David Yallop (1937–2018)

Book 147.
In God's Name.
David Yallop.
I remember being so shocked by this book that I wrote to my Grandma about it and she wrote back to her 26 granddaughter to say this type of thing happens all the time and told me lots of other shocking things. I might have her letter in the loft?
Nick Wannan
David Yallop's 1984 book In God's Name proposed the theory that the pope had been in "potential danger" because of corruption in the Vatican Bank.
This corruption was real and is known to have involved the bank's head, Bishop Paul Marcinkus, along with Roberto Calvi. Calvi was found dead in London in 1982. His death was initially ruled suicide and a second inquest – ordered by his family – then returned an open verdict.
Yallop agreed to donate every penny he made from sales to a charity of the Vatican's choice if they agreed to investigate his central claim, that when the body of the pope was discovered, his contorted hand gripped a piece of paper that was later destroyed because it named high-ranking members and others who had a role in numerous corruption scandals and the laundering of mafia drug money. One of the names was that of Bishop Paul Marcinkus, who was later promoted by Pope John Paul II to Pro-President of Vatican City, making him the third most powerful person in the Vatican, after the pope and the secretary of state. None of Yallop's claims, which are unproven, has thus far been acknowledged by the Vatican.
Yallop specifically summarized his conspiracy theory in his book: Three archbishops—Marcinkus, Villot and Cody—conspired with three Mafia types—Calvi, Sindona and Gelli—in the murder of John Paul I. “It was clear that these six men had a great deal to fear if the papacy of John Paul I should continue… all of them stood to gain in a variety of ways if John Paul I should suddenly die.”… (more)

I read this some time back and wholeheartedly bought into Yallop's thesis; that dark forces at the Vatican conspired to murder Pope John Paul I due to his liberal bent. "In God's Name" is well written and persuasive and for a while I was convinced that something nefarious had happened to the Pope but the longer one reflects on the story, the less likely it becomes. Because really, the fact that the Pope was an old man with a history of health issues is a far more logical way to die than being bumped off by shadowy nuns.… (more)

This is ire and nausea inducing, the litany of abuse and coverup and the fact that it's not a modern phenomena but the lax punishment, if any, is against earlier teachings and is an example of how the Catholic Church today is it's own worst enemy.

Every organisation needs checks and balances and also needs to ensure that the good people who work within it aren't tarred with the same brush as the abusers. The Church needs to work on fixing it's problems, particularly how it treats abusers and victims and stop trying to pretend that it's a new or isn't endemic and this book is a good first step in looking at it.

Not an easy read, made me both sad and angry.… (more)