collaborated with the Nazis. Even after the Second World War,
such collaboration was continuing apace with a new policy Franco had
enacted, protecting Nazi war criminals by giving them Spanish nationality and
citizenship. Faced with criticism from abroad over his allegiance with the
Nazis, Franco played the 'poor victim' card and appealed to Roman Catholics
all over the world to "end the persecution of Catholic Spain".

In addition to aiding and abetting Nazi war criminals, executions of Franco's

political opponents were still continuing. On 12th December 1946, the United
Nations voted and decided by an overwhelming majority to exclude Spain from
the international community until it had a democratic government.

In March 1947, Franco's political Chief of Staff, Carrero Blanco, delivered a

deluge of Franco's "achievements". He also asserted that any future King of
Spain would have to be "Catholic, anti-Communist, anti-Liberal and violently
free from any foreign influence".

In March 1948, Franco sent one of his top diplomats, Jose Felix de Lequerica,

170
to gather support from the American Catholic lobby. Aided by persuasion in the
form of bribery, influential American Catholics from both the Democratic and
Republican parties were persuaded to vote in favour of Franco at the United
Nations, by voting to repeal the United Nations Resolution of December 1946.

Prominent American Roman Catholics sympathetic to Franco and his regime

included the following: Democratic Senator Pat McCarran, Republican
Congressman Alvin E. O'Kinski, Cardinal Francis Joseph Spellman and James
Farlay (one of the Presidents of the Coca Cola Corporation). James Farlay also
visited Spain to demonstrate support for Franco's regime in person.

Franco's Regime in the 1950s

Lequerica succeeded in securing a pro-Spanish and pro-Catholic lobby in

Washington D.C. Incidentally, the pro-Catholic lobby in the United States
included Senator Joseph McCarthy, who had declared himself a devout Roman
Catholic and allied himself with other prominent Catholics in America. Senator
McCarthy became infamous in the 1950s for his anti-Communist "witch-hunts"
which even President Eisenhower came to regard with disdain.

In 1952, there were further negotiations between Franco's regime and the
McCarthy-era United States. Around this time in Spain, the Archbishop of
Seville, Cardinal Pedro Segura y Sáenz, delivered an abusive anti-Protestant
pastoral after which there was an arson attack on an Evangelical church in
Seville.

In May and June of the same year, Franco attended a religious ceremony in
Barcelona, in which he wore full military attire. The ceremony had been
organised by the Papal Delegate, Cardinal Federico Tedeschini, representing
the Roman Catholic Church. Franco referred directly to Spain's history in his

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speech:

"the history of our nation is inseparably united to the

history of the Catholic Church. Its glories are our
glories. The enemies of the Catholic Church are our
enemies".

Later, Franco's private chaplain, Father Jose Maria Bulart sang praises
celebrating Franco's 'devotion' to the Catholic Church. Around three hundred
thousand devout Spanish Roman Catholics attended.

It is worth considering that this endorsement of Franco by Spanish Roman

Catholics, American Roman Catholics, and the Catholic Church in Rome took
place in spite of the known crimes against humanity and atrocities that Franco
and his regime had committed during the previous thirty years, and also in
spite of the well-known atrocities and genocide committed by the Nazis, to
which Franco had firmly allied himself and continued to help by way of his
assistance to Nazi war criminals.

By 1953, the full scale of Nazi genocide and Franco's atrocities had been
revealed to the world at large. The scale of Franco's allegiance to Hitler's Nazi
Germany had also been fully exposed.

The facts of Franco and his regime's atrocities and crimes against humanity
notwithstanding, the Vatican signed a Concordat1 with General Franco in
August 1953.

On 21st December 1953, Pope Pius XII described Franco as the Roman
Catholic Church's "beloved son". Pope Pius XII then awarded Francisco Franco
the 'Supreme Order of Christ', the very highest decoration of the Roman
Catholic Church.

1 A Concordat is an agreement made between Church and State

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In the late 1950s, Franco appointed more advisers from the fundamentalist
Roman Catholic pressure group known as 'Opus Dei'. These included
appointments made by Franco in February 1957, where he appointed a
Minister of Finance and Minister of Commerce, both of whom were known to
be members of Opus Dei.

Franco's Regime in the 1960s and 1970s

The violence of Franco's regime continued well into the 1960s. After an
outbreak of strikes in 1962, a communist named Julian Griman Garcia was
arrested, tortured and beaten. His injuries were so severe that his interrogators
threw him out of a high window in an attempt to disguise the cause of his
injuries. He survived, but was later executed along with other political
opponents of Franco's regime.

As late as the 1960s, political prisoners of Franco's regime were executed by

the extremely barbaric method of strangulation by garrotte. It is highly unlikely
that the Vatican would not have known these acts of barbarity were still being
perpetrated in Spain. These crimes were perpetrated by a regime that had and
continued to firmly ally itself with the Roman Catholic Church, and the
Roman Catholic Church had and was continuing to ally itself with Franco's
barbaric regime.

Defiant and full of hatred to the last, Franco described himself while on his
deathbed in November 1975 as a "faithful son of the Catholic Church" and
went on to state that "the enemies of Spain and of Christian civilisation are on
the alert". There is no evidence that he felt any guilt over his many atrocities.
After his death, people danced in the streets across Spain and the only
significant head of state to attend Franco's funeral was another war criminal of
similar stature, General Augusto Pinochet.

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Recent Beatifications by Pope Benedict
XVI

In recent years, the current Pope has beatified some of those who fought
alongside Franco's regime, in effect putting war criminals on the road to
sainthood.

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Chapter 8: Benito Mussolini

Italy became a unified nation state in 1870. After the unification of the country,
the Italian government was subjected to a degree of hostility by the Roman
Catholic Church because unification had taken papal states away from the
papacy. Successive Popes refused to concede power to former papal states,
even though they were now under the control of democratically elected
politicians, as opposed to a religious dictatorship.

During these turbulent periods in the Italy of the late nineteenth century,
Roman Catholics were forbidden by the Vatican to play any part in the liberal,
reforming politics of the time. Much friction ensued between liberal Italian
politicians and the Roman Catholic Church.

The Early Years of Benito Mussolini

Benito Mussolini was born on 29th July 1883 in Verano di Costa, Romagna1, in
Italy. His mother Rosa was a devout Roman Catholic. She ensured the young
Mussolini was educated and brought up as a Roman Catholic and took him to
church every Sunday throughout his childhood.

During his youth, Mussolini was expelled twice for stabbing fellow pupils. The
first such incident occurred when he was eleven years old, at the Salesian
College in Faenza2. Several years later, the teenage Mussolini was already
visiting brothels at the young age of seventeen. In his Italian language
autobiography, posthumously published in 1947, Mussolini also admitted to

1 A region of historic Italy that roughly corresponds to the south-eastern part

of modern day Emilia-Romagna, Italy

2 A Italian city located approximately 50km south-east of Bologna

175
raping a girl during his late teenage years. He contracted syphilis in 1905, in
Romagna, and spent many short spells in prison for various public order
offences.

Later in his life, Mussolini was to have many extra-marital affairs and would
father illegitimate children.

Mussolini's Early Political Career

Mussolini began his political career as a champion of the working classes of

Italy. He despised Italy's ruling class and was a strong advocate of the use of
militant aggression over and above diplomacy. Mussolini was also heavily
influenced by nationalistic views, specifically those of the Nationalist Party in
Italy.

In 1919, after the First World War, Pope Benedict XV (1914 to 1922) helped to
create a Roman Catholic political party based in Italy. It was known as "The
Popolari"1 or "PPI". Its main purpose was to challenge Liberals and Socialists,
and the Popolari rose to the challenge. Mussolini also hated Liberals and
Socialists and in March 1919, he began a Fascist movement with a nationalistic
and militant agenda. His militia became increasingly violent and used similar
tactics to what Ernst Rohm's Storm-troopers would use some years later in
Germany.

By this time, the Vatican had already condemned Socialism and Liberalism.
Consequently, Mussolini foresaw opportunities for a Fascist alliance with the
Roman Catholic Church early on in his political career.

In January 1921, under Mussolini's orders, members of his Fascist Party based

1 Translated as "The Catholic Popular Party"

176
in Ferrara1 launched raids on surrounding villages, attacking and murdering
Socialists and Liberals and burning newspapers. They also burned down
offices and Socialist meeting places. In the violence preceding the 1921
elections, around three thousand innocent Italians were murdered by
Mussolini's Fascist squads.

A more structured 'Fascist Party' was formed by Mussolini and his supporters
in 1921. He demonstrated his respect and support for the Roman Catholic
Church in an article in "Il Popolo d'Italia", on 24th January 1922. In this
article, Mussolini recognised the international importance of the Roman
Catholic Church and stated that he wanted to unite himself and his people with
the Catholic Church.

At a conference in Naples in October 1922, Mussolini called for a march on

Rome itself. On the night of 27th and 28th October 1922, Fascist militiamen
took over telephone exchanges and government offices across Italy.

Mussolini's Rise to Power

The legitimate Prime Minister of the country, Luigi Facta, asked the King of
Italy to impose martial law in order to stop the chaos instigated by Mussolini,
but the King refused. Facta consequently resigned and the King then asked
Mussolini to form a coalition government.

Mussolini formed a coalition that included the religious Catholic Popolari

Party, and he was officially offered the position of Prime Minister at the end of
October 1922. By this time, Mussolini had a mountain of popular support
across Italy, especially by religious Roman Catholics.

The Pope's Secretary of State, Cardinal Gasparri, held the opinion that Fascism

1 An Italian city approximately 50km north-east of Bologna

177
was preferable to Liberalism. Pope Pius XI also ordered one of the few
opponents of Fascism within the ranks of the Roman Catholic Church, a priest
named Don Sturzo, to leave Italy. Following this action by the Pope, Catholic
clerics rallied strongly and decisively behind Mussolini's Fascists.

Benito Mussolini made his first parliamentary speech on 21st June 1921. He
stated: "I am not unhappy to be delivering my speech from the extreme
right.....It will be anti-democratic and anti-Socialist".

He then went on to state: "I believe and affirm that the traditions of Rome are
today represented by Catholicism and that the sole universal idea that exists in
Rome is that which radiates from the Vatican."

It is evident from this speech that Mussolini strongly identified with his Roman
Catholic background in his pursuit of Fascism. Far from distancing itself from
Mussolini, the Roman Catholic Church sought to ally itself with him, as shall
be demonstrated further on in this chapter.

Having been handed the office of Prime Minister by the King, Mussolini
wasted no time in persuading parliament to grant him emergency powers. At
the same time, he raised a private army of around 300,000 troops that he could
use to challenge the regular army and police when necessary.

Mussolini managed to obtain a majority in the Italian parliament in a similar

way to that which characterised the successes of the Nazi Party in Germany.
Like the Nazis, he achieved this through a combination of corruption, coercion
and physical violence, intimidating his enemies through the use of his sizeable
militia force. His methods included the kidnap and murder of his political
opponents.

178
Support by the Roman Catholic Church of
the Fascist Party of Italy

From 1922, Mussolini began receiving support from the Roman Catholic
Church when he introduced Catholic religious education into Italian
elementary schools. He also promoted Catholic Church secondary schools and
gave the Roman Catholic Bishops considerable salary increases. This cemented
support from Pope Pius XI, who then dissolved his Catholic political party, the
Popolari, having gained the support he wanted from the by now much more
powerful and influential Fascist Party controlled by Mussolini.

The insidious Mussolini gnawed away at Italy's fragile democracy by passing

the "Acerbo Bill" of 1923. In essence, this could be described as a "one way
voting ticket" away from democracy. The bill allowed a party gaining more
than 25% of the vote (which Mussolini of course intended to be his Fascist
Party) to take two thirds of the parliamentary seats.

To pass the Acerbo Bill, Mussolini gained the support of leading members of
the religious Catholic Popolari Party. The Popolari Party (the Catholic Popular
Party) had been set up and supported by the Roman Catholic Church and its
Popes. Many members of Italy's Catholic Popular Party supported Fascism.
The menacing Acerbo Bill was passed on 21st July 1923 by two hundred and
twenty three votes to one hundred and forty three, putting Fascism in Italy
firmly on the road to victory.

Extra money given to the bishops may have influenced the support given by
Pope Pius XI, who evidently valued money on an otherwise equal footing with
"Christ's divine teachings". In July 1924, the Pope even went the extra mile and
took the additional step of banning Roman Catholic politicians from joining
Socialists in an anti-Fascist coalition.

179
Mussolini's Fascist Party won a landslide victory in the 1924 Italian elections.
He then merged the Fascists with the Nationalists. In June 1924, Mussolini had
the deputy leader of the Socialist Party, Giacomo Matteotti, tortured and
murdered by his Fascist thugs.

Enhanced by further Fascist speeches rallying extra support, Mussolini's

Fascist militia went on to violently crush opposition political parties and
newspapers. By December 1925, democracy in Italy had been obliterated and
all other political parties were banned. Similar tactics were to be later used by
Hitler in Germany with his 'Enabling Act'. Inevitably, and in true Fascist style,
Mussolini then created a secret police force known as OVRA: Organizzazione
per la Vigilanza e la Repressione dell'Antifascismo1.

In early 1924, Pope Pius XI found out that Mussolini's Fascists has been
murdering their somewhat more liberal political opponents. The Pope would
also have known about the torture and murder of Giacomo Matteotti. In spite
of this, Pope Pius XI and the Catholic Church continued to make an ally of
Mussolini and his Fascists and even went so far as to further distance
themselves from members of the Catholic Popolari Party who opposed the
Fascist reign of terror.

In 1925, Mussolini demonstrated his commitment to the Roman Catholic

Church by engaging in a religious wedding ceremony with his wife and by
having his children baptised. Many Roman Catholic priests were impressed by
this somewhat simplistic and obvious attempt to rally support among the
clergy. Even so, it had the effect of massively increasing support of Fascism by
the Roman Catholic clergy of Italy.

Roman Catholic priests also agreed to bless Fascist regalia and Fascist banners.
The Pope warned Catholics not to oppose Fascism, since he and the leaders of

1 Translation: Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-Fascism

180
the Catholic Church considered Socialists and Liberals to be a much greater
threat.

Serious talks between Mussolini's Fascist Party and the Vatican began in May
1926. The legally trained Francesco Pacelli joined these negotiations. Pacelli
was the brother of the man who would later become Pope Pius XII. The Pacelli
family had close links to the Vatican-owned 'Banco di Roma', a sizeable
financial institution that would come to feature prominently on the commercial
side of Mussolini's Fascist Italy.

By the late 1920s, Mussolini's totalitarian dictatorship had, with the full help
and support of the Roman Catholic Church, been firmly institutionalised
throughout the whole of Italy.

Treaties between the Catholic Church and

the Fascist Party

In 1929, the Roman Catholic Church went on to sign pacts with Mussolini,
with the papacy being the main beneficiary. The Pope was confirmed as the
head of Vatican City and given monetary compensation for the loss of papal
territories. At this point Mussolini declared Roman Catholicism the "sole
religion of the Italian State".

Mussolini and the Roman Catholic Church signed the 'Lateran Pact' in
February 1929. The pact consisted of two documents, a treaty and a
Concordat1. This agreement between Church and State secured official
Catholic Church recognition of Mussolini's Fascist State. Mussolini also
banned Freemasonry, which delighted the Vatican and the Pope. Freemasons

1 A 'Concordat' is an agreement between the Roman Catholic Church and the

government of a State

181
had long been a target of the Catholic Church, as has been described in earlier
chapters of this narrative.

Eager to show further support of the Roman Catholic Church, Mussolini also
supported Vatican claims to Palestine. He then forced the Albanian Orthodox
Church to submit to the authority of the Catholic Church in Rome. In other
words, Orthodox Christians in Albania were forced to convert to the Roman
Catholic religion.

Altogether, Mussolini's regime gave almost two billion Lira to the Roman
Catholic Church in money and government bonds. Mussolini had been decisive
in his declaration of the Roman Catholic faith as the official and sole religion
of the Italian State, and was repeatedly praised by the Italian public for having
done so.

Catholic newspapers in Italy were also very sympathetic toward Fascism. The
Vatican newspaper known as "L'Osservatore Romano" strongly supported an
alliance between Fascism and the Roman Catholic Church:

"Italy has been given back to God and God to Italy".

In March 1929, the Roman Catholic Jesuit journal "Civilta Cattolica" stated:

"Fascism exemplifies the restoration of a Christian

society"

Catholic publicists thus continued to applaud both Pope Pius XI and Mussolini.

Such enthusiastic support by Roman Catholics was not restricted to Italy. A

British Catholic newspaper called "The Tablet" also demonstrated support for
Fascism, by describing Mussolini as a "Great-hearted, great-willed intellectual
giant". Support for Mussolini by The Tablet was revealed in articles dated 30th
March, 18th May and 15th June 1929.

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On 24th March 1929, Mussolini decided to hold a referendum to ascertain the
popularity of his regime among the Italian public. 98.4% of those who voted
did so in favour of Mussolini's regime.

The alliance between Fascism and the Roman Catholic Church also had heavy
support from the Vatican Secretary of State, Eugenio Pacelli, the man who
would later be elected Pope Pius XII. After the Lateran Pact was signed, there
were mass celebrations across Vatican City and Rome at large.

In 1931, Mussolini added to his list of oppressive measures by making

homosexuality illegal.

The Italian public were delighted at the 'marriage' between Fascism and the
Catholic Church. Pope Pius XI greeted a crowd of two hundred thousand
people in St. Peter's Square. They chanted: "Long live the Pope of
Reconciliation". In 1932, Pope Pius XI announced his support for what he
termed "Catholic totalitarianism".

There is further historical evidence of a meeting between Pope Pius XI and

Mussolini on 11th February 1932, at which the Pope impressed upon Mussolini
the "threat" posed by the influence of Protestants, Socialists and Jews. During
the February 1932 meetings between Mussolini and the Pope in Vatican City,
Pope Pius XI demonstrated further support for Fascism. He agreed with
Mussolini that Fascism stood for order, discipline and authority, and that none
of these tenets were in contradiction to basic Roman Catholic doctrine.

During these February 1932 meetings, Pope Pius XI revealed his true anti-
Semitic sentiments to Mussolini. Wrongly assuming the officials present would
not later divulge what was said, the Pope eagerly stated his opinion:

"The problems of the Church in the Soviet Union,

Mexico and the new Spanish Republic were

183
 underpinned by the Anti-Christian spirit of Judaism.
When I was a Papal Nuncio in Warsaw in 1920, I
noticed that all the Bolshevik1 regiments and all the
Commissars2 were Jews".

The Lateran Pact also enabled the Roman Catholic Church to officially
endorse Fascist Party candidates in the 1929 and 1934 elections. Roman
Catholic priests were then able to publicly support Fascist candidates and give
Fascist-style salutes, and many of them did not hesitate to do so. Incidentally,
the number of Roman Catholic priests and nuns grew under Fascist rule in
Italy, almost doubling between 1921 and 1936.

Pope Pius XI and Benito Mussolini also found common ground in the
suppression of women and the Pope even endorsed Mussolini's leadership to
the extent that he described him as "A man sent by Providence".

By 1938, Hitler, the Nazis and their ideology had become firmly entrenched
within the mass psyche of Central European ignorance. Mussolini and his
fellow Italian Fascists were, at this point, quick to incorporate racist and anti-
Semitic theories into their own ideology.

In July 1938, the "Manifesto of Racialist Scientists" was introduced by the

Italians. It read:

"The people of Italy are of Aryan origin and their

civilisation is Aryan. The Jews do not belong to the
Italian race."

This could be seen to be a reflection of Mussolini and the Roman Catholic

1 ' Bolsheviks' referred to the early Communists of Russia

2 ' Commissar' was a term used in the Soviet Union, equivalent to 'Minister'
in the West

184
Church's support of Hitler's basic Nazi ideology, and was similar in character
to what Hitler had written in 'Mein Kampf'.

There exists further historical evidence from 1929, when the American
magazine "Time" described the Roman Catholic Church's role as:

"...shepherding their clergy and people to vote for

Mussolini and his Fascist supporters..."

Over 98% of the Italian electorate voted for the Fascists.

An exiled Italian intellectual, G. A. Borgese, later commented that the Roman

Catholic Church had aided the tyranny in Italy. He went on to describe how the
Catholic priests:

"had aided the perversion of domestic virtues to the

purpose of national violence and international
anarchy"

He went on to heavily criticise Mussolini's regime, and likened it to the Roman

Catholic Church's Inquisitions of the previous centuries. Indeed, the Catholic
Church officially supported the majority of Mussolini's Fascist policies.

The Reign of Oppression and the Road to

War

In 1927, Mussolini announced what he called "The Battle for Births". He

seemed to be under the impression that in order to become more influential in
the world, Italy needed to increase its population from 40 million to around 60
million. Consequently, bachelors were penalised through taxation, large
families were rewarded and contraception, abortion and sterilisation were all
made illegal. Such policies were welcomed by the leaders of the Roman

185
Catholic Church.

With regard to women, Mussolini held a firm conviction that the woman's
place was in the home. He proceeded with efforts to exclude women from
education, professional jobs and government employment. Restrictions
concerning government employment were imposed through the use of quotas.

The Italians were eager to carry out land-grabs in regions populated by

defenceless civilians living in harsh environmental conditions. Such eagerness
was reinforced by an arrogant air of religious and racial superiority encouraged
by the Roman Catholic Church. The Italians invaded Jubaland 1, East Africa, in
1925. They perpetrated an invasion of Abyssinia 2 in 1935, and they later
carried out an invasion of Albania in 1939.

Italian Racism and Atrocities Against

Muslims and Arabs

Fascist Italy was also racist in the extreme against Muslims and Arabs during
their attempted colonisation of Africa. From 1928 to 1933, Italian forces in
Libya brutalised the resident Arab population to an extent that many would
regard as genocide. In 1930, the Italians set up concentration camps for
Muslim Arabs along the coast of Libya. Approximately 50% of the victims
survived.

A local insurgent merely attempting to defend his Arab homeland, named

Omar al-Mukhtar, had his people subjected to poison gas by the Italian
occupiers. Al-Mukhtar himself was captured by the Italians and publicly
hanged in his own country in September 1931.
1 The south-western part of present day Somalia

2 Modern day Ethiopia

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Racially Motivated Atrocities Committed by
the Italians in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, the Italians also used poison gas against the civilian population and
carried out regular massacres of civilians. The Italian occupation of Ethiopia
was characterised by racism against the indigenous black population. A Fascist
journalist named Indro Montanelli was known to have stated:

"We shall never be the dominators if we do not have an

exact consciousness of our destined superiority. We do
not mix with Blacks".

In 1935, Mussolini's cowardly invasion of Ethiopia met with support from

cardinals within the Roman Catholic Church, who hailed it as a "just and holy
war". Cardinal Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster 1, Archbishop of Milan, described
the Fascist aggression as being necessary. He stated, in his words:

"...for the redemption of Ethiopia from the bondage of

heresy and for the [Catholic] revival of the ancient
Empire of Rome."

This speech by Cardinal Schuster met with applause from archbishops, bishops
and priests alike.

In 1936, the Roman Catholic Church gave official support to Italy for their
brutal invasion and occupation of Ethiopia.

Mussolini himself promoted a policy of terror and mass extermination in

Ethiopia. On 19th February 1937, the Italian forces massacred over three
thousand Ethiopians. Throughout the war, around half a million defenceless
Ethiopians were slaughtered by the Italian war criminals.

1 Cardinal Schuster was beatified on May 12, 1996 by Pope John Paul II

187
Italian Atrocities in Yugoslavia

Italian troops in Yugoslavia (modern day Serbia) acted similarly to their

crusader ancestors of centuries earlier. They forced Orthodox Christian Serbs
to convert to the Roman Catholic religion. The Italians also assisted a Croatian
militia force known as 'The Ustashe', who routinely carried out mass
exterminations of Serbian civilians (see chapter on Pope Pius XII for more
information regarding the Croatian Ustashe).

Italian Aggression Against the Greeks

By this stage, the Nazi Germany-Fascist Italy alliance was almost in place.
Mussolini's invasion of the Greek island Corfu and his invasion of Abyssinia
caused the League of Nations1 to initiate trade sanctions against Italy. This did,
however, result in a massive increase in support of Mussolini by the Italian
public. The Italian soldiers' use of poison gas to aid their defeat of Abyssinia,
although a crime against humanity by any reasonable measure, was welcomed
by the Italian public and actually caused Mussolini's popularity at home to rise.

The 1923 invasion of the Greek island of Corfu by Italy resulted in an

orphanage and also a refugee camp being shelled by Italian soldiers, killing
many people including children.

The Dodecanese Islands2 had been governed by the Turkish until their conquest
by Italian forces in 1912. Under Turkish rule, the Greek-speaking inhabitants
of these islands had enjoyed freedom of religion and autonomy. Under
1 The League of Nations is considered to be the precursor to the modern day
United Nations

2 A group of Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, off the south-west coast of
Turkey

188
Mussolini's regime, Greeks living on these islands were regularly tortured and
murdered by the Italian soldiers.

Greek as a language was banned, Greek lettering was removed from

tombstones and the Greek Orthodox community were forced to convert to the
Roman Catholic religion by the Italian invaders. Italy had regressed to the dark
days of the Fourth Crusade (the Roman Catholic crusade against Orthodox
Christians).

Fascist colonisation was undoubtedly seen by an overall majority of the Italian

public to be a 'Roman Catholic Crusade', reminiscent of the Roman Catholic
crusades of previous centuries. The invasion of Greece had the implicit
approval of the Vatican because it followed the Vatican's express approval of
the invasion of Ethiopia and the forced conversion of the Ethiopian people to
the Roman Catholic religion.

Pushed by the Roman Catholic Church and the Vatican leadership, Mussolini
advocated the forced capitulation to Vatican authority of the following
countries: Palestine, Albania, Ethiopia, and several Greek islands including
Rhodes and Libya. Crusader mentality was indeed seen to be making a come-
back.

The League of Nations made a token gesture by trying to take action, but what
this organisation did do amounted to very little. The main three countries
behind the League of Nations were the United States, Britain and France. In the
days and months leading up to World War Two, the policy of America, Britain
and France was one of appeasement towards Hitler's Nazi Germany and its
allies.

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Mussolini, Racism and Nazi Germany

Mussolini appointed Roberto Farinacci to the position of Fascist Party

Secretary in 1935. Farinacci was known to be racist, anti-Semitic and a strong
admirer of Adolf Hitler. He was in large part responsible for the later
persecution of Italian Jews. Freemasons were also persecuted by Mussolini's
Fascists, and the Freemason Society was made illegal in Italy. This move
delighted the Roman Catholic Church, which had always hated Freemasonry
for reasons no more substantiated than paranoia and suspicion of an otherwise
peaceful and civilised society.

By 1935, Mussolini was becoming increasingly friendly with Nazi Germany.

He also supported General Franco in Spain in Franco's hostile takeover of what
was, at the time, a fully democratic Spanish Republic. Franco asked Mussolini
for help with his coup against the democratic government of Spain. Mussolini
sent planes, vehicles and other equipment to Franco. He also made a large
contribution to Franco's violent militia by sending 60,000 Italian troops along
with tanks and other armaments.

In December 1937, Italy and Germany furthered their economic ties. Italy
offered to increase imports from Germany and Mussolini agreed to send thirty
thousand agricultural workers to Germany, to feed the Nazi war machine.

Confident the Nazis would prevail, Mussolini was desperate to exploit the
global perception of his friendship and alliance with Hitler. In 1937, Mussolini
publicly characterised the United States as: "A country of niggers and Jews".
He continued his tirade with a 'warning' that by the end of the century, many
European countries would be destroyed by "the acid of Jewish corrosion"
unless he and Hitler acted to prevent it.

In Autumn 1938, Mussolini enacted "Il Diritto Razzista". These were "Race

190
Laws" similar to the Nazi Nuremberg Laws of 1935. These laws included the
prohibition of mixed race marriages, banning of Jewish children from Italian
schools, banning of Jews from public employment and banning of Jews from
ownership of businesses and property. The Italian race laws were additionally
applied to those Jews who had previously converted to Catholicism.

In September 1938, Mussolini made a speech defending Italy's racial policies:

"Prestige demands a clean-cut racial consciousness

which is based on the most definite superiority. The
Jewish problem is one aspect of this. World Jewry for
the last sixteen years has been an irreconcilable enemy
of Fascism."

On 6th October 1938, Mussolini's Fascist Grand Council banned Roman

Catholics from marrying Jews and Jews fleeing from the Nazis were also
banned from seeking asylum in Italy.

Hitler and Mussolini met at Hitler's headquarters in Rastenburg 1, in August

1941. This meeting occurred two months after Nazi Germany had attacked
Russia. During the meeting, Mussolini offered Hitler ten divisions of Italian
soldiers to fight with the Nazis against the Russians. Two months later, he
offered Hitler another ten divisions.

After Japan attacked the United States in December 1941, Mussolini declared
war on the United States of America on 11th December 1941. He publicly
ridiculed President Roosevelt on account of his being confined to a wheelchair.

A religious Catholic Italian lawyer wrote an article justifying Mussolini's racial

legislation in December 1941:

"Italy has the glory of constituting a race with its own

1 A town in the north-east of present day Poland

191
 structure, its own purity, of having its own race chosen
by God, worshipped within the Catholic faith."

He went on to state that Benito Mussolini was the first to recognise the
necessity of the racial legislation.

Mussolini and the Italian Fascist Party came to know about the Holocaust as
early as 1942. In fact, Mussolini gained first-hand knowledge of the Holocaust
from his meeting with top Nazi Heinrich Himmler, on 11th October 1942.
Other Italian Fascists came to know about the Holocaust from visits to the
Eastern Front. Mussolini discussed Nazi atrocities with his Party Secretary but
dismissed them as "an inevitable consequence of war".

At a time when the Nazis were widely believed to be winning the Second
World War, the (perhaps somewhat cowardly) Italians kept their alliance with
Nazi Germany. Indeed, it was not until Germany and Italy were decisively
losing World War Two that the Italians took the step of changing sides.

It does not take a huge stretch of the imagination to surmise that such support
of the Nazi ideology in countries other than Germany may have given impetus
to the Germans and provided an added pretext for the later German atrocities
of waging wars of annihilation and mass extermination against civilians. With
approximately a thousand years of history to draw upon, anti-Semitism was not
a new phenomenon and had long been promoted and incited by the Roman
Catholic Church, its leaders and many of its supporters.

Formal Agreements Between Fascist Italy

and Nazi Germany

The 'Rome-Berlin Axis' was signed in November 1936, as a treaty of

cooperation between Germany and Italy.

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The 'Anti-Comintern Pact' was signed in November 1937. This was essentially
an extension of the Rome-Berlin Axis to include Japan.

Italy and Germany signed the 'Pact of Steel' in May 1939. This was a full
Italian-German alliance and was intended by Mussolini to increase his links
with Adolf Hitler. Italy thereby agreed to a full commitment of its armed forces
to Nazi Germany in the event of war. This pact obligated Italy to support
Germany should Germany be involved in war, whether or not Germany started
such a war.

Mussolini's More Cowardly Acts

Between 1927 and 1943, Italy's Fascist regime sentenced almost fifty people to
death for 'political crimes'.

On 16th March 1938, Mussolini's support of Nazi aggression was explicitly

stated in a speech he gave in the Chamber of Deputies:

"When an event is fated to take place, it is better that it

takes place with you rather than despite of, or worse
still, against you"

After Germany successfully defeated France, Mussolini firmly entered the

Second World War on the side of the Nazis, confident as he was that he was
joining the 'winning' side. He followed Hitler with declarations of war on
France, Britain, the United States of America and the USSR.

After news of Nazi genocide reached Mussolini's government in 1942, Italy

agreed to help with the genocide. Italian troops in Tunisia, Serbia and Croatia
assisted the Nazis by handing over Jews residing in these countries. There is
solid historical evidence that Italian troops rounded up Jews in Croatia.

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Towards the end of the Second World War, Mussolini himself aided and
abetted the deportation of Jews in northern Italy to death camps in Nazi-
occupied Poland.

Italian Retreat

Following a series of humiliating defeats by both Germany and Italy, the King
of Italy acted in July 1943 to remove Benito Mussolini from power. Allied
troops landed in Sicily after which the Germans quickly occupied northern
Italy. After being deposed by the King, Mussolini was imprisoned on various
offshore islands. He was subsequently broken from prison by German
commandos and flown to Munich in Germany, whereupon Hitler had him
installed as the dictator of German-occupied northern Italy. By this time, the
Axis powers (allies of Germany) had already lost southern Italy to the Allied
forces.

The Salo Republic

After Nazi-occupied northern Italy was handed over to Mussolini by Hitler,

Mussolini named it the "Social Republic of Salo" in September 1943. The
closest the new Salo Republic came to a formal constitution was a programme
introduced by its 'Verona Congress' in November 1943. Its agenda was strongly
pro-Catholic and equally strongly anti-Semitic.

A text from the manifesto drafted in Verona included the following:

"Those belonging to the Jewish race are foreigners.

During this war they belong to an enemy nationality."

A decree was published by order of the Minister of the Interior of the Salo

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Republic, Guido Buffarini Guidi. The decree ordered the concentration of all
Jews within camps and the confiscation of all Jewish property in those
countries under Italian Fascist control.

In a demonstration of solidarity with Hitler and the Nazis, Mussolini had nine
thousand Jews captured in northern Italy by Italian soldiers and sent to
concentration camps. He followed this with show trials and executions, aimed
at exacting revenge against those he believed had conspired to remove him
from power in Italy.

Further Support for Mussolini by the

Roman Catholic Church

Support for the Fascist war criminal Benito Mussolini among prominent high-
ranking members of the Roman Catholic Church was continuing around the
world as late as 1943. In September 1943, the influential Catholic Irish-
Australian Daniel Mannix, Archbishop of Melbourne, applauded Mussolini as:

"head of the greatest government Italy has ever had"

Mussolini met the Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Schuster, on 25th April 1945,
to negotiate his surrender. Cardinal Schuster sympathised with Mussolini and
admitted in a book he later wrote that he had received Mussolini "with pastoral
charity" and engaged him in polite conversation.

Inevitably, Mussolini fell from power, along with Nazi Germany, but not
before he had made his mark on 20th century history as a war criminal and
mass murderer, and one who had received heavy and decisive support from the
Roman Catholic Church. Mussolini had enjoyed enthusiastic support from two
Popes and many cardinals, bishops and priests from within the Catholic
Church.

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196
Chapter 9: Pope Pius XII and World War Two

Introduction to Chapter

It is the 22nd July, in the year 1933. The leader of the German Nazi Party,
Adolf Hitler, makes an official declaration to his party:

"The fact that the Vatican is concluding a treaty with

the new Germany means the acknowledgement of the
Nazi State by the Roman Catholic Church."

The Early Years of Eugenio Pacelli

Eugenio Pacelli was born in Rome, on 2nd March 1876. He came from an
affluent family of Vatican lawyers. Pacelli did well at school in his academic
studies, though he led a solitary life and had difficulties mixing with his peers.
He later began a university education of a type which was aimed at those
destined for the priesthood.

By the summer of 1895, Pacelli was facing increasing coping difficulties with
seminary1 life, culminating in his return to the family home. The sensitive and
frail Eugenio Pacelli then continued his academic studies whilst living at home
under the protection of his mother. Lacking friends, he constantly looked to his
mother for emotional support.

Pacelli was exposed to anti-Semitism early on in his life. In 1898, a Jewish

army officer, Alfred Dreyfus, had been accused of treason in France. Dreyfus

1 A seminarian is a student of religious education, usually destined for the

clergy

197
was later acquitted, but not before a Roman Catholic Jesuit journal known as
"Civilta Cattolica" had helped to propagate a wave of anti-Semitism. The
editor of the journal, Father Raffaele Ballerini, had proclaimed the guilt of
Dreyfus upon the grounds of biased speculation.

Father Ballerini was adamant that a Jewish conspiracy was responsible for the
acquittal of Dreyfus and that, in his words:

"Jews have ruined Christians wherever they have been

granted citizenship."

Such words were to offer great encouragement to future members of the

German Nazi Party, among others similarly predisposed to ignorance and
racism.

A Roman Catholic cleric named Abbe Cros stated that:

"Dreyfus should be trampled on morning and night...

and should have his nose bashed in."

So much for Jesus Christ's teachings of peace, non-aggression and forgiveness.

Additionally, this statement was made about a man who had not even been
guilty of any crime, other than what Cros evidently regarded as the crime of
"being Jewish".

On 2nd April 1899, Pacelli was ordained into the priesthood at the age of
twenty three. His studies continued with canon law 1. As a Vatican lawyer,
Pacelli was instrumental in the drafting of the 1917 Code of Canon Law, work
on which had begun in 1904. This code was to become the principal legal text,
or constitution, of the Roman Catholic Church. Pacelli worked on it for some
thirteen years. The Code of Canon Law reinforced the supreme authority and
1 Canon law refers to the internal theological laws governing a Christian
church and can differ markedly between different Christian denominations

198
totalitarian leadership of the Vatican over all Roman Catholics worldwide. It
was inspired by the Vatican's desire for totalitarian authority.

Archbishop Eugenio Pacelli and Anti-

Semitism

In 1911, Pacelli was promoted to the rank of Under-Secretary, within the

Vatican Department of Extraordinary Affairs. In the Autumn of 1912, he was
appointed an adviser to the Holy Office1. Pacelli was made an archbishop in
May 1917, at the same time as being appointed Papal Nuncio in Munich,
Germany. He was known to have travelled to Munich in luxury at a time when
many were going hungry due to the First World War. Pacelli also found himself
living in similar luxury after arriving in Munich.

By April 1919, a left-wing socialist government had taken control of Munich.

The Vatican subsequently sent diplomats to Munich, of which Pacelli was one.
Not long after arriving, Eugenio Pacelli endorsed a description by the Vatican
'diplomats' that included the following:

"A gang of young women of dubious appearance, Jews

like all the rest of them, [were] hanging around in the
offices with lecherous demeanour and suggestive
smiles."

The tirade continued with further derogatory references to Russian Jews, all
endorsed by the Papal Nuncio, Eugenio Pacelli, the man who would later
become Pope Pius XII.

At the end of April 1919, other events in Munich led Pacelli to declare:
1 Formerly known as the "Inquisition" in previous centuries, of which the
notorious Spanish Inquisition had been a significant part

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 "The capital of Bavaria is suffering under a harsh
Jewish-Russian revolutionary tyranny."

His blatant anti-Semitism was self-evident if for no reason other than the lack
of merit of his statement. The majority of Jews in Germany, Europe and Russia
were opposed to Communism due to its restriction of religious freedom.

In the years leading up to the First World War, Germany had been donating
more money to the Roman Catholic Church than all other countries in the
world put together. Consequently, the Vatican was eager to help the German
economy, following the end of the war.

The Catholic Centre Party of Germany

The Catholic Church remained powerful and influential in Germany between

World War One and World War Two. After World War One, the German
Catholic Centre Party emerged as a major political force in German politics
and developed a network of offices and representatives throughout Germany.
In April 1917, the party successfully forced a repeal of the anti-Jesuit laws 1 of
1872. After the repeal, Roman Catholic Jesuits were once again free to run
schools and colleges across Germany, which they proceeded to do with their
traditional zeal.

After 1919, the Catholic Centre Party became increasingly powerful and
influential. Under various Centre Party chancellors, German Catholic political
leaders increased diplomatic relations with the Vatican. One such influential
figure within the party was Ludwig Kaas. Kaas was a Roman Catholic priest,
full-time politician and leading figure within the Catholic Centre Party. From

1 An attempt by Otto von Bismarck to reverse the oppression perpetrated by

the Roman Catholic Church in Germany

200
the early 1920s, Eugenio Pacelli forged strong ties to Kaas. Pacelli and Kaas
were to become not only allies, but also close friends. In October 1928, Kaas
became leader of the Catholic Centre Party of Germany.

Having learned certain lessons from history, the Vatican was clever when it
came to the power of education as a conditioning tool. Schools and education
lay at the very core of the Catholic Church's concordat strategy between World
War One and World War Two. They knew only too well the power power of
education as a tool for mass influence in society.

On 6th February 1922, Pope Benedict XV was succeeded by Achille Ratti, who
became Pope Pius XI. Ratti and Pacelli were strong allies. After taking office,
Pius XI decided to keep their other mutual ally, Pietro Gasparri, as Vatican
Secretary of State.

In March 1924, a new concordat was signed between Germany and the Roman
Catholic Church, ensuring heavy Catholic Church influence in German schools
and the German education system, from that point onward. The treaty also
ensured that the Bavarian state would continue to be responsible for paying the
salaries of Bavarian Catholic priests and that those priests would have to be
German in nationality in order to be appointed.

Pacelli continued his work as Papal Nuncio to Germany and he moved to

Berlin in August 1925. In February 1930, Pacelli was summoned back to Rome
to take up the office of Cardinal Secretary of State. He left Berlin amid the
mass popularity he had fostered among German Roman Catholics during his
time there. Large crowds applauded him as he left.

Pacelli's new office of Cardinal Secretary of State was widely regarded as the
second most powerful post in the Roman Catholic Church, after the Pope
himself. His career ambitions had led him to swiftly ascend the ranks of the
Catholic Church.

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In 1927, Adolf Hitler entered into a dialogue with a Roman Catholic cleric and
Nazi sympathiser named Magnus Gött. Father Gött's admiration of Hitler and
his new ideology led Gött to write fan letters to him. Hitler responded to him
with a flattering description of the Roman Catholic Church as "an immense
technical apparatus".

Hitler's gradual rise to power paralleled that of the Catholic Centre Party. The
Party's activities led to an increase in Roman Catholic religious devotion across
Germany. Up to 1933, Roman Catholic religious groups amounted to the
largest social institution in Germany. Catholic newspapers and journals totalled
around fifteen per cent of the aggregate national daily circulations. In addition
to Father Gött, other influential German Roman Catholics who openly
supported the Nazi Party included Benedictine Abbot Alban Schachleitner and
Father Wilhelm Maria Senn.

In the German general elections of September 1930, the Nazi Party's share of
the vote climbed from 2.6 per cent to 18.3 per cent, and they ended up with one
hundred and seven seats in the German Parliament1.

When the Roman Catholic Church signed the Lateran Treaty with Mussolini's
Italian Fascist regime in February 1929, Adolf Hitler was delighted. For Hitler,
this action signalled that the Nazi Party was one step closer to endorsement by
the Roman Catholic Church. He was not to be disappointed. In February 1929,
Hitler published an article in 'Völkischer Beobachter'2:

"The fact that the [Catholic Church] is now making its

peace with Fascism shows that the Vatican trusts the
new political realities."

1 The German parliament is known within Germany as the 'Reichstag'

2 The official newspaper of the German Nazi Party

202
In the early 1930s, a few more liberal and more enlightened individuals within
the Catholic Centre Party wanted to form an alliance with the Social
Democrats, against the Nazi Party. Unfortunately, the leadership of the Roman
Catholic Church would not allow such an alliance. Eugenio Pacelli, by now a
Cardinal, instead pressured the German Catholic Centre Party to form an
alliance with the Nazis. The reason for this was that the Nazis, in common with
the Roman Catholic Church, were bitterly opposed to both Communism and
Social Democracy.

By the early 1930s, the leader of the Catholic Centre Party, Ludwig Kaas, had
essentially become Pacelli's 'errand boy' for the most part, running between
Berlin and Rome at the bidding of Cardinal Pacelli, willing to satisfy the
Cardinal's every whim.

On 8th August 1931, the German Chancellor and prominent Roman Catholic
Heinrich Brüning was summoned to the Vatican to attend a meeting with Pope
Pius XI and Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli. At this meeting, the Pope and future
Pope pressured Brüning to persuade his political allies in the Catholic Centre
Party to form an alliance with the Nazi Party. Brüning later wrote:

"I explained to Pacelli that up to now all attempts to

come to an understanding with the Extreme Right in the
interests of democracy had failed."

Brüning later observed that resistance to the concordat system by those

predisposed to democratic and liberal values had led Pacelli and the Vatican to
have nothing but contempt for the democratic system of government.

In December 1931, Pope Pius XI was again advising the Bavarian envoy to the
Vatican, Baron von Ritter, to help form an alliance between the Roman
Catholic Church in Germany and the Nazis. Pius XI stated that such an alliance
need only be "temporary and for specific purposes", and that an alliance

203
between the Roman Catholic Church and the Nazis would "prevent a greater
evil".

Another influential Nazi sympathiser within the German Catholic Church was
Konrad Gröber, Bishop of Meissen, later to become Archbishop of Freiburg. In
addition to being a Nazi sympathiser, Gröber was also an enthusiastic supporter
of Eugenio Pacelli.

At the end of May 1932, Heinrich Brüning resigned and right-wing Catholic
Centre Party member Franz von Papen was appointed Chancellor of Germany.
Papen's second Act of Parliament was to lift a ban on Hitler's storm-troopers 1,
the notorious militia movement led by early Nazi Party activist Ernst Rohm.
Violent clashes between Nazis and Socialists throughout Germany were used
as a pretext by Franz von Papen to blame Communists for the violence, thus
increasing Hitler's credibility in the eyes of Catholic Centre Party supporters.

In August 1932, there were further elections and the Nazis this time won 37.4
per cent of the vote. At this stage, Hitler's Nazi Party had two hundred and
thirty seats in the German parliament and a militia of approximately four
hundred thousand (SA) storm-troopers. The Nazi Party had become the largest
political party in Germany by popular democratic vote. The Roman Catholic
Church had played a large part in helping them make this 'achievement'.

It is well known that many of the most dangerous and racist leaders of the
German Nazi Party had Roman Catholic parents and had been brought up as
Roman Catholics. These included, but were by no means limited to: Adolf
Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels and Reinhard Heydrich [See
Chapter entitled Racism, Nazism & Fascism].

After the August 1932 elections in Germany, Franz von Papen and the Catholic
Centre Party received further encouragement from Pope Pius XI and Cardinal
1 Also known as the SA, of which the early SS were formed as a sub-division

204
Eugenio Pacelli to set about forming a coalition government with the Nazis.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Catholic Centre Party, Ludwig Kaas, had
written an essay praising the treaty between the Roman Catholic Church and
Benito Mussolini, the Italian Fascist dictator responsible for the war crimes
committed by Italian troops in Africa.

In his essay, Kaas drew parallels between the authoritarianism of Fascist Italy
and the traditional authoritarianism of the Roman Catholic Church, thereby
presenting the alliance between Catholicism and Fascism as a harmonious
marriage of ideologies. The essay was officially approved and endorsed by
Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli.

On 2nd December 1932, Franz von Papen resigned amid chaos in the German
government, brought about by Nazi members of Parliament deliberately trying
to cause mass disruption. In early 1933, von Papen negotiated with President
Hindenburg to make Hitler Chancellor of Germany, with the understanding that
Franz von Papen would be given the office of Vice-Chancellor. Consequently,
Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany on 30th January 1933.

Hitler then proceeded to form a coalition with other right-wing nationalists, in

order to obtain a controlling majority. He successfully engineered a controlling
majority of fifty two per cent of the German Parliament, setting him on the
road to dictatorship.

The Nazi 'Enabling Act'

On 13th March 1933, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli sent a note to Hitler, via the
Vatican envoy to Germany, expressing both his support and the support of Pope
Pius XI for the Nazi opposition to Communism. By this time Hitler was busy
drafting his 'Enabling Act', the notorious Act of Parliament that was to give him

205
dictatorial powers that could not be reversed, and indeed would not be, until
the end of the Second World War.

The final hurdle to the signing of the Enabling Act, which required a two-thirds
majority in the German Parliament, lay with the endorsement of it by the
Catholic Centre Party. Its chairman, Ludwig Kaas, strong ally and close friend
of Cardinal Pacelli, was instrumental in getting the Act signed. An agreement
was made was that the Act would be signed by the Catholic Centre Party
(representing the majority Roman Catholic vote in Germany), in exchange for
a concordat with the Vatican guaranteeing future rights and privileges for
Roman Catholics in Germany.

On 23rd March 1933, the Catholic Centre Party signed Adolf Hitler's Enabling
Act, essentially handing the Nazis full totalitarian power there and then. Only
the Social Democrats opposed the Act, which passed by four hundred and forty
one votes to ninety four.

The Social Democrats had long been regarded by Eugenio Pacelli, Pope Pius
XII and the Roman Catholic Church at large as equivalent to Communists,
though in reality, nothing could have been further from the truth. Blind
conformity and ignorance had once again won the day, with the unfortunate
consequence that Europe was now set upon the path to mass murder, global
war and genocide.

Ludwig Kaas subsequently travelled to Rome to negotiate with Cardinal

Pacelli over the expected Nazi-Vatican concordat, optimistic as he was for a
new era of cooperation between Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and the Roman
Catholic Church.

On 24th March 1933, Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber sent a letter to Roman
Catholic bishops in southern Germany stating the following:

206
 "After what I have encountered at the highest places in
Rome, I must show more toleration towards the new
[Nazi] government, which has achieved power in a
legal fashion."

On 28th March 1933, a statement made by the Roman Catholic bishops of

Germany amounted to a virtual oath of allegiance to the new Nazi regime. The
statement was welcomed by the Nazi press.

Meanwhile, Ludwig Kaas, Chairman of the Catholic Centre Party, popular

representative of German Catholics, and friend of Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli,
stood by his decision to form an alliance with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Kaas
declared that the Catholic Centre Party "had been under an obligation to
cooperate [with the Nazis] as sowers of the future".

After the Nazis had established a grip on political power in Germany, they
hastily began their wide-scale persecution of all those not considered members
of the 'Aryan Race'. Ernst Rohm's infamous SA storm-troopers, essentially the
predecessors to the SS, were given free reign to commit atrocities across
Germany.

In spite of these tragic events, negotiations between the Nazis and the Roman
Catholic Church were still in full swing and continued enthusiastically towards
a concordat. Cardinal Pacelli and the Papal Nuncio in Berlin liaised with the
Nazi regime's Vice-Chancellor, Franz von Papen.

Franz von Papen was a devout Roman Catholic and long-serving member of
the Catholic Centre Party. He fully cooperated with Hitler and the Nazis. By
this time, the Catholic Church had found out about the racist Nazi persecutions
that had been unleashed. The atrocities were fully reported by Cardinal
Michael von Faulhaber to the Vatican.

207
Under pressure both from the Vatican and those within its membership wishing
to defect to the Nazis, the Catholic Centre Party voted to dissolve itself in
favour of a one-party-state, that one party being the Nazi Party. Somewhat
naively, one might say, they were confident in their delusion that the rights of
Roman Catholics in Germany would continue to be respected by the new Nazi
regime. Cardinal Pacelli and Pope Pius XI wanted the Catholic Centre Party
dissolved because Hitler had stipulated this as a condition of any current and
future treaties between the new Nazi Germany and the Roman Catholic
Church.

Through a combination of sheer stupidity, unrelenting arrogance and

narcissism, combined with an utterly naive blindness to reality, the leaders of
the Roman Catholic Church could not anticipate that eventually the Nazis
would turn on Catholics too, eventually culminating in the mass extermination
of approximately three million Roman Catholics in Poland.

Kaas continued as Cardinal Pacelli's errand boy, while his former political
party in Germany faded away. The Catholic Centre Party was the last
remaining democratic party in Germany before the Nazi regime took control,
before the Centre Party voluntarily dissolved itself.

Scores of German Roman Catholics then flocked to Hitler's Nazi Party as

Italian Catholics similarly did likewise in Italy to Mussolini's Fascist regime,
and Spanish Catholics similarly flocked to Franco's brutal Fascist regime in
Spain.

The Nazi-Catholic Church Concordat

Cardinal Pacelli fostered the endorsement of the Nazi-Catholic Church

concordat by choosing emissaries who were sympathetic to the Nazi ideology.

208
These included Bishop Wilhelm Berning of Osnabrück and Archbishop Gröber
of Freiburg. The concordat was officially signed on 20th July 1933, in Vatican
City. It was signed by Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen and Cardinal Eugenio
Pacelli. Hitler's Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen was awarded a papal medal
by the Roman Catholic Church after the concordat signing ceremony had taken
place.

On 14th July 1933, a Nazi cabinet meeting took place, chaired by Adolf Hitler.
The minutes from this meeting quoted Hitler as saying:

"[The concordat] is a great achievement. It has given

Germany an opportunity and created an atmosphere of
trust [between Nazi Germany and the Roman Catholic
Church] especially significant in the struggle against
international Jewry".

The concordat also meant that German Roman Catholics loyal to the Vatican
were now under a moral obligation to obey their Nazi masters, and not to
oppose Nazism or protest against it in any way. The concordat was officially
ratified by the Roman Catholic Church on 10th September 1933, in the wake of
the known persecution across Germany of even those Jews who had previously
converted to Catholicism.

During the celebrations in Nazi Germany that followed the official ratification
of the concordat, Nazi flags could be seen together with Roman Catholic
banners and Nazi songs were sung inside St. Hedwig's Cathedral in Berlin.

It became obvious early on that Pope Pius XI favoured Eugenio Pacelli to

succeed him as Pope. He ensured that Cardinal Pacelli travelled the world in
order to promote his profile abroad. Pius XI was once known to remark: "He
[Pacelli] will be a splendid Pope".

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In January 1935, Adolf Hitler offered the people of the disputed Saar 1 region a
referendum on joining his Third Reich. After the First World War, the Saar
region had been under British and French control, a situation which existed
until January 1935. The region was a popular place for those fleeing Nazi
persecution and opposing the Nazi regime, though these formed only a tiny
minority of the region.

Roman Catholics formed the majority in the Saar region, and the result of
Hitler's referendum was an overwhelming vote (around ninety per cent of the
electorate) in favour of joining Nazi Germany and becoming a part of the Nazi
Third Reich.

Between 1935 and 1940, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli visited many Roman
Catholic countries, including Argentina, Brazil and France. He was treated like
a King by the masses in those countries. They flocked to his side and
bestowed all honours upon him. In Argentina this even included military
honours such as gun salutes and sight-seeing tours aboard military aircraft.

Cardinal Pacelli visited the United States of America in 1936 and was similarly
treated like a hero by American Roman Catholics. Many rich American
Catholics made sizeable monetary donations to Pacelli.

The 'Nuremberg Laws'

Hitler's Nazi regime passed the racist 'Nuremberg Laws' in September 1935.
There was no official protest to this act by the Roman Catholic Church. The
Nazi Nuremberg Laws were the first major step taken by Nazi Germany in the
institutionalisation of racism into law. Essentially the laws guaranteed further
rights and privileges to 'Aryan' Germans over and above those considered to be

1 A state in modern-day western Germany which borders France

210
from - or connected through ancestry to - 'inferior' races. The laws also made
mixed race marriages illegal.

In 1936, the Roman Catholic Primate of Poland, Cardinal August Hlond, riding
on a wave of anti-Semitism, stated the following:

"There will be the Jewish problem as long as the Jews

remain"

In November 1936, Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber of Munich met Adolf

Hitler at his mountain retreat in Obersalzburg. Cardinal Faulhaber later gave a
flattering characterisation of Hitler:

"The Führer commands the diplomatic and social focus

better than a born sovereign...Without doubt the
Chancellor [Hitler] lives in faith in God. He recognises
Christianity as the foundation of Western culture."

Evidently Cardinal Faulhaber was not well-educated enough, even in his own
religion, to realise that his saviour and messiah, one 'Jesus Christ', was himself
a member of the race that Hitler had described as "non-Aryan" and "inferior".

In May 1938, Cardinal Pacelli undertook a visit to Roman Catholic Hungary.

Hungary was, at the time, a keen ally of Nazi Germany, at least insofar as racist
legislation was concerned. The Hungarian Prime Minister, Bela Imredy, was
blatantly racist and anti-Semitic.

Following the German Nuremberg Laws, the Hungarian Parliament tried to

follow Nazi Germany's example by enacting its own racist legislation similar
to the Nuremberg Laws. Hungary had long been an ally of Austria and
Germany, in addition to the majority of its population being supporters and
members of the Roman Catholic Church.

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During Eugenio Pacelli's visit to Hungary, his speech included an anti-Semitic
reference to Jews as "Foes of Jesus whose hearts reject him even today".
Pacelli, like many of his contemporaries, had evidently forgotten that Jesus
himself had been a Jew.

Later, a draft encyclical1 was discovered among Vatican archives, that was
widely believed to have been another joint effort by Pope Pius XI and Cardinal
Eugenio Pacelli. It was entitled "Humani generis unitas (On the Unity of the
Human Race)". The encyclical blamed the Jews themselves for the Nazi
persecution against them, implying through a devious and cryptic use of words
that the Jews, in their refusal to embrace Christianity, had brought the
persecution upon themselves.

The encyclical continued with the customary anti-Semitic propaganda, with

sweeping generalisations laced with ignorance, including statements that all
Jews were "hard-hearted" and more accusations that they were "assisting
Communists". The encyclical did, however, protest against certain aspects of
Nazism, and for this reason, it was never actually published. Cardinal Pacelli
had been very reluctant to upset the Nazis in any way.

Pope Pius XII and Nazi Germany

By 1938, Nazi Germany's annexation of surrounding regions had given the

greater Third Reich a Roman Catholic majority. Appeasement of the Nazi
regime remained the order of the day. After the annexation of Austria, the
Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Theodor Innitzer, welcomed Hitler with open
arms and expressed public delight with the Nazi regime.

1 'Encyclical' is the name given to a letter or circular sent out to all bishops of
the Roman Catholic Church

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Later in 1938, Adolf Hitler announced that the Roman Catholic Church in
Germany had enjoyed more funding under the Nazi regime than it had under
any previous German government. Hitler boasted that that he had saved
German Catholics from the Communists. Many Catholics were evidently
successfully deceived into believing this, much to their later peril. Eventually,
the Nazis would turn on the Catholic Church too.

By 10th February 1939, Pope Pius XI was dead. His physical health had been
deteriorating for some time. It is believed by some historians that several final
draft speeches by Pius XI were concealed by Mussolini's regime in Italy and
that Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli conspired with the Italian ambassador to the
Vatican (Count Pignatti) to hide the drafts in secret Vatican archives.

On 2nd March 1939, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli was elected Pope. His election
by cardinals from around the world was swift and decisive. He won after the
shortest conclave1 in three hundred years. Pacelli thus became Pope Pius XII.

The historian John Cornwell's recent and unprecedented access to Vatican

archives revealed a letter that Pope Pius XII drafted four days after his election.
The letter was addressed to Adolf Hitler:

"To the illustrious Herr Adolf Hitler, Führer and

Chancellor of the German Reich! Here at the beginning
of Our Pontificate We wish to assure you that We
remain devoted to the spiritual welfare of the German
people entrusted to your leadership. During the many
years We spent in Germany, We did all in Our Power to
establish harmonious relations between Church and
State. Now that the responsibilities of Our pastoral

1 A papal conclave is a meeting of Catholic Church cardinals for the purpose

of electing a new Bishop of Rome, who consequently becomes the Pope

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 function have increased Our opportunities, how much
more ardently do We pray to reach that goal. May the
prosperity of the German people and their progress in
every domain come, with God's help, to fruition!"

On 20th April 1939, with the blessing of Pope Pius XII, the Papal Nuncio to
Berlin, Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo, opened a gala reception in Berlin
celebrating Hitler's fiftieth birthday. Archbishop Orsenigo publicly
congratulated Hitler.

For several years hence, including during the Second World War years,
birthday greetings would continue to be extended to Hitler on 20th April by
leading figures in the Roman Catholic Church, including Cardinal Adolf
Bertram of Berlin.

During the years of World War Two and in the face of Nazi atrocities, Cardinal
Bertram sent the "warmest congratulations to the Führer in the name of the
bishops and dioceses of Germany". Furthermore, Cardinal Bertram promised
Hitler "fervent prayers which the Catholics of Germany are sending to heaven
on their altars".

The Italian masses flocked to the coronation of Pope Pius XII on 12th March
1939 at the same time as they were showing unflinching support for Fascist
dictator Benito Mussolini during this period in history. It was estimated that
more than one million Italians attended the coronation of a man who had
shown himself to be an ally and sympathiser of Benito Mussolini, Francisco
Franco and Adolf Hitler.

Pius XII appointed Cardinal Luigi Maglione to the powerful position of

Cardinal Secretary of State. In spite of Cardinal Maglione's professed Christian
values, he had a morbid fascination for war and death. Maglione developed a
keen interest in military history and battle strategy. He hung maps of some of

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the French Napoleonic battles upon the walls of his office. During the years of
the Second World War, Cardinal Maglione followed the battles by placing flags
upon a world map.

In April 1939, after earlier congratulating General Francisco Franco on Spain's

"Catholic victory", Pope Pius XII later praised the Spanish war criminal again,
ordering Spanish bishops to embrace "the principles taught by the Church and
proclaimed with such nobility by General Franco".

Throughout the years of World War Two, Pius XII ordered the Jesuits, who ran
the Vatican Radio service, to refrain from making political comments
criticising the Nazis.

Hopes by the Catholic Church for a fruitful alliance with Nazi Germany were
all but shattered when Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939 and proceeded
to slaughter around three million Polish Catholics over the course of the
Second World War. The many meetings, agreements, concordats and hopes had
back-fired against the Roman Catholic Church in spectacular fashion.

Even so, the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church leadership remained silent
and refused to denounce Hitler and the Nazi aggression against the people of
Poland. Cardinal August Hlond and other Polish leaders may have been
frustrated that the organisation to whom they swore their unquestioning
allegiance had let them down in the worst possible way.

On 11th March 1940, Pope Pius XII met leading Nazi Joachim von Ribbentrop,
whose principle aim was to dissuade the Pope from criticising the Nazi regime.
He was successful in this endeavour to a large degree. It was fairly obvious to
all concerned that Ribbentrop's primary objective in visiting the Vatican was to
reinforce support for the Nazis by the Roman Catholic masses within Germany
and within countries allied to Germany. In this light, his visit can be judged to
have been a complete success from the point-of-view of the Nazi regime.

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The Pope still refused to publicly denounce the Nazis when Hitler invaded the
Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg in May 1940. Following German and
Italian bombing of British civilians in cities across England, British officials
pressured the Pope to issue a condemnation of the Nazi/Fascist atrocities. Pius
XII, far from doing so, decided to take the somewhat more cowardly approach
of pleading with the Allies not to bomb Rome, lest something happen to his
precious Vatican City.

Meanwhile, Hitler had made allies of other Roman Catholic countries,

including Croatia and Hungary. In Croatia, a fundamentalist Roman Catholic
revolutionary movement known as the 'Ustashe' perpetrated a campaign of
terror and mass extermination against a civilian population of around two
million Serb Orthodox Christians, among other minorities.

The Croatian 'Ustashe'

The Ustashe were similar in character to Franco's regime in Spain. In addition

to their primary target of Serb Orthodox Christians, they targeted many other
ethnic minority groups, including Serbian Jews, Gypsies and Socialists. The
main goal of the Ustashe was the achievement of a "purely Catholic" Croatia
and their tenet was that any means would justify that end, even if it involved
wide-scale ethnic cleansing and genocide. Many Roman Catholic priests were
included among the Ustashe's membership.

Pope Pius XII was sympathetic to the Croatian Ustashe. Once entrenched in a
position of power in Croatia, these fundamentalist Roman Catholic and right-
wing extremists enacted race laws similar to the notorious Nuremberg Laws of
Nazi Germany. Jews and Orthodox Christians were the principal targets.

Pius XII proceeded to establish diplomatic ties with the Croatian Ustashe while

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they were continuing to commit atrocities against Orthodox Christian Serbs
and Jews in Croatia. The Ustashe were led by a man named Ante Pavelic.

It is worth mentioning some actual cases of war crimes in Croatia by the

Ustashe, historical evidence of which is publicly available. In April 1941, six
villages were raided in the Bjelovar1 region of Croatia. Two hundred and fifty
people were forced to dig their own mass grave and were then buried alive.

In Otocac2, the Ustashe hacked over three hundred and thirty Serbs to death
with axes after the Serbs had been forced to dig their own graves. Those
massacred included women and children. One Orthodox Christian priest was
tortured first, his 'crime' being that he was not a Roman Catholic.

In a town called Glina3, Serbs who were not able to produce certificates
proving they had converted to the Roman Catholic religion were murdered
with axes and knives. In Croatia, the days of the Roman Catholic Inquisition
had returned in the twentieth century.

A short time later, the Ustashe leader, Ante Pavelic, was in Rome signing a
treaty with Benito Mussolini. During the same visit, in April 1941, Pavelic was
granted an audience with Pope Pius XII. His "new Catholic Croatia" was
immediately given official recognition by the Catholic Church in Rome. By
this time, it was common knowledge that Pavelic was firmly allied to both
Mussolini and Hitler and it was also known by the Pope that Pavelic had
enacted race laws in Croatia similar to those of the Nazis.

Between 1941 and 1945, the number of victims massacred by the Croatian
fundamentalist Catholics stood at just under five hundred thousand Orthodox
1 Approximately 80km east of Zagreb

2 A region around 150km south west of Zagreb

3 Approximately 70km south of Zagreb

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Serbs, twenty seven thousand Gypsies and thirty thousand Jews. Influential
supporters of the Ustashe genocide included Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, the
Archbishop of Zagreb. A BBC broadcast on 16th February 1942 showed that
Cardinal Stepinac was working closely with Nazi extermination squads in
Croatia.

Roman Catholic Franciscan priests were known to have participated in the

Ustashe massacres. One such priest was Father Bozidar Bralow. The Foreign
Ministry in Rome has kept an archive of some of the massacres perpetrated by
the Croatian Catholic Ustashe. Photographs of mutilated women can be seen
there.

Letters sent by the Vatican to the Croatian Catholic Church contained orders
that people seeking conversion to Catholicism were to be turned away if they
were purely seeking conversion as a means to escape torture and death. On
14th August 1941, a Jewish community leader in Zagreb, Croatia, wrote to
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Maglione, pleading for the lives of
Croatian Jews. All available evidence points to the fact that the letter was
ignored.

Despite full knowledge of the atrocities being committed in Croatia in the

name of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Pius XII and his Vatican Secretariat
repeatedly praised, blessed and encouraged the Croatian regime who were
perpetrating the atrocities and crimes against humanity. In early 1942, Pius XII
gave audiences to several other war criminals within the Croatian Ustashe.

Slovakia and Jozef Tiso

In Slovakia too, Jews faced persecution. At the time, the President of Slovakia
was a Roman Catholic priest named Jozef Tiso. Tiso was also Fascist leader of

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the Slovak Republic, essentially a Nazi puppet regime for all intents and
purposes. He was a close ally of Hitler and was subsequently sentenced to
death for Nazi war crimes at the end of the Second World War.

There is evidence in the Vatican archives that, even as late as 1943, when Nazi
genocide had become fully apparent for all to see, the Pope's only real concern
was his ongoing paranoia regarding Communism.

The Roman Catholic Church During

German Retreat

In 1943, during a conversation with a papal chamberlain named Erwin

Lobkowicz, the Pope stated that he was "disappointed that, in spite of
everything, no one wants to acknowledge the one, real and principal enemy of
Europe; no true, communal military crusade against [Communism] has been
initiated". Evidently the mass extermination of Russian civilians by the Nazi
extermination squads was not enough for Pope Pius XII.

Pius XII begun to hear news of Hitler's 'Final Solution' of genocide in the
spring of 1942. He said very little at the time, in spite of pleas from Jewish
organisations and politicians in Allied countries. Far from being concerned
with the reality of the millions losing their lives during the Second World War,
in the summer of 1942 the Pope instead became preoccupied with film-making.
He decided that God had beckoned him to make a film about himself and his
life. The Pope collaborated with the President of Catholic Action in Italy, Luigi
Gedda, to make his propaganda film.

Pius XII published a text entitled "Mystici corporis" in June/July 1943. In this
text, the Pope made his religious and philosophical views plain for all to see.
As Pope, he believed himself to be the "Vicar of Christ on Earth". In other

219
words, as Christ's representative on Earth, he considered himself to be the
leader of all of Christianity and in authority over all Christians, not only
Roman Catholics. He also absolved Roman Catholics of all and any sins they
may ever have committed provided that they recognised the Pope as their
supreme leader.

Pope Pius XII stated:

"It is therefore a dangerous error to hold that one can

adhere to Christ as head of the Church without loyal
allegiance to his Vicar on earth [the Pope]."

An influential Dominican theologian, named Garrigou-Lagrange, was an

advisor to Pius XII and also a strong supporter of the Nazi-installed Vichy
regime in France. He openly stated that the Roman Catholic Church did not
oppose the anti-Semitic legislation enacted by the Vichy (Nazi puppet) regime
of occupied France.

By the end of 1942, the Pope was under considerable pressure from the British
and the Americans to speak out against Nazi atrocities in German-occupied
Europe. But the Pope said virtually nothing useful and he consistently refused
to implicate the Nazis in any way. Pope Pius XII held this position despite the
fact that, by this time, the Allied forces had started to gain ground from the
Nazis with Allied victories in North Africa and Russia. The Pope was primarily
preoccupied with attempts to prevent an Allied bombing of Rome.

However, Pope Pius XII did not remain silent where the demise of Roman
Catholics was at stake, such as with the German invasion of Belgium in May
1940. At the time, Cardinal Pacelli had spoken out and stated that there was no
room for "indifference and apathy where moral and human considerations
demanded a candid word". It would appear that Pope Pius XII only had a
"candid word" where Roman Catholics or the Catholic Church were being

220
threatened.

In 1943, Cardinal Emmanuel Celestin Suhard, the Archbishop of Paris, visited

Pope Pius XII in Rome. There is some historical evidence that, during this
meeting, the Pope praised the work of Marshal Petain, head of the Vichy
regime in France responsible for sending French Jews to Nazi death camps.

By October 1943, the Nazis had occupied Rome. That month, hundreds of
Jews in Rome were rounded up by the SS upon the orders of Adolf Eichmann 1.
Pope Pius XII and the other Catholic Church leaders stood and watched in
silence as Rome's Jews, whose ancestry in Rome could be traced all the way
back to the days of Julius Caesar, were arrested en masse by the Nazi SS.
Many of them had pleaded with the Pope to make a formal protest, alas to no
avail.

The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Maglione, was asked what the Pope
would do if the deportations of Jews continued. Maglione responded:

"The Pope would not wish to be put in a situation

where it was necessary to utter a word of disapproval."

Evidence of this statement was found in recently disclosed content from

Vatican archives by the historian John Cornwell. Furthermore, Cardinal
Maglione later confirmed that the Pope had not wished to give the impression
of having said or done anything against the interests of Nazi Germany.

As for the Pope, he had by this time returned to his familiar paranoia regarding
the somewhat unlikely possibility of Communists taking over Rome. Those
Italians who had resisted Mussolini's barbarity were collectively labelled

1 After World War Two, Eichmann was successfully captured by Mossad

agents in Argentina, taken to Israel, put on trial, sentenced to death and
executed for crimes against humanity

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"Communists" by the Pope and his supporters, however inaccurate and
delusional that was in reality.

Pius XII pleaded with the United States delegate to the Vatican, Harold
Tittman, to allow the SS to maintain order in Rome against possible
Communist incursions. He told Tittman:

"The Germans have respected Vatican City and the

Pope's property in Rome and the German commander
in Rome seems well disposed toward the Vatican."

In fact, when the Allies were about to enter Rome, Pope Pius XII specifically
asked the British ambassador to the Vatican, Francis d'Arcy Osborne, to ensure
that:

"No Allied coloured [non-white] troops would be

among those garrisoned in Rome after the occupation."

In March 1944, a unit of Nazi soldiers was bombed as the Nazis marched along
Via Rasella in Rome. Shorty after that, the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore
Romano published an article on 26th March extending sympathy for the Nazi
soldiers who had been killed, despite obvious knowledge of previous Nazi
atrocities and genocide. This Catholic Church newspaper implicitly condemned
those who had killed Nazis.

Rome was liberated by Allied forces on 4th June 1944. After the liberation,
Pope Pius XII offered refuge to Nazi war criminals in Vatican City. The war
criminals given refuge by the Roman Catholic Church included ministers loyal
to the Nazi regime. Another war criminal given refuge was the Japanese
ambassador - the ambassador of a country responsible for the mass
extermination of millions of Chinese civilians.

Certain papal buildings in Rome were used as safe houses and as transit points

222
allowing Nazi war criminals to escape to South America. One Nazi
sympathiser and Roman Catholic bishop aiding and abetting such war
criminals was Bishop Alois Hudal. One of the Nazi war criminals Bishop
Hudal was thought to have assisted was Dr Joseph Mengele.

The Roman Catholic Church at the End of

World War Two

Upon learning of Hitler's suicide, the Archbishop of Berlin, Cardinal Adolf

Bertram, ordered all of his parish priests to, in his words:

"Hold a solemn Requiem in memory of the Führer

[Hitler] and all those members of the Wehrmacht 1 who
have fallen in the struggle for our German Fatherland,
along with our sincerest prayers for the future of the
Catholic Church in Germany."

After the Second World War, Pope Pius XII set about re-establishing
totalitarian rule over the Roman Catholic Church and over all Catholics
globally. This Pope was once known to have declared: "I do not want
colleagues, but people who will obey!"

The earlier chapter about the life and regime of General Francisco Franco
describes the uncompromising support and admiration of this brutal dictator by
both Pope Pius XI and Pope Pius XII. Despite Franco's well-known history of
atrocities and crimes against humanity, Pope Pius XII nevertheless honoured
General Franco with the Vatican's highest decoration: The Supreme Order of
Christ.

For someone who presented a façade that it was wrong for the 'Vicar of Christ
1 The name given to the unified armed forces of Germany under Nazi rule

223
on Earth' to take sides during a war, it would appear that taking sides against
the Communists presented no such dilemma for Pope Pius XII. It presented no
dilemma for him before the Second World War, during the Second World War,
or later during the Cold War. In fact, the Pope was very active politically in
persuading Italian Catholics not to vote for the Communist or Socialist political
parties during democratic elections, under threat of excommunication from the
Roman Catholic Church.

On his deathbed in October 1958, it would seem that Pope Pius XII was feeling
a little guilty over his past 'sins'. An extract from his final statement read:

"Have pity on me, Lord, according to thy mercy;

knowledge of the deficiencies, failures, sins committed
during so long a pontificate and in so grave an epoch
has made clearer to me my inadequacies and
unworthiness. I humbly ask pardon of all I have
offended, harmed and scandalized."

Such forgiveness would not be readily forthcoming from the families of

Eugenio Pacelli's many victims...

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Chapter 10: Corruption, Scandal and Child
Abuse

Child Abuse and the Roman Catholic

Church

Contrary to popular belief, sexual abuse of children and paedophilia is by no

means a new phenomenon within the Roman Catholic Church. This chapter
shall explore events surrounding the first major child abuse scandal within the
Catholic Church, by examining evidence from as far back as the early
seventeenth century. The evidence described herein is based on access to secret
Vatican archives provided to the historian Karen Liebreich in 1998.

This chapter will then jump to modern times to describe the widespread child
abuse, scandals, corruption and double-standards that have existed within the
Roman Catholic Church from the early latter half of the twentieth century, to
the present day.

The Piarist Order

The Piarist Order was founded by a Roman Catholic priest from Spain, named
José de Calasanz. He was born in a small village in Aragon, Spain. In his
youth, he studied theology and he was later ordained a priest in 1575.

Calasanz left Spain in 1592 and begun teaching children in a school in

Trastevere, Rome in 1597. He took overall responsibility for the school in
Trastevere in 1598. His ambitions led him to rent rooms to form the basis of a
new school in the Campo de' Fiori area of Rome, on the other side of the Tiber

225
river from where he had already been teaching.

His new school opened in March 1600, shortly after a philosopher named
Giordano Bruno was burned alive by the Roman Catholic Church authorities
for heresy, in the nearby market square. Calasanz's new school became
commonly known as the "Pious School". Pope Clement VIII was impressed
with the new school and Calasanz's dedication to it.

In 1612, the Pious Schools movement established a headquarters in a building

adjacent to the Church of San Pantaleo in Rome. Pope Paul V signalled his
approval.

After Pope Gregory XV was elected in 1621, the Pious Schools were turned
into an official Roman Catholic religious order known as the Order of Clerics
Regular of the Pious Schools of the Poor of the Mother of God. Due to the
somewhat extensive length of the name, it was abbreviated to "Piarist Order".
Father José de Calasanz was appointed Father-General of the new, increasingly
influential Roman Catholic religious order. Several years later, there would be
Piarist schools throughout central Europe.

A colleague of Father Calasanz named Francesco Castelli, also a priest,

complained that: "It is so difficult dealing with so many children who are
virtually little beasts or untrained animals". Cruelty to children in the Piarist
schools was rampant. In 1624, Calasanz wrote to the schoolmaster of a Piarist
school in Frascati1, where a pupil had died shortly after being subjected to
severe punishment beatings. The schoolmaster was merely warned to be more
careful in the future.

Desperate parents with little or no money would frequently send their children
to Piarist schools, where the free education held the promise of a brighter
future for their children. Due to its dogma of 'poverty', children in the Piarist
1 A town approximately 20km south-east of Rome

226
schools were forbidden from playing games or indulging in any other leisure
activities.

Calasanz later appointed Sicilian priest Father Melchiorre Alacchi to open

Piarist schools in Naples. Stefano Cherubini was admitted into the Piarist
Order in 1617, at the age of seventeen. Cherubini came from an affluent,
wealthy and strictly religious Roman Catholic family. His father was a
successful lawyer.

Cherubini was promoted to rector1 at the age of twenty six in a religious school
in Narni, a small Umbrian2 town. Cherubini became well known for acting in a
fashion contrary to his oath of poverty. He was known to over-eat, engage in
football games in some of the rooms in the Piarist school in Narni that he
controlled, and he frequently fraternised with women.

Cherubini was at this time therefore already guilty of a multitude of "sins",

from the perspective of Roman Catholic doctrine. He repeatedly flouted Piarist
rules. He was, however, not thrown out of the Catholic Church hierarchy due to
the fact that he came from a rich, powerful and influential family.

During this period, Rome was one of the papal territories and was therefore
ruled by the Roman Catholic Church. In spite of this fact, early seventeenth
century Rome had scores of prostitutes and many more clients. It has been
estimated that prostitution was one of the biggest commercial sectors in the
Rome of this period.

In 1629, it became apparent that Father Stefano Cherubini had been abusing his
pupils in the Neapolitan Piarist school of which he was the schoolmaster. It is

1 In the Roman Catholic Church, a rector is a someone who holds the office
of presiding over an ecclesiastical institution such as a religious school

2 A region in central Italy

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not known precisely when the child abuse began, but in 1629, comments
concerning the abuse of children by Father Cherubini appeared in the
correspondence of the founder and overall leader of the order, José de
Calasanz. Calasanz's comments made references to "the worst vice", the
context of which remains fairly obvious.

Calasanz's secretary, Father Vincenzo Berro, later wrote: "The devil persecuted
the headmaster in Naples and with all his force and malice made him seek out
impure friendships with schoolboys [amicitia impura con scuolari]". Father
Berro wrote this in a text entitled "Notes on the Foundation".

The powerful family of Stefano Cherubini, who were highly regarded within
Vatican circles, helped to cover up the child abuse scandal, culminating in an
'accidental' fire in 1659, where the contents of Vatican archives were
(conveniently) burned. However, some of the letters and documents were
spared by those vigilant enough to conceal them.

Calasanz's right-hand man, Father Pietro Casani, was also based in Naples.
Concerned at Cherubini's actions, Casani wrote to Calasanz and Calasanz then
wrote to Cherubini, in order to warn him. In his arrogance, Cherubini then
angrily carried out a 'witch-hunt' in an attempt to find out who had reported
him.

Subsequently, Calasanz set about transferring Stefano Cherubini away from the
school by giving him a significant promotion. A biographer of José de
Calasanz, Father Severino Giner Guerri, acknowledged Cherubini's actions and
described "promoveatur ut amoveatur [promotion for avoidance]" as a useful
political tool in the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy.

Stefano Cherubini was thus made a procurator of the Piarist Order, a position
of considerable power and influence. After getting Cherubini out of the way via
a promotion, Calasanz then wrote to Father Giovanni Garzia Castiglia and put

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him in charge of the 'investigation' of Cherubini. Calasanz wrote:

"I want you to know that Your Reverence's sole aim is

to cover up [caprir] this great shame in order that it
does not come to the notice of our superiors, otherwise
our organisation, which has enjoyed a good reputation
until now, would lose greatly."

Father Berro's later account of events went on to state that some Piarist priests
were unhappy about Cherubini's impunity and consequently complained to the
Pope's brother, Cardinal Antonio Barberini. Barberini then summoned
Calasanz. Calasanz explained to Antonio Barberini that the Pope's nephew,
Cardinal Francesco Barberini, had ordered Calasanz to "turn a blind eye" to
Cherubini's crimes. Antonio Barberini then immediately backed down and
went along with the cover-up. The cover-up was also supported by the family
of former Pope Gregory XV.

Those within the highest ranks of the Roman Catholic Church therefore knew
the truth all along, but decided the best policy was one of concealment. Stefano
Cherubini was thus given absolution for his past crimes along with an
implication of impunity for any future crimes against children that he might
commit.

In the 1630s, in Palermo, Sicily, an Inquisition tribunal found priests guilty of

child abuse including Brother Carlo di Messina and Brother Gasparo della
Assumptione di Norcia. They were later released. Evidently, the Roman
Catholic Church saw the prosecution of 'heretics' as more worthy of their time
and energy, compared to a pursuit of paedophiles.

In 1638, in Naples, another teacher at a Piarist school, Brother Ignazio

Guarnotto di Giesù, was accused of child abuse. Brother Ignazio was
subsequently transferred to Genoa and allowed to continue teaching. In the

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mid-1640s, he was also promoted. He later became a close friend of Stefano
Cherubini, probably due to their having common interests.

In July 1639, the father of a pupil wrote a letter of complaint concerning the
sexual abuse of his son by Brother Stefano di San Giuseppe Battista.
Calasanz's first priority, as before, was to cover-up the scandal in line with a
policy encouraged by the various Popes and other high-ranking officials of the
Roman Catholic Church.

In late 1630s Florence, a further scandal came to light. A religious Roman

Catholic institution known as the 'Institute for Poor Girls' held a daily Mass
and guaranteed a pious religious education. However, the 'Institute for Poor
Girls' also found a dual use - as a brothel. The brothel was run by a wealthy
Florentine widow named Faustina Mainardi and a priest named Pandolfo
Ricasoli.

Ricasoli was described by his peers as an excellent priest and he was held in
great esteem on account of his religious credentials and supposed moral
standards. He was equally effective, it would seem, as a pimp. The evidence
was brought to light when one of the female victims reported it during a
confession. The girls had been rented out to local wealthy noblemen.

In May 1643, in Naples, Father Giovanni di Rosa uncovered a scandal

involving suspected child abuse in a school in Bisignano 1. The crimes had been
committed by its schoolmaster, Father Gioachino Gallo.

By February 1644, Stefano Cherubini had climbed the ranks of the Piarist
Order all the way to the top, culminating in the Pope appointing him head of
the Piarist Order. Cherubini had achieved this mainly through corruption,
supported as he was by his rich, powerful family, ultimately leading to
Cherubini engineering his displacement of Father Calasanz, the order's
1 A small town in southern Italy

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founder.

One cannot help but be amazed at how a combination of political acumen,

money and bribery could achieve so much within the hierarchy of the
(supposedly "Christian") Roman Catholic Church, even when it was being
achieved by a known child molester.

Horrified at Cherubini's appointment by the Pope, Calasanz wrote to the

Cardinals' Commission confessing that he had known all along that Cherubini
had been molesting children. But Calasanz's pleas were ignored by the
cardinals and the Pope. Cherubini remained in office as universal superior of
the Piarist Order.

The Piarist Order eventually collapsed under the weight of its own corruption,
but not before significant damage had been done to the lives of countless
children. Calasanz, who had covered-up most, if not all, of the scandals, was
sanctified in 1767 and was made 'Patron Saint of Christian Schools' by Pope
Pius XII in 1948.

The Reign of Pope John Paul II

Karol Wojtyla was born on 18th May 1920 in Wadowice 1, Poland. His father
Karol (Senior) had been an officer in the army of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire, the country which arguably started the First World War with its
declaration of war against Serbia. They were a religious Roman Catholic
family and the future Pope was given a traditional Roman Catholic upbringing.
Karol Wojtyla had a passion for drama and was good at acting, a trait which
was to serve him well in his future career.

The survival of a near-fatal road accident during the Second World War led

1 Located about 32km south-west of Krakow, near the Czech border

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Wojtyla to believe that God had saved him and was calling him to the Roman
Catholic priesthood. Aged twenty six, he was ordained into the priesthood on
1st November 1946. His ordination coincided with the Feast of All Saints.

Father Wojtyla imitated many of his predecessors after he was appointed an

assistant pastor in a hamlet fifteen miles east of Krakow. His self-administered
punishments included wearing a threadbare cassock in freezing cold weather,
spending many hours in the confessional, and sleeping on a hard floor. He was
sometimes known to pray for eight hours without food or drink. Wojtyla was
made a bishop in Wawel Cathedral, Krakow, in 1958.

In 1959, Pope John XXIII attempted to reform the Catholic Church and also
attempted to open a dialogue with the Soviet Communists. Unfortunately, his
diplomatic efforts met with defiant resistance from within the Vatican. Many
Polish bishops, including Bishop Wojtyla, were extremely anti-Communist to
the extent that they were not even willing to entertain diplomacy or
compromise with Communists.

Upon visiting Rome, it has been said that Bishop Wojtyla was horrified at the
degree to which the bishops verbally attacked and criticised one another.
Wojtyla encountered a plethora of politics, back-stabbing, spin-doctoring and
leaks to the press by the bishops. Nothing could have been further from the
spirit of Christianity and this is what had bothered Wojtyla.

In 1964, Father Wojtyla was made an archbishop. Approximately one year

later, Wojtyla and many other Polish and German bishops voted against the
release of a document entitled "Gaudium et Spes". The purpose of the
document was to seek common ground with non-Catholics. The bishops who
voted against it, including Wojtyla, essentially voted against the possibility of
fostering better diplomatic relations with other Christian denominations and
other non-Catholics.

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In 1967, Wojtyla refused to travel to Rome for an event because one of his
colleagues had been denied an exit visa by the Communist authorities in
Poland. He nevertheless made a distinct exception a short time later when he
travelled to Rome to be made a cardinal that same year.

In 1968, Archbishop Wojtyla publicly confirmed his support for the banning of
contraception. Curiously, the Soviet rulers of Poland at this time were not
opposed to contraception or abortion, to some extent contradicting exaggerated
anti-Soviet propaganda regarding lack of freedom and liberty, at least relative
to the Roman Catholic Church.

The banning of contraception by the Roman Catholic Church was to have far-
reaching consequences in later years for those millions who would become
infected with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. This policy of the
Catholic Church would come to have devastating consequences in Africa.

Furthermore, the Roman Catholic Church was condemning hundreds of

thousands in Africa to famine and starvation, due to the uncontrollable
population growth in the face of drought and poverty. Evidently, Archbishop
Wojtyla's vast education and wisdom did not extend to such considerations.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Karol Wojtyla remained opposed to dialogue with
the Communist regime in Poland, despite the fact that diplomacy may have
reduced civil unrest and saved lives in his native country.

Instead of attempting to use diplomacy, Wojtyla took on an antagonistic

attitude toward the Communist government, contributing to civil unrest and
getting heavily involved in politics rather than keeping his actions restricted to
his religious duties. Such actions were in stark contrast to those of Pope Pius
XII during the Second World War, whose reluctance to speak out against the
Nazis has been attributed by his apologists to a reluctance by the Roman
Catholic Church to become engaged in politics.

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An increasingly militant political stand by Cardinal Wojtyla took a decisive
turn in 1977, when he criticised a "conformist attitude to Marxism" at the
Polish Bishops' Conference. The Polish cardinals were highly critical of left-
wing Christians in Western Europe and South America.

On 16th October 1978, Karol Wojtyla was elected Pope. Thus began the reign
of Pope John Paul II. From the very beginning of his papacy, John Paul II
bitterly attacked not only Communists in the East, but also Liberals in South
America. He espoused "the right to religious freedom" and "the right to
freedom of conscience", yet at the same time he denied the freedoms of those
seeking abortion or using contraception.

Those within the Roman Catholic Church were denied "freedom of

conscience", in that they were expected by the Pope and his Polish comrades to
fully conform to and never question Catholic Church doctrine. He required
Catholic theologians to remain "in close collaboration with the magisterium".
Those who questioned Roman Catholic doctrine were summoned to the
Vatican and interrogated. One such example included a Dominican Flemish
priest name Edward Schillebeeckx, who was summoned to the Vatican three
times for questioning established Catholic Church doctrine.

A forward-thinking Swiss priest and theologian named Hans Küng was a

fervent believer in Catholic Church reform. He questioned the rigid and
inflexible hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1979, the Vatican
consequently revoked Küng's teaching licence.

In October 1979, Pope John Paul II visited the United States of America. After
giving a speech to the United Nations General Assembly about the virtues of
peace and freedom, he engaged himself in a tour of America. The Pope's
outward appearance as someone who believed in peace and democracy
changed somewhat during private meetings with the American bishops. During

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these meetings, he denounced contraception, divorce and homosexuality. He
also pointed to the liberation of women as the leading cause in the rise of
abortion rates.

During a service in Washington D.C. that included a meeting with influential

female American Catholics, Pope John Paul actually criticised the women for
wearing what he considered to be men's clothes as opposed to a "a simple and
suitable garb".

John Paul was highly critical of the more liberal Dutch bishops. He was also
critical of African bishops whom he regarded as attempting to merge pagan
practices with Roman Catholicism. He was also critical of an increase in
secularism among Catholics in France. He reprimanded the French bishops for
this transgression.

Upon visiting Brazil, the Pope handed out further reprimands to Brazilian
bishops, blaming them for the many conversions to Protestantism taking place
in Brazil. Curiously, Pope John Paul II was against any kind involvement of
Roman Catholic priests in Brazilian politics, even when those priests were
condemning human rights abuses and corruption within the Brazilian regime of
the time.

In El Salvador, Archbishop Oscar Romero was criticised by the Pope for

speaking out against human rights abuses in his country. After Romero's
murder, Pope John Paul stubbornly refused to make him a saint. All this was in
stark contrast to the Pope's attitude in Poland, where it would seem he was only
too happy to encourage rebellious political activity against Communism.
Around the same time, he was actively encouraging Polish workers to go on
strike against the Communist leadership there.

In November 1981, the Pope appointed Joseph Ratzinger head of the

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). Ratzinger would later

235
become Pope Benedict XVI. The 'Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith'
was the successor to the infamous Catholic Church Inquisition of previous
centuries, of which the Spanish Inquisition had been a part.

One type of honour bestowed by the Roman Catholic Church upon an

individual is known as a 'Beatus'. It is very similar to a Sainthood but
considered slightly below full sainthood in terms of prestige. The 'beatification'
process can for simplicity be considered a significant step on the path to full
sainthood. In any event, it is a significant honour bestowed upon an individual
by the Roman Catholic Church.

During his reign, Pope John Paul II 'beatified' a deceased Spanish priest named
Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer on 17th May 1992. Escriva de Balaguer was the
founder of Opus Dei, which he founded in 1928. Opus Dei began its journey
through the formal Roman Catholic Church approval process in 1941.

Escriva de Balaguer had been a strong supporter of General Francisco Franco

and his Fascist regime, whose atrocities and war crimes have been fully
described in an earlier chapter of this narrative. John Paul II had himself
displayed strong support for Opus Dei as early as 1974. Several influential
members of Opus Dei had served Franco's regime in positions of considerable
power, and can therefore be considered war criminals by any reasonable
measure.

Members of Opus Dei and the Roman Catholic Church at large wrote a six
thousand page biography of Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer in support of his
beatification. His case for beatification was endorsed by Pope John Paul II in
spite of heavy criticism and controversy. Ten years later, in 2002, Escriva de
Balaguer was canonized to full sainthood.

Pope John Paul's road to democracy for his native Poland may well have been
"paved with good intentions", so to speak. Unfortunately for him, however,

236
there were some undesirable side-effects from his perspective.

In the 1990s, the Pope was horrified and surprised to learn that democracy had
given Poland the power to legalise abortion. Not being an advocate of freedom
and democracy quite to this extent, the Pope's idea of "freedom" entailed the
freedom of the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy to rule supreme, as a
centralised power structure based in Rome, continuing as it had for over one
thousand years thus far.

In 1994, John Paul II made it clear that the Roman Catholic Church would
never allow women to become priests, a move greeted with disdain by many
female American Catholics. Furthermore, John Paul II never for one moment
wavered from his firm conviction that homosexuality was inherently "evil" or
from his equally firm conviction that IVF treatment was evil and ungodly.

Despite the advent of an AIDS epidemic and overpopulation on an

unprecedented scale in Africa, causing wide-scale death and famine, the Pope
did not deviate from his zeal over the use of contraception. He believed
contraception to be inherently evil and a mortal sin. It is perhaps hard to
ascertain how one held in such high regard by millions and considered to be
highly educated and rational could take such a view.

Throughout this period, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger remained, to a greater or

lesser extent, the right-hand-man of Pope John Paul II. By the turn of the
millennium, Pope John Paul and Cardinal Ratzinger were finding it
increasingly difficult to police the Catholic Church on a global scale.
Consequently, they encouraged a system of 'back-stabbing' similar to many
petty office environments.

Roman Catholic priests and bishops around the world were encouraged to
covertly report one another's misdemeanours to the Vatican. Pastoral care given
to Roman Catholic homosexuals was considered one such "misdemeanour".

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Around this time, criminal charges were starting to be brought against Roman
Catholic paedophile priests across Europe and the United States.

The Road to Sainthood for Pope Pius XII

In a statement in 1998, John Paul II officially exonerated Pope Pius XII for any
wrong-doing during the Second World War. The Roman Catholic Church was
desperate to exonerate him from any perceived sympathy toward Nazi
Germany, something which had for a long time been preying on the global
Catholic conscience.

In October 1999, the Vatican commissioned six scholars with the task of
analysing the record of Pope Pius XII. The Vatican deviously ensured that three
of the scholars were Jewish. The scholars were bitterly disappointed after
having been presented with corrupted, falsified 'evidence' by the Catholic
Church. The scholars were at no time given access to the original Vatican
archives. The content of all documents and books they were given was already
available in the public domain anyway.

In any event, the commission subsequently submitted further questions in light

of the missing archival evidence. The requests for information were treated
with unadulterated hostility by Father Peter Gumpel. Father Gumpel was the
chief proponent for the canonization of Pope Pius XII.

Consequently, the Jewish scholars, realising they were being used merely as
puppets or pawns, resigned from the commission in protest. Father Gumpel
wasted no time in exploiting the opportunity this presented. He launched a
tirade of anti-Semitic attacks, labelling the Jewish historians "attackers of the
Catholic Church".

Father Gumpel's political machinations notwithstanding, decisions on exposure

238
of papal archives ultimately rests with the Pope, which at that time was John
Paul II. Following Father Gumpel's anti-Semitic rhetoric, racial tension in
Rome increased, with ensuing vandalism against Jewish shops and businesses.

In view of the above events, one can assume it may not be beyond the realm of
believability that the Roman Catholic Church had deviously and cunningly
engineered the entire episode, right from the very establishment of the 'pseudo-
commission'.

Some might argue that the Pope added insult to injury when he subsequently
gave a private audience to the infamous Austrian Fascist Jörg Haider, the
extreme-right Austrian politician with Nazi connections. Haider's election in
Austria had caused enough controversy for some countries, including France,
to withdraw their ambassadors.

The Road to Sainthood for Pope Pius IX

Pope John Paul also beatified former Pope Pius IX shortly after the turn of the
millennium. Pius IX had achieved a level of notoriety for his oppressive
Syllabus of Errors [See chapter entitled 'Suppression Of Freedom & Liberty'].
Pius IX was beatified in September 2000. The Vatican was also widely
expected to beatify former Pope Pius XII. In spite of controversy over his links
with the Nazis, proceedings to beatify Pius XII had been going on for some
years. A case for his beatification is still ongoing at the time of writing.

Treatment of Women in the 21st Century

Catholic Church

A further scandal surrounding the later years of John Paul II's papacy

239
concerned rumours surrounding the treatment of women in Vatican City.
Vatican officials leaked information alleging that Vatican women were
frequently treated as second-class citizens, almost as slaves according to some
sources. It is unlikely such rumours would have been entirely without merit.

Attacks Against the Gay Community in the

21st Century

In the year 2000, John Paul II spoke out against a gay pride march in Rome
which occurred that year. The Pope spoke of his "bitterness" at the march. He
described it as "an offence to the Christian values of a city so dear to the
hearts of Catholics worldwide".

Continuing Right-Wing Views in the 21st

Century

For World Youth Day 2000, Catholic youngsters from all over the world
journeyed to Rome. Local bishops had raised money and organised youths
from virtually every corner of the Earth, to attend the Roman Catholic
celebrations in Rome. Local parish priests had raised money through their
churches.

The pope addressed crowds of undisciplined youths, lecturing them about the
sanctity of marriage and many other notions considered ideals by the Roman
Catholic Church. The youths stayed in tents in the Tor Vergata arena in Rome.
When the area was cleared afterwards, condoms were found outside some of
the tents.

Pope John Paul II was also well known for appointing right-wing conservatives

240
to high-ranking positions within the Roman Catholic Church. Such
appointments included that of Cardinal Hans Groër, Archbishop of Vienna, and
Wolfgang Haas as Bishop of Chur, Switzerland.

Paedophilia within the modern Roman

Catholic Church

During the reign of Pope John Paul II, criminal investigations into Roman
Catholic priests accused of the sexual abuse of children revealed to the world a
global scandal on an unprecedented scale.

Following diligent investigations by the authorities, hundreds of paedophile

priests were arrested across the United States in 2002 alone. Around ninety
priests in Boston were indicted. Financial settlements reached the five hundred
million dollar mark. By the summer of 2004, around seven hundred million
dollars in damages had been paid out to child abuse victims by the Roman
Catholic Church.

Some Catholic Church apologists like to argue that those getting financial
settlements were merely taking advantage of a "compensation culture" by
targeting a defenceless, compassionate and peaceful organisation. However, if
that were the case, then one would expect the Roman Catholic Church to resist
and indeed to be under a religious duty to oppose those breaking the ninth
commandment ("thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbour").

The lack of resistance to the accusations by the Roman Catholic Church and its
forthright cooperation in the payment of settlements, added to lawful
convictions by the authorities of many different countries, has made the guilt of
this organisation self-evident.

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Catholic Church Child Abuse in the United
States of America

Over the course of the previous fifty years, around four thousand four hundred
Roman Catholic priests in the United States have faced allegations for the
sexual abuse of over eleven thousand children. Much of this period has been
under the reign of Pope John Paul II. Some might argue that the Pope should
perhaps have paid less attention to his political crusade against Communism
and more attention to matters somewhat 'closer to home'?

It is evident that, of all the cases of child sex abuse reported to local American
bishops, only about fourteen per cent of those were reported by the bishops to
the American police forces.

During the investigations of parishes across the United States, wide-scale

cover-ups by the Roman Catholic Church have been suspected. On the 20th
March 2002, The New York Times described the Roman Catholic Church's
sexual abuse scandal as "horrific".

In June 2001, the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard F. Law, confessed to

having given Reverend John J. Geoghan a job as a parish priest seventeen
years earlier, in spite of the fact that he knew about allegations of child abuse
against Geoghan. It turned out that other cardinals had aided and abetted the
cover-up as well.

After further revelations and mass public protest, a media frenzy in Boston in
2002 demanded the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law for his alleged part in
covering up the involvement of his priests in child sex abuse cases.

There is further evidence that Cardinal Bernard Law knew about sexual abuse
perpetrated by his priests as far back as 1985. Cardinal Law supported the

242
writing of a report about child abuse after Reverend Gilbert Gauthé sexually
abused eleven boys in his diocese in Lafayette, Louisiana. However, Cardinal
Law withdrew his support just before the report was due to be published, and it
was subsequently filed away in secret archives. Many years later, in July 2001,
Cardinal Law would write:

"I only wish that the knowledge we have today had

been available to us earlier."

At first, Pope John Paul II insisted that Cardinal Law should not resign. The
crimes against children committed by members of the Roman Catholic Church
culminated in an overwhelming vote by American bishops in November 2002
to introduce new guidelines. However, one of these guidelines was in effect a
'Statute of Limitations' which had the proviso that crimes against children need
not be reported to the authorities if they had been committed many years ago.

Despite a mountain of evidence that Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston had

assisting in moving suspected child abusers from parish to parish instead of
reporting them, Pope John Paul II nevertheless honoured him in June 2004, by
appointing him to the boards of several Catholic Church congregations and
councils.

In August 2003, American lawyers discovered a document which had been sent
globally to all bishops of the Roman Catholic Church in 1962. The document
had the official seal of Pope John XXIII. The document ordered bishops to
envelop cases of suspected child abuse under a veil of secrecy, under threat of
excommunication. Anyone who exposed the cases to the police or the press
were to be punished with excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church.

In the early months of 2000, the Roman Catholic Church in the United States
found itself being sued as a criminal organisation in the Federal Court. The

243
legislation1 used against the Roman Catholic Church in America was
legislation ordinarily aimed at large-scale organised crime organisations, such
as the Mafia. This legislation was normally targeted at 'patterns' of criminal
conduct.

After over one thousand years of atrocities committed by the Roman Catholic
Church, such a prosecution against the global Roman Catholic Church at the
beginning of the new millennium would have been regarded by many as
"poetic justice", irrespective of the actual outcome of the case.

Catholic Church Child Abuse in the United

Kingdom

Between 1994 and 2002, over one hundred Roman Catholic priests were
investigated for child abuse in the United Kingdom, with over twenty
convictions.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster (head of

the Catholic Church in England and Wales) appointed a priest to the position of
chaplain at Gatwick Airport even though Murphy-O'Connor knew the priest
was suspected of being a paedophile. The priest was later convicted of nine
sexual assaults.

The Archbishop of Cardiff, John Aloysius Ward, resigned after being accused
of turning a blind eye to two paedophile priests who were later jailed for eight
years each for the sexual abuse of children.

1 The United States 'Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act

(RICO)'

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Catholic Church Child Abuse in France

In France, over thirty Catholic priests were convicted of child rape and similar
charges. Pierre Pican, President of the Episcopal Committee for Childhood and
Youth and Bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux, was charged by the French
authorities in June 2001 for his part in the concealment of information
regarding various crimes against children.

Father René Bissey was eventually jailed for eighteen years for raping eleven
children in his congregation. Bishop Pican knew about these crimes from
previous parental complaints, but he merely moved Father Bissey to a different
parish.

Catholic Church Child Abuse in the

Republic of Ireland

In Ireland around one hundred and fifty Roman Catholic priests were convicted
of crimes against children. In September 2000, in Ireland, around three
thousand people came forward and reported sexual abuse by Roman Catholic
priests.

The infamous Father Brendan Smyth had consistently molested children over a
thirty five year period. Bishop Brendan Comiskey used the traditional Catholic
Church tool of 'promotion for avoidance' after discovering that one of his
priests, the Reverend Sean Fortune, had been molesting children.

Catholic Church Child Abuse in Belgium

In Belgium, one case of child abuse involved a cardinal, Godfried Daneels,

being brought into court by the Belgian authorities to give evidence against a

245
priest under his jurisdiction. Cardinal Daneels was strongly criticised in court
for not taking the child abuse seriously enough on account of his somewhat
inappropriate attitude and conduct.

André Vander Lijn was jailed for raping ten children in his parish in Brussels.
Cardinal Daneels asked for leniency on account of André Vander Lijn being,
in Daneels' words: "An excellent priest".

Catholic Church Child Abuse in Austria

In Austria, the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Hans Groër, was accused of the
sexual abuse of young novices. Hans Groër was a far-right conservative who
the Pope had appointed and made an archbishop. In 1995, Pope John Paul II
had refused to support an investigation into Groër when Bishop Johan Weber
of Austria requested support for such an investigation by the Vatican. Bishop
Weber was later forced to take early retirement.

Catholic Church Child Abuse in South

America

In Honduras, Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga has been accused of helping a

paedophile priest to evade justice by moving him to a parish in a different
country.

Cardinal Castrillan Hoyos, a Colombian, attended a Vatican news conference

in 2002 where he stated:

"We have never ignored the problem of sexual

abuse...even before it was on the front pages."

246
Cardinal Hoyos would probably have been better off saying nothing at all,
rather than implicating himself and many others by an apparent self-admission
that the Roman Catholic Church knew about the abuse all along, but had
consistently failed to report it to the authorities.

One may wonder why the Roman Catholic Church failed to demonstrate more
cooperation in bringing child-abusing Catholic priests to justice during the
preceding forty years, and why the Roman Catholic Church had indeed been
complicit in covering up child abuse by simply moving abusers from one
parish to another, often to parishes in different countries.

In a characteristic play on words and in customary sly, devious fashion, the

Vatican proceeded to equate paedophilia with homosexuality and then used this
argument as a pretext for their unrelenting attempts to keep homosexuals out of
the priesthood.

The Mexican founder of the Legionaries of Christ, Father Marcial Maciel, had
for many years been accused of sexually abusing boys as young as ten years
old, with accusations dating back to the 1950s. A condition of membership of
the Legionaries of Christ was a 'Vow of Silence'.

Father Maciel's accusers would have had little to gain from lying, especially in
light of the fact that the allegations went back decades before the advent of
America's "compensation culture". In the 1990s, the accusers were in their
sixties. Even at this time they insisted that they were not seeking damages.
They went public by publishing their stories in the United States-based
National Catholic Reporter.

Far from being disciplined or convicted of any wrongdoing, Pope John Paul II
described Father Maciel as "an efficacious guide to youth".

There were still more cases of child abuse in Italy, Austria, Spain, Mexico,

247
Australia, Canada and various African countries.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

In 2002, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger confidently asserted that "less than one per
cent" of priests had been subject to child abuse complaints. It is thought that
the actual figure was closer to four per cent in reality.

In another interview, Cardinal Ratzinger (soon to become Pope Benedict XVI)

stated:

"The art of postponing can prove to be positive, can

permit the situation to become less tense, to ripen and
therefore to clarify itself ."

"Let's Blame Homosexuals"

When he was interviewed, Dr Joaquin Navarro-Valls 1 appeared to be blaming

homosexuals for the child abuse scandals when he reiterated the view of the
Roman Catholic Church with regard to its opposition to gay priests:

"People with these inclinations just cannot be

ordained."

Dr Navarro-Valls implicitly placed homosexuals into the same category as

child molesters.

"Let's Blame the Jews"

A programme entitled "Abused and Catholic" was broadcast on Channel Four

1 Director of the Vatican Press Office from 1984 to 2006

248
in the United Kingdom on 11th January 2003. During the programme,
journalist and Vatican correspondent for CNN John Allen admitted that people
in the Vatican blamed Jews for what they saw as "biased reporting" of child
abuse scandals involving the Roman Catholic Church.

John Allen made it clear that Vatican circles were passing around conspiracy
theories involving a "disproportionately Jewish American Press" being
responsible for printing biased, anti-Catholic stories.

Such conspiracy theories would have been reminiscent of Nazi theories of

Jewish conspiracies and indeed, previous Catholic Church conspiracy theories
that were circulated during the Crusades and during the extensive, global and
savage Roman Catholic Inquisition. Such evidence can be found in earlier
chapters of this narrative.

Despite conspiracy theories blaming Jews, Atheists, Communists, Freemasons,

homosexuals and the many other traditional enemies of the Roman Catholic
Church, the fact remains that almost all of the criminal allegations and lawsuits
have been brought forward by actual Roman Catholics who have been abused
and molested as children, abused and molested by the very priests they and
their families had placed their trust in.

Pope John Paul II and the Nobel Peace

Prize Committee

Supporters of Pope John Paul II waited in constant expectation for their Pope
to receive a Nobel Peace Prize, an expectation which was considered
unwarranted by many. A well-educated member of the Nobel Peace Prize
Committee, a Lutheran Bishop named Gunnar Stallseth, gave his reasons why
he did not think that Pope John Paul II deserved a Nobel Peace Prize:

249
 "I challenge the [Catholic Church] to redefine its
attitude to condoms. The current Roman Catholic
theology is one that favours death rather than life."

Bishop Gunnar Stallseth stated these words on 21st August 2001. Stallseth was
referring to the spreading of AIDS amongst those who consistently neglected to
use contraception. Stallseth's truthful and courageous remarks succinctly sum
up the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church in the twenty first century and
point to a foundation of inhumanity built over a period of more than a
millennium..

Such inhumanity includes the centuries of persecution and oppression during

the Crusades and the Inquisition. Stallseth's one simple statement described an
organisation that has been, and remains to the present day, rotten to the core in
the opinion of many well educated and enlightened people.

A somewhat more enlightened priest in Brazil, Father Valeriano Paitoni,

disobeyed the Roman Catholic Church by making condoms available in Brazil
in an attempt to limit an increase in HIV infections there. His archbishop,
Claudio Hummes of Sao Paulo, subsequently sent Paitoni a letter containing
threats of disciplinary action for not complying with official Catholic Church
policy.

Reports were also arriving at the Vatican with allegations of the rape of nuns
by Roman Catholic priests in Africa. Examples of such reports include one
written by Sister Maura O'Donohue in 1994 and another written by Sister
Marie McDonald. They were from organisations known as 'Medical
Missionaries of Mary' and 'Missionaries of Our Lady of Africa'.

It took almost ten years after the reports were written for the Vatican to
officially acknowledge the sexual abuse of nuns by priests. Several Roman
Catholic groups have criticised their leadership for treating the perpetrators

250
with impunity.

Pope John Paul's 'Love-Hate Relationship'

with George W. Bush

Pope John Paul II and the Roman Catholic Church were bitterly opposed to,
and highly critical of, the United States-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The
Roman Catholic Church was justifiably critical of the torture of prisoners of
war and the atrocities which took place at the Abu Ghraib 1 prison in Baghdad.
However, the Pope and Roman Catholic Church did see eye-to-eye with the
Bush administration on several other issues, including abortion.

Somewhat hypocritically, the Roman Catholic Church did not hesitate to seek
solidarity with the Bush administration when it suited. Pope John Paul II was
also known to have exclaimed "God Bless America" several times, and was
even presented with the Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush. The
Medal of Freedom is America's highest civilian award. Bush presented the
medal to the Pope in June 2004, not long after the Roman Catholic Church's
official opposition to the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq in 2003.

One wonders, perhaps, why the Pope was so quick to later accept a medal from
someone whom he had publicly demonstrated fundamental opposition to,
regarding the invasion of Iraq? Or perhaps it could have been that concurrence
of opinion on abortion was more important to the the Pope and the Roman
Catholic Church than issues relating to warfare or torture?

In the American elections of 2000, George W. Bush, though not a Catholic

himself, found American Catholics to be useful as potential allies. He presented
himself as someone who was in agreement with many Catholic Church

1 Baghdad Central Prison, Iraq

251
policies, although primarily right-wing opinions against gay culture and same-
sex marriages.

Essentially, George W. Bush might be said to have betrayed many of the liberal
values of his Protestant roots by appealing to the homophobic and
undemocratic inclinations of the Roman Catholic Church. In fact, Bush's lack
of diplomatic tact even led him on one occasion to use the word "Crusade" in
reference to his "War on Terror".

During his reign, Pope John Paul II visited some Eastern Orthodox Christian
countries, including Greece and the Ukraine. It was an attempt to improve
relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Christian
churches of Europe.

Far from being given a hero's welcome, the Pope's visit was greeted by mass
demonstrations in Athens, Kiev and Moscow. The demonstrations and anger by
the people of these countries can be attributed to the many previous centuries
of brutality and oppression which had characterised the suffering of Orthodox
Christians at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church. Such suffering has been
described in earlier chapters of this narrative, principally on the Crusades, the
Inquisition and the Counter-Reformation.

Pope Benedict XVI

Joseph Ratzinger was born on 16th April 1927 near Munich, Bavaria,
Germany. He became Archbishop of Munich in 1977. A few years later he was
appointed Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the modern
name for the Holy Office of the Inquisition.

As leader of the modern incarnation of the Roman Catholic Inquisition,

Cardinal Ratzinger was instrumental in keeping with Catholic Church policy

252
regarding abortion, contraception, ordination of women into the priesthood and
homosexuality.

Cardinal Ratzinger resisted pressure to endorse equal rights for homosexuals.

In 1992, he publicly defended discrimination against homosexuals when he
stated the following:

"There are areas in which it is not unjust discrimination

to take sexual orientation into account, for example, in
employment of teachers or coaches, and in military
recruitment."

He went on to state that making it illegal to discriminate against homosexuals

could easily lead "to the legislative protection of homosexuality", which
Cardinal Ratzinger was evidently strongly opposed to.

In May 1999, Cardinal Ratzinger tried to force more liberal Catholic Church
leaders in America to sign a document containing an affirmation that
homosexual acts "are always objectively evil". Afterwards, Ratzinger banned
them from giving ministry to homosexuals and lesbians.

Cardinal Ratzinger and Child Abuse

There is considerable evidence that when Pope Benedict XVI was a cardinal,
he aided and abetted the concealment of child abuse by priests of the Roman
Catholic Church and also discouraged victims from coming forward.

A BBC Panorama programme in the United Kingdom entitled "Sex Crimes and
the Vatican"1 was broadcast on 1st October 2006 on BBC1. Included on the
programme was an interview with Father Tom Doyle, a former Vatican Canon

1 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/

253
lawyer. Evidence was shown that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger enforced a policy
of secrecy over a twenty year period with regard to cases of suspected child
abuse occurring within the Roman Catholic Church.

The directive imposed and enforced by Cardinal Ratzinger was that all
allegations of child abuse were to be reported only to the Vatican for
investigation. In most cases Cardinal Ratzinger and the other cardinals and
high-ranking officials within the Catholic Church did absolutely nothing about
the majority of the cases, and as a result, the majority were not investigated by
the local police forces until many years after the Vatican had been made aware
of the allegations.

Cardinal Ratzinger's Vatican directive, according to evidence discovered by the

BBC Panorama programme and evidence from the BBC interview with former
Vatican lawyer Tom Doyle, even included provision for punishing the actual
victims of the child abuse.

The victims themselves could be punished because they were forbidden by the
Roman Catholic Church from exposing what had happened to them to persons
outside the Catholic Church, which by implication included the police.
Punishment could include excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church
or other similar disciplinary measures.

Other factual television programmes broadcast in the United Kingdom in

recent years have presented incontrovertible evidence that Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger knew about the secret policy of moving suspected paedophile priests
from one parish to another, in effect aiding and abetting crimes against
children.

254
Chapter 11: The Massacre of Children & Babies
in Ireland

A recent 2017 article from the Guardian Newspaper 1 is a modern example of

an atrocity committed by a group affiliated to the Roman Catholic Church in
Ireland, a country with a history of unwavering adherence and obedience to the
Roman Catholic Church and Vatican.

This 2017 article by the Guardian Newspaper relates to the discovery of a mass
grave of 800 children & babies at a Catholic home in Tuam, Republic of
Ireland. The home was run by a religious order of (Catholic) nuns known as
"The Bon Secours Sisters".

There is a great deal of evidence that these atrocities happened as recently as

the 1950s. It seems therefore that even lessons from the crimes against
humanity perpetrated by the NAZIs had not been learnt with regard to this
particular Catholic "Care" home.

As if the fact that it happened as recently as the 1950s is not shocking enough,
it seems fairly obvious that atrocities at such scale could not occur without
knowledge at the highest echelons of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland
and in Vatican City in Italy.

The local authorities may also have been complicit in the atrocity since they
refused access to records relating to the home when requested by a historian.

1 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/03/mass-grave-of-babies-
and-children-found-at-tuam-orphanage-in-ireland

255
Chapter 12: The Links Between the Catholic
Church and the Mafia

Over the course of the past century, many have suspected links between the
Catholic Church, whose seat of power is Vatican City in Italy, and the Mafia.
Any evidence relating to this was evidently very carefully concealed by those
with a vested interest in doing so. Of course, money would have had a large
influence in that particular arena.

It is common knowledge that the Mafia, including the Italian Mafia, have
carried out the torture and murder of not only innocent adults but even
children. The Mafia murder entire families.

It might therefore have come as a surprise to many for the Roman Catholic
Church to suddenly admit and confess to having had links to the Mafia, the
Mafia being one of the most diabolical organised (i.e. pre-meditated,
characterised by careful and precise planning) crime organisations in human
history.

But here is the evidence, in the form of one news article after another after
another:

https://www.economist.com/erasmus/2017/12/15/the-italian-church-is-
dissolving-its-links-to-the-mob

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/catholic-church-gives-the-last-rites-to-its-
mafia-links-f3d27zh5d

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/22/weekinreview/the-basics-church-mafia-
why-the-link.html

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vatican-Exposed-Money-Murder-Mafia/dp/

256
1591020654

The list goes on and on; the evidence is almost endless. The author would
challenge the reader to try a few GoogleTM searches on "Catholic Church" and
"Mafia" and simply prepare to be baffled at the seemingly endless mountain of
evidence!

A defamation conspiracy against the ultra-rich Catholic Church from those

jealous of its vast fortunes perhaps? Not very likely, at least not when looked at
in the context of the previous thousand years of atrocities, crimes against
humanity and war crimes against innocent people perpetrated by the Roman
Catholic Church, and illustrated in minute detail within the preceding chapters
of this book.

Obviously, since the Catholic Church has kindly offered to "dissolve its links to
the Mafia", one might ponder why an organisation would in effect admit to
having had those links in the first place? Well, the reason becomes blatant after
a short consideration of modern human psychology: Confidence, or perhaps
more accurately: Arrogance.

Having admitted to having had links to the Mafia in the past, and offering to
dissolve those links, and thereby - indirectly and by association - admitting to
having been complicit in the murders and torture committed by the Mafia in
the past, the only explanation is a level of confidence taken to its pathological
extreme of arrogance and narcissism.

Such arrogance and narcissm has an underlying basis, a foundation, and that
foundation is "money", and indeed in vast quantities no less!

[http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,833509,00.html]

When the total wealth of the Roman Catholic Church throughout the world is
considered, not just Vatican City but the entire wealth of the Catholic Church

257
globally, it is easy to see that it is the richest religious organisation on Earth.

Indeed, the Australian Catholic Church alone is worth 30 billion U.S. dollars
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wealthiest_organizations].

An organisation with this much money can get away with almost anything, and
indeed it does.

"Money talks" as the old saying goes. Hence, if such an organisation as the
Catholic Church admits to having had links with an organisation like the
Mafia, many people - not least its own members - are much more likely to say
"many thanks for dissolving your links to torturers and child-murders!" as
opposed to demanding justice.

258
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"A Brief History of the Crusades", Geoffrey Hindley, Constable and
Robinson, 2003

"Adolf Hitler”, John Toland Double & Company, 1976

"Benedict XVI", Ruport Shortt, Hodder & Stoughton, 2005

"Benito Mussolini", Christopher Hibbert, Longmans Green and Co. Ltd,

1962

"Doctor Goebbels”, Roger Manvell & Heinrich Fraenkel, Heinemann, 1960

"Fallen Order”, Karen Liebreich Atlantic Books, 2004

"Franco and Hitler", Stanley G. Payne, Yale University Press, 2008

"Franco", Paul Preston, Harper Collins Publishers, 1993

"Franco", Gabrielle Ashford Hodges, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000

"Galileo and the Freedom of Thought”, F Sherwood Taylor, Watts & Co.,
1938

"Galileo”, Colin A. Ronan, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1974

"Galileo”, James Brodrick S.J., Geoffrey Chapman, 1964

"Goebbles”, Helmut Heiber (Translated by John K. Dickinson), Robert Hale

& Company 1972

"Heresy, Magic and Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe", Gary K. Waite,

Palgrave Macmillan, 2003

259
"Heydrich”, Günther Deschner, Orbis Publishing, 1981

"Himmer”, Peter Padfield, Macmillan, 1990

"Himmler”, Alan Wykes, Pan/Ballantine, 1972

"History of the World", J M Roberts, Helicon Publishing Ltd, 1993

"Hitler's Pope", John Cornwell, Penguin Group, 2008

"Hitler”, Alan Bullock Odhams Books Ltd 1964

"Inquisition", Toby Green, Macmillan, 2007

"Italy Under Mussolini", Christopher Leeds, Wayland Publishers, 1972

"Life in France Under Loius XIV”, John Laurence Carr, B T Batsford Ltd,
1966

"Loius XIV and his World”, Ragnhild Hatton, Thames and Hudson, 1972

"Loius XIV”, Peter Robert Campbell, Longman Group, 1993

"Loius XIV”, François Bluche, Basil Blackwell, 1984

"Magda Goebbels”, Anja Klabunde, Little, Brown, 1999

"Mirari Vos" Pope Gregory XVI Papal Encyclical 1832

"Mussolini and Fascism", Patricia Knight, Routledge, 2003

"Mussolini and the Rise of Fascism", Donald Sassoon,

HarperCollinsPublishers, 2007

"Mussolini, An Intimate Life", Paolo Monelli, Thames and Hudson, 1953

"mussolini's italy", David Evans, Hodder Education, 2005

260
"Mussolini", R. J. B. Bosworth, Arnold Publishers, 2002

"Mussolini", Peter Neville, Routledge, 2004

"Mussolini", Derrick Murphy, HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd, 2005

"Mussolini", Denis Mack Smith, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981

"Praestantia Scripturae (On the Bible Against the Modernists)", Pope Pius X,
Papal Encyclical 1907

"The Atlas of the Crusades", Jonathan Riley-Smith, Swanston Publishing Ltd,

1990

"The Counter Reformation", A.G. Dickens, Thames and Hudson, 1968

"The Counter-Reformation 1550 - 1600", B.J.Kidd, Greenwood Press, 1980

"The Counter-Reformation", A.D. Wright, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1982

"The Early Goebbels Diaries”, Joseph Goebbels (Edited by Helmut Heiber),

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1962

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Lochner), Hamish Hamilton, 1948

"The History of the Popes Vol 21”, Ludwig Pastor (Edited by Ralph Francis
Kew), Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1952

"The Hitler Myth”, Ian Kershaw, Oxford University Press, 1987

"The Inquisition of the Middle Ages", Henry Charles Lea, Eyre &
Spottiswoode Ltd, 1963

"The Inquisitor's Guide", Bernard Gui (Translated and Edited by Janet

Shirley), Ravenhall Books, 2006

261
"The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler”, Robert Payne, Jonathan Cape, 1973

"The Life and Times of Reinhard Heydrich”, G. S. Graber, Robert Hale, 1980

"The Oath Against Modernism", Pope Pius X, Papal Encyclical 1910

"The Pope in Winter", John Cornwell, Penguin Group, 2004

"The Spanish Inquisition", Jean Plaidy, Robert Hale Ltd, 1978

"The Thirty Years War 1618 – 1648”, G. Pages, Adam & Charles Black, 1970

"The Thirty Years' War”, Edited by Geoffrey Parker, Routledge, 1997

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[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/03/mass-grave-of-babies-and-
children-found-at-tuam-orphanage-in-ireland]

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Papamoa Press, 2017 (Based on work first published in 1962)

"The Vatican Exposed: Money, Murder and the Mafia" , Paul L. Williams,
Prometheus Books, 2003

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wealthiest_organizations]

[http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,833509,00.html]

262
Appendix: Timeline

Pope Real Name From Fro To To

Month m Mont Year
Yea h
r

Innocent VIII Giambattista Cibo 8 1484 7 1492

Alexander VI Rodrigo Borgia 8 1492 8 1503

Pius III Francesco Todeschini- 9 1503 10 1503

Piccolomini

Julius II Giuliano della Rovere 11 1503 2 1513

Leo X Giovanni de Medici 3 1513 12 1521

Adrian VI Adrian Dedel 1 1522 9 1523

Clement VII Giulio de Medici 11 1523 9 1534

Paul III Alessandro Farnese 10 1534 11 1549

Julius III Giovanni Maria 2 1550 3 1555

Ciocchi del Monte

Marcellus II Marcello Cervini 4 1555 4 1555

Paul IV Gian Pietro Caraffa 5 1555 8 1559

Pius IV Giovanni Angelo 12 1559 12 1565

Medici

263
Pope Real Name From Fro To To
Month m Mont Year
Yea h
r

Pius V Michele Ghislieri 1 1566 5 1572

Gregory XIII Ugo Buoncompagni 5 1572 4 1585

Sixtus V Felice Peretti 4 1585 8 1590

Urban VII Giambattista Castagna 9 1590 9 1590

Gregory XIV Niccolo Sfondrati 12 1590 10 1591

Innocent IX Giovanni Antonio 10 1591 12 1591

Facchinetti

Clement VIII Ippolito Aldobrandini 1 1592 3 1605

Leo XI Alessandro Ottaviano 4 1605 4 1605

de Medici

Paul V Camillo Borghese 5 1605 1 1621

Gregory XV Alessandro Ludovisi 2 1621 7 1623

Urban VIII Maffeo Barberini 8 1623 7 1644

Innocent X Giovanni Battista 9 1644 1 1655

Pamphilj

Gregory XVI Bartolomeo Alberto 2 1831 6 1846

Cappellari

264
Pope Real Name From Fro To To
Month m Mont Year
Yea h
r

Pius IX Giovanni Maria 6 1846 2 1878

Mastai-Ferretti

Pius X Giuseppe Melchiorre 8 1903 8 1914

Sarto

Pius XI Achille Ratti 2 1922 2 1939

Pius XII Eugenio Pacelli 3 1939 8 1958

John Paul II Karol Wojtyla 10 1978 4 2005

Benedict XVI Joseph Ratzinger 4 2005

265
This book has been written for the purpose of describing and showing evidence
of crimes against humanity, committed over a period of more than a thousand
years, by leaders and high-ranking officials of the Roman Catholic Church.
The events described will show how the Roman Catholic Church has escaped
justice time and again for the atrocities that have been committed by its leaders
over the centuries. Evidence has been taken from a bibliography of 55 books,
all of them written by reputable historians.