The Sins of Babylon
By Pastor Hal Mayer
Dear Friends,
Welcome to Keep the Faith Ministry. Thank you for joining me today as we explore an area of prophecy that few people are willing to discuss. We are living in the last days and everything that the Bible describes is coming to pass. There are so many aspects of fulfilling prophecy that it is very hard to keep up with them all. My research projects are mounting up and I sometimes have a hard time to choose which ones to present. But the Lord always seems to point me in the right direction.
Recently, public news sources have been carrying a lot of stories about something going on in the Vatican. The secret world of the frescoed palace of the world’s most famous sovereign has been exposed through a series of events that are directly related to Bible prophecy. They reveal shocking irregularity, secrets unknown to most common people, but which are as real as anything you can touch and feel. Only the elites and insiders know the depth of the criminal behavior of one of the most secretive institutions in the world. Today, we are going to examine a passage of scripture that is often neglected by preachers and religious teachers because its details pointedly condemns one of the most respected institutions on the planet, the Vatican.
Before we go any further however, let us bow our heads and ask God to bless our revealing prophetic study. Our Father in heaven, as we open Your word today, we realize that we are treading on sensitive subjects. Most people don’t want to think about what we are going to study today, let alone preach these things publically. Yet we realize that before Jesus comes again we must reveal the truth concerning the great apostate church and call your people out of it. We pray that you will send Your holy angels and Holy Spirit to protect and guide us, as we examine how the Vatican fulfills Bible prophecy today. And we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Turn with me in your Bibles to the 18th chapter of Revelation, verses 1-5. As we read these verses, please consider the description of Babylon. “And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.”
These verses tell us very clearly that mystery Babylon is a wicked place. Babylon is the term the Bible uses to describe the false religion that is going to take over the world and is presently working with kings of the earth and the moneymen or “merchants of the earth,” as the Bible calls them, to increase her power. There is only one religion or church that has the global political clout and financial power to rule the world.
But this church is a corrupted church, a wicked church. It is so bad, in fact, that the Bible says that God’s children in her are to come out of her if they are going to be saved and not be included in her punishment. Obviously God has people in this wicked church, or He would not call them out. They are blinded by her teachings and her traditions. But they are serving God as best they know how. They are seeking to do His will, at least as far as they understand it. They pray the rosary, light candles, and go to mass; they pay penance, genuflect and say “hail Mary” as often as they are told to do so. That is all they know. God knows who they are, and He loves them and will send His Holy Spirit to them and convict them of their danger and call them out of their false worship through their neighbors, friends or business associates to join His true people who worship Him in spirit and in truth and who will live by all His commandments. He will work through faithful souls to bring them the light. Make friends with your neighbors. Learn their spiritual condition and look for ways to bring them to the light.
There is another identifying mark of this corrupted church. It is found in verse nine though eleven. “And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more…”
This great spiritual Babylon is going to be punished, and when she is, the kings of the earth and the merchants of the earth will distance themselves from her because they don’t want her punishments even though they have been benefiting by their illicit relationship with her. Note that spiritual Babylon is also a city. It is a mighty city because it wields a lot of power, geo-political power. And it involves a lot of money, or economic power too. This church, this mystery Babylon, not only controls a lot of money, but she is involved in shameful and sinful misuse of money. The Bible says that she is in league with the moneymen of the earth and they mutually benefit each other.
There is no other entity on the face of the planet that can qualify to be this amazing world power than the Vatican. And she is scandalous in every way. As the Bible says she is the habitation of devils and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
Now let me read a statement in the book Great Controversy concerning this very corrupt entity, the Roman Catholic Church. It is found on page 606 and 607. Speaking of the last great warning against fallen Babylon, the author makes this powerful statement.
“In every generation God has sent His servants to rebuke sin, both in the world and in the church. But the people desire smooth things spoken to them, and the pure, unvarnished truth is not acceptable.”
Do you think that is true today? Do you think your fellow church members desire smooth things? Some of them do, perhaps many. Nobody likes to hear that their way of life is condemned in scripture. We all like to feel satisfied that we are on the right track and that we are headed for heaven.
The ecumenical movement is all about preaching smooth things, things that everybody can accept. But the problem is that when all the other churches have left their distinctive doctrines behind, Rome insists that her doctrines are the only ones that are correct. In the ecumenical movement there is no emphasis on the distinctive truths of God’s word especially designed for our time. The Bible is no longer of interest to most church people. They just want their ears tickled. But God has determined that a stronger more powerful message will be given. It is a message to separate from this false religion. It is a message to come out of Babylon and live for Jesus in harmony with the Ten Commandments. I’ll read on from Great Controversy.
“Many reformers, in entering upon their work, determined to exercise great prudence in attacking the sins of the church and the nation. They hoped, by the example of a pure Christian life, to lead the people back to the doctrines of the Bible. But the Spirit of God came upon them as it came upon Elijah, moving him to rebuke the sins of a wicked king and an apostate people; they could not refrain from preaching the plain utterances of the Bible — doctrines which they had been reluctant to present. They were impelled to zealously declare the truth and the danger, which threatened souls. The words which the Lord gave them they uttered, fearless of consequences, and the people were compelled to hear the warning.”
So, under the power of the Holy Spirit, which came upon them and took control of them, God’s messengers proclaimed very pointed truth both to the world and to the church. I wonder what kind of person you would have to be to be taken over by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will not take over the mind and words of a human agent at that time unless He is completely consecrated and living in harmony with heaven, including heaven’s great moral law. But once the Holy Spirit’s unction comes upon the human agent, he or she is compelled to proclaim the strong warnings of the fourth angel of Revelation 18 to come out of Babylon, which we read earlier. I hope, my friend that you are bringing your life into full harmony with heaven and are surrendering your will to God each day so that His Holy Spirit can come upon you too. I’ll continue reading.
“Thus the message of the third angel will be proclaimed. As the time comes for it to be given with greatest power [under the fourth angel of Revelation 18], the Lord will work through humble instruments, leading the minds of those who consecrate themselves to His service. The laborers will be qualified rather by the unction of His Spirit than by the training of literary institutions.”
Did you hear that? What is it that qualifies the last army of laborers before the close of human probation? Is it a master’s degree or a PhD from some famous university? Will it be those who are famous in this world for their achievements? Will it be those who have been the recognized religious leaders for the most part? None of these, my friends, will be in a position to proclaim the message. Too often they are ready to compromise in order to maintain their position, their income, or their authority. Even the good people in positions of leadership have to pick their battles so as not to undermine their role and lose the support of their power base. Too often, they are unwilling to stand against the tide of apostasy, but instead they support it and defend it. Too often, they don’t like the straight truths that God’s people are called to bear because it “unsettles” the people. They are fearful to give an unpopular message because they might lose their support, so they turn against it. In the end, they will persecute those who do give the message. So, who, then, are the ones who will be used by the Holy Spirit to proclaim God’s last message? The next part of the passage tells us.
“Men of faith and prayer will be constrained to go forth with holy zeal, declaring the words which God gives them.”
So, my friends, if you want to be part of God’s last army who will proclaim the most powerful message ever given to men, you must become a person of faith and prayer. You cannot get that overnight. You have to start practicing it now. Now listen carefully to what comes next.
“The sins of Babylon will be laid open. The fearful results of enforcing the observances of the church by civil authority, the inroads of spiritualism, the stealthy but rapid progress of the papal power—all will be unmasked. By these solemn warnings the people will be stirred.
Thousands upon thousands will listen who have never heard words like these. In amazement they hear the testimony that Babylon is the church, fallen because of her errors and sins, because of her rejection of the truth sent to her from heaven. As the people go to their former teachers with the eager inquiry, Are these things so? the ministers present fables, prophesy smooth things, to soothe their fears and quiet the awakened conscience. But since many refuse to be satisfied with the mere authority of men and demand a plain “Thus saith the Lord,” the popular ministry, like the Pharisees of old, filled with anger as their authority is questioned, will denounce the message as of Satan and stir up the sin-loving multitudes to revile and persecute those who proclaim it.”
What a statement! What does it mean for the sins of Babylon to be laid open? What about the “stealthy but rapid progress of papal power?” What is that? For many years now, Keep the Faith Ministry has been tracking the stealthy, rapid progress of papal power. We have shown over and over again, and in many different ways that Rome has been secretly, gradually building her power and influence through various ways and means.
But today we are going to see how Rome fulfills the prophecies we have read through the corrupting influence of money. Rome uses money to gain power. Rome knows the power of money to influence. And Rome uses money in a powerful way. But money corrupts and every once in a while the sins of Babylon are exposed to the public eye. In the last few years, for instance, the exposure of the widespread and disgusting priestly sex scandals of the Catholic Church, which claims to represent Christ on earth, have shocked the world. Rome has been trying to do damage control, but over and over again, the corruption surfaces in the press as more and more accusations are made. The church has been very busy trying to clean up its image, while at the same time keeping as much information from reaching the public eye as possible.
Now the Vatican is being convulsed by an unprecedented rolling series of financial scandals. The papal butler was arrested recently for allegedly leaking a huge “treasure trove” of 4000 secret documents containing compromising information on Vatican officials. The documents, which have caused a public relations nightmare for the Vatican and seriously embarrassed the pope, reveal corrupt papal business dealings with certain Italian companies, as well as infighting in the precincts of Vatican city, and many other details of the sordid organization that pretends to be holy. These documents were leaked to a certain notorious journalist who wrote a rather damning book about scandals inside and outside the Catholic Church. Some of the documents, nicknamed “Vatileaks,” led to investigations, while some of them “appeared to show that Vatican insiders, who attempted to confront corruption in the Vatican Bank, were sidelined.”
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Here is what happened. In 2010 the Italian government seized 23 million Euros from the Vatican Bank and began an investigation into two of its top officers for fraud and money laundering. Eventually, the Italian government returned the funds once the Vatican had instituted new mechanisms to help the Vatican Bank adhere to international anti-money laundering and antiterrorist financing standards, but they continued the investigation.
In the world of Vatican secrecy and opaque finances, the new mechanisms are a major development if they are anything more than superficial. Historically, the Vatican is known for its shady financial dealings, scandals and corruption. This is the organization that claims to be representing Christ on earth and urges wealthy nations to give money to poor nations, but only throws small token amounts of money at disasters and other relief efforts.
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Returning the money to the Vatican wasn’t the end of the story, however. The Vatican could not clean up its bank with just a few procedures and mechanisms that appear to be aligned with current international banking standards. The Vatican Bank is again involved in a new scandal. Apparently, there is a huge struggle going on within the Vatican Bank itself. The battle is over the level of transparency that the bank uses with its accounts. Dubious transactions in the past and present are at the center of the issue. There are powerful insiders high up in the hierarchy among the curia who do not want to make past and present transactions transparent. No doubt, if they are made transparent, it would seriously compromise the Vatican and its leaders, perhaps even damage the influence of the pope himself.
Friends, the Bible tells us that the day is coming when all these things will be exposed. That which is done in secret will be “proclaimed from the housetops,” Jesus said in Luke 12:3. Just look at what happened concerning the priestly sex scandal. Every major newspaper in the world has trumpeted the latest shocking details of the secret abuse of minors by priests and bishops, and the cover-ups and protection by the church hierarchy. This set of abominations reveals how accurate the scripture is concerning this false religion. It is truly the cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
The Bible even prophesies that the very world elites who have supported her will eventually turn on the Papacy in anger. Listen to Revelation 17:16 “And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.”
Don’t forget that a whore represents a corrupt church in Bible prophecy. These ten horns represent ten kings who give their power and strength to the beast for a short time in verse 13. That’s the civil government or the political side of the Vatican that works with the nations of the world. Then these ten kings turn on the whore, the church, and burn her with fire. Why? Well, because she probably betrays them and undermines them in her own interests.
Friends, once all this is exposed to the level where people are sick of it, and where it causes so much damage that they cannot stand it any longer, and when the kings of the earth who have supported Rome are brought into shame because of her wickedness, they will turn on her and destroy her. Rome will be brought low.
The Vatican Bank, officially known as the Institute for Works of Religion, or the IOR, is known for its secrecy and security among elites around the world. For many Italian bankers, “it is an article of faith, despite repeated Vatican denials, that hundreds of millions of Euros belonging to Italian politicians, celebrities and business tycoons, which they believe should be in Italian banks, is instead deposited in the Institute for the Works of Religion.”
The IOR is under the control of the Vatican Secretary of State, presently Cardinal Tercisio Bertone and provides a convenient political shield from global scrutiny. The Vatican is an independent sovereign state and therefore enjoys a high level of immunity from investigation and prosecution. This shield gives the Vatican and its institutions a considerable degree of freedom to conduct its business and corrupt practices often without detection. But once in a while God permits its corruption to surface and gives the world enough of a glimpse of the rotten core of the Papacy that people can see for themselves that it is the whore of Revelation 17.
The Vatican Bank claims that it holds accounts for monks, nuns, priests, bishops, cardinals, including the curia, and Catholic institutions. But it is also known that it holds accounts for politicians, shady intermediaries, contractors and senior Italian officials as well as “people believed to be fronts for Mafia bosses.” The bank is notorious for its unnamed, numbered accounts and dubious transactions. Because of suspicions of such transactions the Italian government seized the 23 million euros back in 2010.
Much of the work of the Institute for Works of Religion has nothing to do with works of religion. That is their cover. This very unrighteous bank, works with many important people, who conduct transactions and keep their money and banking activity secret and, of course, tax free. The scandals have become so notorious and so public that in 2012, for the first time, the U.S. State Department listed the Vatican as a “jurisdiction of concern” for money laundering in its annual narcotics report. Keep in mind, this was in 2012. The report listed the Vatican along with Yemen, Algeria, North Korea, etc. The Vatican Bank was included in the report because of the “huge amount of cash that flows into the tiny city state and also because it was still unclear how effective anti-money laundering legislation [at the Vatican] had been.”
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Things were so opaque and so questionable that at the end of March 2012 the Milan branch of American bank J. P. Morgan Chase closed its Vatican accounts and broke off all ties to the Vatican because of “a lack of transparency and insufficient information concerning money transfers.” Now the main partner with the IOR is, not surprisingly, Deutsche Bank in Germany, and the provisional president of the Vatican Bank, until a new one can be appointed, is Ronaldo Hermann Schmitz who comes from the Deutsche Bank as well. This shows us that the links between Germany and the Vatican now go very, very deep. It isn’t just a German pope that heads of the Holy See; and it isn’t just that the German Chancellor is working hand in hand with the Vatican to restore papal power; it involves the giant German banking empire as well. Will Deutsche Bank accommodate the Vatican’s shady and scandalous money management? They have to find someone to help them.
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The Vatican bank cannot keep its entire activity secret when it does. It has to make its transactions through other banks. If there are no banks willing to help the Vatican keep its secrets secret, then everything will be lost to the Vatican. The Vatican Bank does not disclose who is sending the funds or the motive in sending them, which is the reason for the current trouble over transparency. Rome wants to look good. But it is having great difficulty. And now the bank is back in the spotlight for what looks like more sleazy transactions, which, in turn, threatens to damage the image of the Catholic Church — again.
The drama unfolding at the Vatican Bank has sent shock waves through the dark and quiet halls of the Papacy. Vatican officials are alarmed that Italian authorities are poking around in their secret business. “Papal spokesman Federico Lombardi has openly threatened Italy’s law-enforcement apparatus and urged it to kindly respect ‘the sovereign rights of the Holy See.’” In Vatican parlance, that means that the Italian authorities are to leave the Vatican alone.
And they should be worried. “For more than 40 years, the IOR… has been regularly embroiled in scandals, including bribery money for political parties, mafia money laundering and, repeatedly, anonymous accounts,” which provide a veil of secrecy.
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Until recently, 67-year-old Ettore Gotti Tedeschi had been president of the Vatican Bank, a position that he held from 2009 to 2012. He had been nicknamed “the Pope’s Banker.” Tedeschi was forced out by the Supervisory Council, or board of the Vatican Bank for “failing to carry out duties of primary importance.” He was also accused of leaking secret Vatican information to the press. They felt that his termination was necessary to “maintain the vitality of the bank.”
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Perhaps that means more than it sounds like on the surface, as is usually the case with the Vatican. Placid Vatican statements can mask titanic struggles inside the institution. After all, Tedeschi, a former confidant of the pope, is a very experienced economist and banker. But crucially, the documents leaked to the press show that there is quite a divergence of opinion among Vatican insiders concerning the bank’s transparency.
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Tedeschi had been tasked with some sort of reform of the IOR to make it more transparent in order to comply with global banking standards so that the Vatican Bank can be respected. But whether he was too zealous and upset powerful forces inside the Vatican or whether he was not making enough progress in transforming the image of the bank is not as clear. What is clear is that he did not spend a lot of time at the bank, and some sources suggest that he wasn’t all that interested in learning the details of transactions and of the bank’s books. He once said “It’s better not to know.” In any case, he came under investigation by Italian authorities in 2010 along with a colleague when the Italian authorities seized 23 million Euros from the bank. He was not charged with a crime. But now he is involved in an unrelated investigation of another bank he directed, as an “informed witness” against one of the banks former clients.
You see, the Vatican Bank has been trying to get on the “White List” of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Developments. It wants to become one of their “virtuous countries” recognized for their banking transparency and not suspected of money laundering. Imagine how much money laundering could go on at the Vatican Bank under the cover of the “White List.” Tedeschi was tasked with getting the Vatican Bank on this list. But Tedeschi was caught between two opposing sides within the Vatican. On one hand some in the curia aren’t really interested in changing their practices in relation to lucrative secret accounts. On the other hand, the stated purpose of the Bank to clean up its practices along with its image meant that Tedeschi would have to work against these powerful men in the curia, specifically, the secretary of state, Cardinal Tercisio Bertone – a very unenviable position.
The Vatican Bank had an account with the German branch of the American bank J. P. Morgan Chase in Frankfurt. It also had an account at the Chase bank in Milan, Italy. The Vatican bank set up a “sweep facility account,” at the Chase bank in Milan, in which all the money in this account was zeroed out each night and sent to its account at the Frankfurt branch of Chase bank. The Vatican moved millions of euros through it on an almost daily basis. In 2011 J. P. Morgan processed more than a billion euros for the Vatican. The Vatican is suspected of using these accounts for laundering dubious funds for unnamed entities. All the publicity started when the Vatican Bank tried to move 23 million euros from a smaller bank into and through these Vatican Bank accounts in 2010. Italian authorities seized them and initiated the money laundering investigation. They had been watching the Vatican operations for some time, apparently, and had developed enough suspicions to justify their actions.
The Italian authorities would not release the funds until the Vatican established an oversight authority and procedures for the Bank, which the pope did by issuing a decree requiring the bank to adhere to anti-money laundering laws. With these in place the Italian officials relented and returned the 23 million euros.
However, since the money was returned, Cardinal Bertone, who oversees the Vatican Bank, has seen to it that the pope’s decree concerning the oversight authority is “watered down.” It now reads, “that any monitoring of the Vatican bank is only permissible with the consent of Bertone himself.” So in essence, the Vatican did what it had to do to get the money back, and then changed the decree that was designed to comply with Italy’s transparency laws. It appears that while the Vatican wants to be on the “White List” of banking transparency, it actually has no intention of complying with the required rules.
“Cardinal Nicora, the man originally assigned to become the Vatican’s new financial watchdog, was not pleased with the change in the papal decree. In a letter to Bertone written soon after the change, Nicora complained that, with it, ‘we are taking a step back and remaining a tax haven.’” In other words, this cardinal admitted that the Vatican bank was acting as a tax haven for somebody, probably many people. Monks, nuns and priests don’t normally own a lot of wealth or have a lot of income that would attract a lot of taxes. The church takes care of them. Catholic institutions are usually tax-exempt also. So who would be using the Vatican Bank as a tax haven? Obviously, it would be other people than clergy or religious orders or institutions. As you will see, the accounts for the church leaders and those in religious orders are used for laundering money for outsiders like the mafia, or other sleazy and corrupt business tycoons, Italian politicians and anyone else whose resources the Vatican wants to protect.
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In the meantime, the Council of Europe set up an organization to counteract money laundering. It is called Moneyval. It evaluates the transparency of the European Union’s banks. It prepared and released a ruling on the Vatican Bank’s transparency. Moneyval’s ruling revealed that the Vatican Bank is deficient in seven out of sixteen areas and gave it a negative rating. Tedeschi was caught in the middle of all this.
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Two Vatican Bank Supreme Council members wrote letters to Cardinal Bertoni accusing Tedeschi of failing at his rather impossible task. One of them was a German named Ronaldo Hermann Schmitz who is now the provisional president of the Vatican Bank until a successor to Tedeschi is appointed. You could be forgiven for wondering if Schmitz had ulterior motives in denigrating Tedeschi. Schmitz lamented Tedeschi’s ‘wanting loyalty.’” The other was an American named Carl Anderson, secretary of the Supervisory Council who alluded to the closure of the J. P. Morgan Chase accounts, and scathingly wrote that given the “difficult times,” Tedeschi had failed to “vigorously defend the institution.”
Tedeschi is also apparently suspected of leaking Vatican documents to the press which have caused a public relations nightmare for the pope. Tedeschi is also accused of not paying enough attention to the bank. He would only come to the Vatican bank two days a week according to news reports. Though Tedeschi has presented himself as a “symbol of Vatican transparency,” the Vatican Bank is anything but transparent. And while the church has been trying to clean up its image at the Vatican Bank, it is likely that the image is all that is really important.
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It would be important to understand who Carl Anderson is. Carl Anderson is the grand master of the Knights of Columbus, a Roman Catholic secret society mainly in the United States. He was once an economic advisor to U.S. President Ronald Reagan. We will come back to Carl Anderson later. But he has been the most outspoken opponent of Tedeschi on the Supervisory Council.
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But it was not really Tedeschi’s firing that has exposed the Vatican Bank to renewed scrutiny of the Italian investigators and of the press. It was another development that led investigators to Tedeschi, and perhaps the most compromising discovery concerning the Vatican in recent history.
The four men looked like a “hit squad.” Tedeschi had just left his home in Piacenza, a town in northeastern Italy one morning shortly after he had been terminated from the Vatican Bank. He was carrying a brief case with sensitive Vatican documents and was headed to the train station to catch the high-speed train to Rome where he would deliver its contents to a papal confidant in the Vatican.
But Tedeschi has apparently been involved in so much corruption that he feared for his life. He thought that the four men had come to kill him. But instead they were investigators with the Italian Carabinieri, the Italian military police, who had come with search warrants in a money laundering investigation at another institution. During the next several hours the investigators ransacked his home and his offices in Milan and collected evidence that led them right into the inner sanctum, as it were, of Vatican banking, right into the center of the corruption.
Tedeschi had once headed an Italian subsidiary of a giant Spanish Bank called Santander. Italian authorities were conducting a corruption investigation against a client of this company, which led them to need Tedeschi as a witness in their case. They believed that Tedeschi had documents that would shed light on their case. But Tedeschi had kept Vatican records archived secretly in his home just in case “something happened to him.” These were contained in 47 binders and were loaded with compromising information about the Vatican. Some of the documents were titled “Internal Enemies” and had the names of politicians and powerful clergy. Intercepted phone conversations made it clear that Tedeschi feared for his life. He has apparently decided to cooperate with Italian authorities.
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The Vatican Bank has done much to try to do damage control and convince the international community that the Vatican Bank is a different institution than it was in the past. Toward the end of June, an unprecedented media event took place inside the Vatican Bank. Journalists were invited to tour the bank, something that has never been done before. During the tour, one of Tedeschi’s former colleagues told them “We want to lift the ‘veil of secrecy’ hanging around the institute and show that our effort for transparency is real.” That is quite a statement considering how deeply in unsavory practices the Vatican Bank is involved.
The tour guide, a top Vatican bank official, also made a very pious sounding statement, “Our main goal,” he said, “is not to make a profit.”
Note that he said that profit was not the main goal. If in fact, it is not the main goal and is therefore a secondary goal, what then is the main goal? After all, the main purpose of banking is to make money. Could it be that on one hand that main goal would be to keep open a lucrative channel of secret money transactions with other banks and nations? Would it be to provide a safe, tax free haven for corrupt politicians, businessmen and mafia dons? There would also have to be a purpose for all those secret transactions for which profit is not the main goal. What would the purpose of the secret money transactions be? Is it just to service corrupt businessmen? Is it just to serve the mafia or other sleazy organizations? I don’t think so. While these would be part of it, there has to be a larger purpose for all this secrecy.
Here is what the Bible says. It is found in Revelation 17 verses three to five: “I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
This angel shows us what is going on behind the scenes. The kings of the earth, and the nations and inhabitants, which they represent, are drunk. In other words, they cannot see or understand clearly. They stagger as if in a drunken stupor. They do not understand what is going on. They cannot. They are spiritually inebriated. Rome blinds them with money and power. The Kings of the earth cannot understand the real issue because the money that flows through Rome has benefited them and beclouded their minds. They are incapable of seeing the problem because they are part of it. They benefit by it. They use the tools that Rome gives them, such as secret numbered accounts, money laundering, etc. The Vatican gives them what they want but they in turn, close their eyes to the filthy abominations that characterize the Vatican.
The reason people have proclivities for fornication is because it makes them feel good for a few seconds. The brain releases a moderate dose of dopamine, which gives them that good feeling. They want more of it, so they keep doing it. They become addicted and keep coming back for more. The Bible represents the relations between the Vatican and the nations of the earth as the addictive and powerful, but illicit relationship of fornication. It places the church in control of the state through manipulation and bonds them in such a way that they trample on the law of God together, and turn their backs on His word, all because of money and power. Ultimately, they persecute those who would be true to God and keep His law.
The June 2012 seizure of Tedeschi’s documents and dossiers on Vatican officials has sent tremors through the Vatican and exposed those more secretive aims of the IOR. Please remember that the Vatican is assisting Germany to resurrect the Holy Roman Empire, and Germany is assisting the Vatican in gaining more power and restoring her historical position in Europe. The Bible calls their relationship fornication. The money laundering is really just one way in which the Vatican and Germany are working together.
Then, to add to Vatican woes, two weeks after the Tedeschi incident, anti-Mafia investigators officially asked for documents from the Vatican related to vast sums of money passed through a Vatican Bank account of a local priest in the Mafia’s island stronghold of Sicily. The Vatican has not provided them with the requested information.
Italian investigators think the funds, millions of euros, were involved in a money laundering operation for a Mafia godfather who is one of Italy’s most wanted criminals. He is presently hiding from prosecutors. Tedeschi may have been aware of these transactions and may be implicated in the leaking of some of details about them to the Italian police. This, of course, would anger his superiors at the Vatican, particularly the curia and especially Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.
During questioning, Tedeschi reportedly fingered Bertone as the ringleader of his enemies and said that Bertone was doing everything he could to keep the accounts of the curia hidden from Italian authorities. He may have also prepared material on them to present to Benedict XIV in his own defense, according to speculation in the press. This is not the first time that the Vatican Bank has been linked to mafia operations.
Prosecutors investigate Vatican Bank mafia link
Unholy mess: Vatican amidst mafia money-laundering scandal
Catholic Church Fears Growing Vatican Bank Scandal
Four priests, in fact, are under investigation for money laundering. One of them is 85-year-old Father Evaldo Biasini, nicknamed “Father cashpoint” by detectives. “He is alleged to have laundered hundreds of thousands of euros belonging to a corrupt businessman through accounts he opened for him at the Vatican Bank. Of course, he was allowed to ‘keep a percentage’ of the money as payment. In other words, priests, cardinals and others open their accounts to be used by those who want to hide income or assets from prying eyes.
One of the other priests is said to have acted as a guarantee for the transfer of 300,000 euros to an account in Rome by a woman identified as ‘Maria Rossi,’ which later turned out to be a false name.
Vatican City could be hub for money laundering, says U.S.
Funds in the Vatican Bank, known as the “pope’s strongbox,” though disguised as church-related funds, often appear to be anything but church-related. Investigators who ask questions are met with half-answers in some cases, and in most cases silence. Keep in mind the Vatican has institutions all around the world. Some of them have branches is many parts of the world. It would therefore be very difficult to track the huge amount of funding that goes through the Vatican Bank from its many institutions and clergy, as well as dignitaries and other prominent individuals.
Allegations of fraud and money laundering have continually popped up. But the Vatican Bank hides under the cloak of diplomatic sovereignty, which limits what outside detectives can do. The Vatican’s religious nature also provides an image of sanctity. But under the cloak of piety is a dangerous web of intrigue and corruption.
Wikipedia Article on Institute for Works of Religion
“Despite all of its sacred and solemn promises, the Vatican has succeeded in keeping the pope’s bank a haven for money-launderers,” wrote Spiegel, a German newspaper. “And instead of being on some Caribbean island, this one is right in the middle of Europe, in the heart of Rome. Its business model depends on keeping things as shrouded as possible from all financial authorities. Capital gains are untaxed, financial statements are not disclosed and anonymity is guaranteed. The bank’s exotic status of belonging to a religious monarchy in a sovereign state the size of a city park has shielded it from investigations and unpleasant external monitoring.”
This is the fornication that the Bible refers to when it says the kings of the earth have committed fornication with the whore, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich with the abundance of her delicacies. One of those “delicacies” would be the secrecy of the Vatican Bank. It helps criminals and wealthy merchants to shield their illegal gain from prying eyes.
I’ll continue reading from Spiegel magazine. “The bank’s headquarters are housed in a medieval defensive tower… nestled right against the Apostolic Palace, the pope’s official residence, and is home to a vast amount of money and commercial papers. Here, roughly 100 employees look after 33,000 accounts with total deposits of some €6 billion ($7.6 billion). The direct beneficiary is the pope and his Church; 2010 earnings from the bank were €55 million. Such revenues help make up for a decline in donations from members of his global congregation.”
“Whereas Benedict XVI and his predecessors have preached humility and ethical financial dealings from the window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, his confidants working directly beneath the papal windows have continued to pursue shady financial transactions,” wrote Spiegel.
“The Vatican has yet to divulge the business practices its bank has been using for decades. ‘There is fear that, owing to the transparency necessary today, one will find something in the past that one doesn’t want to,’ says Marco Politi, a Rome-based Vatican expert.”
Catholic Church Fears Growing Vatican Bank Scandal
How does the Vatican Bank hide money? Here is what Spiegel wrote.
“Under Monsignor Angelo Caloia… [President of the Vatican Bank for 20 years until 2009 when he was replaced by Tedeschi] the Vatican consistently expanded its money-laundering activities. While he was in charge, there were secret accounts such as that for Giulio Andreotti, the controversial former Italian prime minister. On an almost weekly basis, Caloia would bring suitcases into the Vatican full of donations from Italian companies in the form of cash and securities. There, the origin of the money would be obscured using accounts such as [one] owned by the nonexistent ‘Cardinal Spellman Foundation.’ Likewise, relief organizations were founded with nice-sounding names masking the identity of their true beneficiaries.”
“It wasn’t until about three years ago, when evidence of such dealings came to light, that Pope Benedict XVI ousted Caloia. What prompted his change of heart were the more than 4,000 documents that Vatican financial expert Renato Dardozzi had assembled and hidden before his death in 2003. In his will, Dardozzi had written: “These documents should be published so that everyone can learn what has happened here.”
The shameful dealings are not limited to Italian operations. There is no doubt that secret Vatican Bank operations involve organizations in the United States and other parts of the world. Carl Anderson, who was mentioned a few minutes ago, is head of the secret Roman Catholic society known as the Knights of Columbus. It has emerged that he is a board member of IOR, or the Vatican Bank.
The Knights of Columbus is a very wealthy and influential Catholic organization for men only, modeled on the principles of a secret society. They work diligently to promote and defend the Roman Catholic influence and power, especially in the United States, but also in other parts of the world. The Knights of Columbus are involved in charitable giving to the tune of over $150 million a year, and it calls itself the “strong right arm of the Church.” Interestingly, they are actively involved in funding many forms of Catholic medical work, Special Olympics, peace efforts in the Middle East, all of which elevates perceptions of the Catholic Church among the people they serve. The Knights of Columbus also fund satellite uplinks to broadcast important papal events like World Youth Day, World Day of Peace, annual Christmas and Easter masses, etc., which also promote Catholicism. They support the education of disadvantaged Roman Catholics, religious orders, etc. The Knights of Columbus also established and supports the Catholic Information Service which prints millions of pamphlets and books promoting the Catholic Church and Catholic teaching for the public, Catholic schools and other institutions.
Founded in 1882, the Knights of Columbus have 1.8 million members mostly in the United States and are heavily involved in politics through promoting traditional family values and other Catholic social principles. They donated $1.4 million to get California’s proposition 8 passed in 2008, which was the California law banning same-sex marriage. They were the largest contributors. They were successful in lobbying the U.S. Congress to get the words “under God” in the U.S. pledge of allegiance (which to a Catholic would mean under the Catholic Church). They were instrumental in getting Columbus Day, commemorating the discovery of the Americas by Roman Catholic Christopher Columbus in 1492, as a national holiday in the United States. The Knights of Columbus themselves are named after Christopher Columbus.
The Knights of Columbus invite the head of state in every country in which they operate to their annual Supreme Convention. U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and both George H. W. Bush and his son George W. Bush, have attended and/or spoken at the convention. John F. Kennedy was a fourth degree knight and his younger brother Ted Kennedy, long-time senator in the U.S. Congress was a third degree member. Samuel Alito, Supreme Court justice is also a member, as is Jeb Bush, former Governor of Florida, and brother of the younger Bush. Even the famous Babe Ruth and other sports figures were members.
Wikipedia Article on Knights of Columbus
The Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus is Carl Anderson. He presides over this influential Roman Catholic men’s club and all of its enormous financial resources. In 2009 Benedict XVI appointed him as one of the directors of the corrupt Vatican Bank, perhaps largely because Carl Anderson is an expert in strengthening the Vatican’s image. Anderson’s sterling reputation would provide a good image for the bank by his presence on its governing board.
Wikipedia Article on Carl A. Anderson
So who is being considered to take the place of the Italian Gotti Tedeschi? According to the Vatican Insider Hans Tietmeyer, former leader of the German Bundesbank and current member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences is the lead candidate. He happens to be the one candidate that Benedict XVI favors, even though he is 81 years of age. It is believed that “he would have a ‘soothing’ effect on the power-struggle raging inside the Vatican financial world.” Tietmeyer is a committed Roman Catholic. He was trained at a Roman Catholic high school, and then studied and graduated from University of Munster, which has its Jesuit roots all the way back in 1588. He also studied in Bonn and Cologne. We shall see if he becomes the next head of the Vatican Bank and how he deals with cleaning up the Vatican’s damaged image.
Pope to Knights of Columbus: “You are the defenders of religious freedom”
Wikipedia Article on Gymnasium Paulinum
Wikipedia Article on University of Münster
Now let us summarize and tie it all together. Keep the Faith has been revealing for some time now that there is an alliance between Germany and Rome for the control of Europe. Germany’s chancellor and her predecessors have been working hand-in-hand with the Vatican to resurrect the Holy Roman Empire through the European Union. The economic crisis in Europe over the euro is being used to put unrelenting pressure on the nations of Europe to give up their sovereignty and come under political and economic control of the European Union based in Brussels. This means that they will come under German control. It also means that they will come under Vatican control.
Friends, all of these facts reveal how the Bible can be relied upon. Its clear presentation of the true state of the papacy is very, very accurate. All of its prophecies, therefore, can also be depended upon. They will all be fulfilled.
The Bible teaches that the Vatican is “full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication.” This is the same institution whose leader or pope recently published the encyclical called CARITAS IN VERITATE, or Charity in Truth urging the nations of the earth to revise the global economy under moral and ethical principles enumerated by the Vatican itself. Yet, the Vatican’s own bank is anything but moral and ethical. In this very encyclical, the pope called for a world authority to oversee the global economy using the same ethical principles that the Vatican Bank violates every day. Do you think that the Vatican would allow a global economic authority to oversee its operations along the moral and ethical principles outlined in Charity in Truth? The very institution that is calling for charity to help the world’s millions of poor people, is laundering money for corrupt lords, businessmen and other powerful people who got the money they launder by oppressing the poor and keeping them in vice and addiction.
No wonder the world is in such an economic mess. When the one moral authority calling for ethical principles in the global economy is involved in scandal after scandal, shady transaction after shady transaction, and through them supports the corrupt practices of organized crime, fraudulent business, and counterfeit charitable organizations, what can you expect? They suck the life-blood out of the common man, and the Vatican supports and encourages them in this. And the Vatican gains financially by doing so.
One day, all of the sins of Babylon will be exposed. There will be transparency. But by then it will be too late, both for the institution and those connected with it. How is it then that many who claim to be God’s people think the Vatican has changed and that it is no longer the evil organization that it once was? How is it that many who profess to be God’s people want to enter into social projects with this organization, and even get involved in ecumenical dialog? How is it that churches, institutions and individuals get involved in Spiritual Formation and other practices that come directly from the precincts of papal organizations? How is it that much of the evangelism that goes on today does not explain what the Bible means when it speaks of the woman and the beast?
Oh friends, the Bible tells us to come out of her. We are not to be associated with spiritual Babylon in any way. We are not to involve ourselves with Rome or any of its entities other than to call God’s people out of them. Oh friends, you cannot compromise your faith. You cannot mute the voice of scripture. It is still there, even if you ignore it. God calls us to proclaim the three angels messages of Revelation 14. The second message is very clear that Babylon has fallen. And indeed it has. The third and fourth messages are to separate yourself from its thralldom to escape the punishment that is coming upon her.
We are to live for Jesus. We are to live WITH Jesus. If you follow tradition you cannot live with Jesus, for inevitably they will lead you against His principles. If you follow the teachings of men, you cannot live with Jesus for they will give you wrong ideas in conflict with Jesus.
I want to follow all of God’s counsel, and live by the high and holy principles of heaven, don’t you? Perhaps you have not heard of the terrible things that the Bible declares are part of the papacy. Maybe you are new to the strong message of scripture to the people who worship Babylon. Take your Bible and read Revelation 17 for yourself. Also read chapter 18. These chapters of Holy Scripture will help you understand more of what will happen to the papal empire. And may God bless and keep you faithful. Let us pray.
Our Father in heaven, today we have learned that what appears on the surface is not always what it seems to be. Today we have learned that the papacy is full of abominations and filthiness which fulfills Bible prophecy in a very exact way. We don’t want to be a partaker of her sins, nor receive of her plagues. We want to live for Jesus. We want to have His righteousness cover our souls and purify us. Please take anything that is not like Christ out of our lives. Help us to push away from us anything that is not according to Christ’s principles. Otherwise we will become attached to Babylon. We want to be strong. We want to have victory over Satan’s temptations. We know that we can only have this through Jesus Christ living in us. Please let us understand the fullness of the gospel message. We want to have the power of God in our lives so that we may be partakers of the Holy Spirit in latter rain power. Please help us become all that You want us to be. In Jesus’ name, amen.