The passing of Pope John Paul II on April 2, 2005, marked a significant transition in the Catholic Church, but it also stirred curiosity about an ancient prophecy linked to the end of the papacy. With the traditional Rite of Extreme Unction, his death was solemnly acknowledged by the Vatican chamberlain, and Pope Benedict XVI...
The French historian Raimonde Reznikov’s book ‘Cathares et Templiers’ can be something of a scholar’s antidote to the wilder extremes of conspiracy mongering. As reported by Reznikov, besides the evident link that Templars and Cathars were suppressed by shared conspiracy between state and church, the solely genuine sympathetic link originated from the imaginations of eighteenth-century...
The death of Pope John Paul I, Conspiracy or not? Even in Italy, land of the conspiracy, no plot comes more entangled than the death of Pope John Paul I. When white smoke puffed above the Vatican on 26 August 1978 to signal the election of Albino Luciani to the papacy no one was more...
On 18 June 1982 the body of Roberto Calvi was found swinging on a length of orange nylon rope beneath Blackfriars Bridge, London. He had £10,000 worth of sterling, Italian lire and Swiss francs in his wallet and his trousers were stuffed with bricks and stones from a nearby building site. The British coroner recorded...