17 Over the Papacy

17 Over the Papacy

And so Pope Watch 2013 comes to an end with the Cardinal formally known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Francis I, claiming the prize. To say that the Vatican is experiencing interesting times as Francis I begins his papacy would be an understatement. His predecessor, Benedict XVI, became the first Pope to resign from the office in almost 600 years and only the fifth in the past thousand. In the weeks following Benedict's resignation rumors began to spread that it was being driven by the results of an investigation into the so-called "Vatileaks" scandal. Among other things, this investigation apparently turned up evidence that there was a so-called "gay faction"within the Vatican. Apparently the contents of the report were so sensitive that only Benedict XVI and his successor, now Francis I, will be the only ones ever allowed to read it.

Pope Benedicy XVI

And of course there is the ongoing child sex scandal, which continues to rock the Vatican, even making headlines as the Cardinals were diligently to pick a successor to Benedict XVI. On Tuesday, March 12, MSNBC (among others) reported that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles had agreed to pay out $10 million in child sex abuse settlements. At the time the announcement was made Cardinal Roger Mahony, the head of the Los Angeles Archdiocese during the time of the scandal, was in Rome helping select the next pope.

Roger Mahony

Then there are those rumors that this will be the final Pope. While Francis' name (either one) thus far displays no parallels to the infamous Peter of Rome that the equally infamous "Prophecy of the Popes" of Saint Malachy foresaw as the final Pope there are any number of other curiosities surrounding the current occupant of the Chair of St. Peter. Inevitably the alternative media will be buzzing about the fact that Francis I is the first Pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus, better known as the Jesuits, an organization that has inspired countless conspiracy theories over the years.

the logo of the Jesuits

The Order's founder, Ignatius of Loyola, was said to be a member of the esoteric order known as the Alumbrados ("illuminated") before founding the Society of Jesus, though there is no conclusive evidence of this. Supposedly the Alumbrados were a predecessor (or the Spanish incarnation of a millenniums old organization) to the infamous Bavarian Illuminati (whose founder Adam Weishaupt was educated at, and later taught for, a Jesuit university).

"...Adam Weishaupt had derived his concept of hierarchical organization in pursuit of a global mission directly from the Jesuits, and... descibed the Illuminist program as one using Jesuit methods to combat Jesuit objectives, a 'counter-conspiracy of progressive, enligtened forces.' Subsequence Illuminist propaganda contended that there was a secret Jesuit conspiracy, and that the nominally abolished order had established underground links between the Bavarian Je and Berlin Rosicrucians. As the conspiracy mania grew, Weishaupt himself was accused of being a secret Jesuit."
(Fire in the Minds of Men, James H. Billington, pg. 118)

Adam Weishaupt,the founder of the Bavarian Illuminati

This is of course only scratching the surface as far as Jesuits conspiracy theories go. Consider:

"... The saintly Ignatius was not telling his priest to put a sword to everyone who crossed them or to initiate a great worldwide conspiracy to conquer and control the planet. However, since the time of the Counter-Reformation, beginning when Pope Pius IV sat on the Vatican throne of the papacy in 1560 extending to the close of the Thirty Years' War in 1648, the Jesuits have been the villains in countless conspiracy theories. The following list touches on only a few of the most notable:

• The great overriding goal of the Jesuit conspiracy is to set up a One World Government by controlling the Roman Catholic hierarchy, the pope, and the governing bodies of the nations in the world.
•  Jesuits authorized that classic of anti-Semiticism, The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, in order to stir up hatred of the Jews. The Jesuits had been expelled from Germany in 1872 and from France in 1880. They believed the Jews to be responsible for their loss of power in those European nations, so they began to implement a program of anti-Semiticism as a means of revenge.
• Jesuits engineer the Dreyfus affair in France in 1894 in an attempt to ignite a war between France and Germany. Alfred Dreyfus, a French army officer, was falsely accused of handing secrets over to the German government, but he was set up by the Jesuits, found guilty, and sent to Devil's Island for ten years. The controversy over the case split French society in two.
•  Jesuts sabotaged and oversaw the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 in order to remove a number of wealthy Jews from power. Among those on board the 'unsinkable' vessel were John Jacob Astor, considered at the time the wealthiest man in the world; Benjamin Guggenheim, of M. Guggenheim and Sons; Isidor Strauss, one of the founders of Macy's.
•  Jesuits assigned one of their number, Bernhardt Staempfle to tutor Adolf Hitler and to guide the future Fuhrer in the writing of Mein Kampf.
•  The Jesuit order served as the inspiration for Hitler and Himmler in their structure of the SS.
• Jesuits cooperated fully with the Nazis in handing over Jews. Especially with the Vichy government in France in 1942, the Jesuits helped round out the Jews for shipment to Auschwitz.
•  Jesuits control the Federal Reserve Bank and use its wealth to accomplish secret missions for the Vatican.
• Jesuits established Zionist Israel through their control of the Masonic Jewish Zionists.
•  Jesuits secretly funnel money to anti-Semitic right-wing militia groups, as well as to the Ku Klux Klan and the Black Muslims.
• Jesuits within the CIA, FBI, Secret Service, and Mafia assassinated America's first Roman Catholic president, John F. Kennedy, because he defied the pope, the Universal Monarch of the World .
•  Jesuits established the network that destroyed the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center and attacked the Pentagon in order to provide justification for the crusade against Muslims."

(Conspiracies and Secret Societies, Brad & Sherry Steiger, pgs. 227-228)

Ignatius of Loyola

Needless to say, there is much overlap between conspiracies revolving around the Jesuits and those concerning the Masons, the Communist, the Illuminati, and other long time targets of the conspiratorial right. As stated above, I expect the alternative media to be in a fever over Francis I's membership in the Jesuits, especially since putting a member of the Society of Jesus on the Vatican throne is apparently essential to their plans for world domination.

Francis I is the first non-European pope since the eighth century. He is, however, an Argentinian, which means he likely continues the recent Papal tradition of associating with the Nazis. His predecessor, Benedict XVI, was a member of the Hitler Youth. It is long been alleged that John Paul II worked for I.G. Farben, though I've found nothing to collaborate this (though some of the allegations are compelling). Pope Paul VI, before ascending to the Chair of Saint Peter, was instrumental in creating the postwar ratlines that saved countless Nazis and fellow travelers from standing trial for war crimes while Pope Pius XII played a significant role in legitimizing Hitler's reign. Argentina was one of the chief destinations for the postwar Fascist International. While I have found nothing thus far to establish links between Francis I  and said community he certainly would've come of age in the South American country at the time when the Fascist exile community was prominent and even politically active.

Pope Benedict XVI as a Hitler Youth (top) while Pope Pius XII meets the Fuhrer himself (bottom)

Even more interesting is the numerology surrounding Francis I and his ascension to the Papacy. He was selected by a counsel of Cardinals on March 13, 2013. While there is nothing significant about this date in and of itself it does featured appearance of the number thirteen twice. Thirteen is of course a number with any number of curious associations.

"From Classical antiquity, the number thirteen has been regarded as unlucky. During a procession, Philip of Macedon set his own statue among those of the twelve great Olympian gods and was assassinated shortly afterwards in the theatre.

"Thirteen persons, Christ and his apostles, celebrated the Last Supper. The Kabbalah lists thirteen spirits of evil. The thirteenth chapter of the Book of Revelations is that describing Anti Christ and the Beast.

"And yet, in Classical antiquity, the thirteenth member of a group was regarded as the most powerful and the most exalted. Such is true of Zeus among the twelve Olympians, among whom he sits or whom he leads, making a thirteenth who, according to Plato and to Ovid, is distinguished by his higher standing from the rest. Odysseus was the thirteenth member of his crew and escaped being eaten by the Cyclops...

"The thirteenth major arcanum of the Tarot, Death, does not mean an end, but a fresh start after the completion of the cycle - 13 equals 12+1 - and to this, generally speaking, the number would correspond. It does, however, carry with it the pejorative hint of being less a completely fresh birth than starting the same thing all over again. It would, for example, stand for Sisyphus' unceasing efforts to roll the rock to the top of the hill or the cask which the Danaids could never fill to the brim."
(Dictionary of Symbols, Jean Chevalier & Alain Gheerbrant, pgs. 988-989)

Possibly the strangest numerical association is the date of December 17. It is the date of Francis' birthday (as well as mine), in 1936 specifically. Reportedly 76 years later to the date (which also marked Francis' 76th birthday) Pope Benedict XVI received the conclusions of the "Vatileaks" report and chose to resign on the same day. In ancient times December 17 marked the beginning of the Roman festival of Saturnalia, from which much of our modern-day Christmas celebration derives. Of it the legendary mythologist James Frazer wrote:

"... many peoples have been used to observe an annual period of license, when the customary restraints of law and morality are thrown aside, when the whole population give themselves up to extravagant mirth and jollity, and when the darker passions find a vent which would never be allowed them in the more staid and sober course of ordinary life. Such outbursts of the pent-up forces of human nature... occur most commonly at the end of the year... Now, of all these periods of license the one which is best known and which in modern language has given its name to the rest, is the Saturnalia. This famous festival fell in December, the last month of the Roman year, and was popularly supposed to commemorate the merry reign of Saturn, the god of sowing and of husbandry, who lived on earth long ago as a righteous and beneficent king of Italy, drew the rude and scattered dwellers on the mountains together, taught them to till the ground, gave them laws, and ruled in peace. His reign was the fabled Golden Age: the earth brought forth abundantly: no sound of war or discord troubled the happy world: no baleful love of lucre worked poison in the blood of the industrious and contented peasantry. Slavery and private property were alike unknown: all men had all things in common."
(The Golden Bough, pg. 630)

Saturnalia

Much more information on the significance of December 17 (as well as the number 17 itself) can be found here. And with that I shall wrap things up. I daresay many more revelations concerning the ascension of Francis I to the Vatican's throne will be forthcoming in the days to follow.