Thoughts on Hos' Three Part Post – Gangster's Lover, Bishop's Mistress

After reading the entire article, posted in 3 parts recently, which indicated that Ms. Minardi was under the influence of drugs at times, I realized that more research was in order to determine how true her observations were likely to have been. In addition to the details described in the article, this story definitely has other tentacles and serious implications.

One of the weightiest is the story of  Propaganda Due (P2).  This organization was originally a valid Masonic organization, but then was made illegal in Italy. It was strongly anti Communist, and given Pope John Paul II's activities in support of Lech Walesa leading to the destruction of the Berlin Wall, the link to Mafia money and related events is especially problematic. P2 also had branches in other countries included Argentina during the terrible period of repression and disappearances.

I came upon other questions that also beg for details and answers. For example: Why was Archibishop Marcinkus (from Chicago) wandering the Vatican halls the night John Paul I died suddenly? Besides using Mafia money to finance Lech Walesa and Solidarity in Poland was the Vatican also involved in the Iran/Contra affair? Ms. Minardi swears she saw the body of Emanuala Orlandi who was kidnapped to pressure the Vatican to return Mafia money from the failing Banco Ambrosiano. So, why does Ali Agca, the Turk who tried to assassinate John Paul II (and later forgiven by him), insist she is alive and he knows where she is? While the article relates that Roberto Calvi, who presided over the Banco Ambrosiano, was hung from the Blackfriars Bridge in London, it doesn't mention that his secretary died from exiting his office window—suicide or murder? And, finally, what did recently indicted Silvio Berlusconi, current Prime Minister of Italy, have to do with the P2 “masonic conspiracy”?

Perhaps this very large story will inspire others to research and post more about this topic which has so many implications even for the present day. If ever a case could be made that religiosity does not lead to ethics and morality, this story does that. In sum, if this has been the nature of the leadership, how can we be surprised by lascivious behavior by various parish priests.

For those who wish to explore further, here is a list names, organizations, and events, plus others already mentioned in Hos's posts that seem worthy of further research:

Banco Ambrosiano – conduit for Mafia investing in the IOR (Institute for religious Works), and still

under investigation

Propaganda Due (P2) – Illegal Masonic group linked with various people here, how and why?

Roberto Calvi – head of Banco Ambrosiano, assassinated

Enrico de Pedis (Renatino) – Mafia chief (Rome), buried in an important church, why?

Banda de Magliana – Rome Mafia organization

Archbishop Paul Marcinkus – bon vivant and womanizer, up to his eyeballs in everything

Michele Sindona – Mafia banker, poisoned in prison

Pippo Calo – Sicilian Mafia representative of Cosa Nostra in Rome

Emanuela Orlandi – 15 year old kidnap/murder? Victim

Raffaela Notariale – journalist/author the Minardi story and a book on the Banda de Magliana

Giancarlo de Cataldo – judge and writer about Roman criminals and scandals of this period

Last, but not least, Silvio Berlusconi, Italian Prime Minister, currently in court for a sex crime accusation

Posted for Leah Williams

Gangster's Lover, Bishop's Mistress Part III

(from elpais.com),  This is the final part of translated article.

Roberto Calvi (called God's Banker)

She continues: "One day Renatino came to eat at Pippo l'Abruzzese restaurant. He was accompanied by Sergio, the chauffeur, and they were carrying two bags. "This way we will make all the evidence disappear", they said". In one bag was Orlandi's body, she maintains, and in the other, "the body of an 11 year old boy who they killed on account of a vendetta. He was Domenico Nicitra, son of another gang member".

According to Minardi, this activity had one motive: to pressure the Vatican to return the mafia money invested in the IWR through the Ambrosiano Bank. The name Marcinkus became forever tied to the secret [illegal] Masonic Lodge, Propaganda Due (P2) and the financial scandals of those days like the crash of the Ambrosiano Bank. The Archbishop had solid relationships with figures like Michele Sindona, banker to the mafia, and Licio Gelli, master of the P2. "Renatino had a positive view of Masonry. And he knew Gelli", Minardi explains. "He was part of the secret membership list that was never discovered. He always said that being a Mason opens up a thousand new paths, not just for money, but because Masonic members would never be disgraced".

"Very likely", writes Notariale, "Renatino intervened in the negotiations opened between Vatican chiefs and the Cosa Nostra [Sicilian Mafia], to return the money the mafia had delivered to the Ambrosiano Bank through Calvi". She concludes, "it is certain” that he did this favor. “Otherwise, there is no explaning the treatment they gave him, burying him in St. Apollinaire". According to the journalist, the decision was made by the head of the Conference of Catholic Bishops: his Eminence Ugo Poletti.

But let’s go back to the happy time of the Minardi-Renatino love affair: "He showered me with a thousand gifts; Louis Vuitton suitcases full of 100,000 Lira bank notes, and would tell me: "spend it all; if you come home with money I won’t open the door."

Their romance lasted two years; Minardi thought Renatino was what he said he was, owner of a supermarket. This was partly true: he had invested drug traffic profits in various businesses. Reading the papers, Minardi found out that he was a boss of the feared Magliana Gang. She began to put two and two together, and she panicked. During those two years of cocaine and danger, she had seen many things, too many. "One day some thugs tried to kidnap my daughter Valentina, and Renatino told me: "If you forget everything you've seen, nothing will happen to her."

De Pedis would hug and kiss Pippo Calò, the notorious Sicilian gangster and representative of the Cosa Nostra in Rome; hung out with wheeler-dealer Flavio Carboni (who is now today in prison for Masonic conspiracy on behalf of [Italian prime minister] Silvio Berlusconi), had meetings with Archbishop Marcinkus and Calvi, and gave orders to judges who always managed to exonerate him…In reality, Renatino gave the appearance of a businessman, but he had been a criminal since his youth. Prophetically, soccer star Giordano, who would later play Maradona in Naples, warned Minardi never to let De Pedis hold her daughter in his arms: "If there is a shooting one day, she will get killed too. In the end, all bosses end up the same, face down on the sidewalk".

Indeed, seven thugs machine gunned Renatino on Via del Pellegrino, close to Campo dei Fiori, on February 2, 1990. He was 36. That day, Sabrina Minardi was with him, shopping in the neighborhood. She heard the gunfire from a notions store. Then, the bandit was buried in the Verano Cemetery and later, secretly moved to the Vatican basilica. Recently, the Holy See offered to the prosecutors the possibility of opening his tomb. For now, the latter have ignored the invitation.

[Final thought from Hos: I do not believe everything Sabrina Minardi says. A lot of it may be baseless conspiracy theories. On the other hand, if there is a grain of truth to her story (particularly regarding the kidnapping case), I think it does deserve attention.]

Posted for Hos