UNTIED STATES
Daily Kos
by Betty Clermont
Two and a half years after Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglioâs elevation as head of the Church, the dust has settled. He has packed the Vatican with vulture capitalists and those who support them. Three cardinals have emerged as the most powerful in this papacy; all have close ties to Opus Dei. Two now control Vatican finance.
Except for its clergy, Opus Dei is a secret society of global financiers, bankers, businessmen, politicians and their supporters. Still the most exhaustively researched book written about “The Work” as it is referred to by its members, Their Kingdom Come (1997, 2006) by Robert Hutchison, a Canadian financial journalist, traces the growth of Opus Dei financial power “by all available means” – deception, dirty tricks, even “physical muscle.” “What gives Opus Dei its importance is the influence it wields and also that it deploys its immense financial resources. Opus Dei knows very well that money rules the world,” Javier Sainz Moreno, professor of Law at Madrid University, told Hutchison. One of their goals was to control the Vatican’s wealth, now closer than ever to being realized.
Investigative journalist, Martin A. Lee, wrote in 1983: “Opus Dei has emerged internationally as one of the most powerful and politically committed of the Catholic lay groups. Detractors have likened the organization to a ‘saintly Mafia’ for its members control a large number of banks and financial institutions … The tentacles of Octopus Dei, as it is sometimes called, stretch all the way to the U.S. … Opus Dei powerbrokers have gained enormous influence inside the Vatican since they helped install the current pope.” (i.e Pope John Paul II)
The first action Bergoglio took as pope was to name a Council of Cardinals.
Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, named coordinator of the group, has become “virtually a vice pope.” Rodriguez is “the leader of Opus Dei” in Honduras which “participated actively in the 2009 coup against the constitutional [and progressive] president, Manuel Zelaya … Active members of this clan are making intromissions in Honduran national politics.”
Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa “forged ties with then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio on the Latin American Episcopal Council in the decade before the Buenos Aires, Argentina, prelate became pope … When Pinochet was arrested in London in 1998, on orders of a magistrate judge in Madrid investigating atrocities against Spanish citizens during the Chilean dictatorship, Errazuriz denounced the move. He later criticized human rights lawsuits in Chile against Pinochet and other officials of the former regime, saying, ‘Excessive justice could be detrimental to reconciliation and social peace.’” Errazuriz linked Chile’s economic success with reforms carried out during former General Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973 -1990). Martin A. Lee noted the close ties between Opus Dei and the Pinochet regime. …
The pope later appointed Pell as “tsar” over Vatican finance. (Murdoch tweeted: “Pope Francis appoints brilliant Cardinal Pell from Sydney to be no.3 power in Vatican. Australia will miss him but world will benefit.”)
Pell’s only previous financial expertise was cheating clerical sex abuse victims out of an adequate compensation known as his “Melbourne response” and “Ellis defense” where Pell “instructed his lawyers to crush this victim.” Pell brought his Sydney business manager, Danny Casey, “who is known to have close ties to Opus Dei,” to the Vatican.
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