It’s the most powerful religious organization in the world, and they warn that just watching this video could open you to demonic possession. These are the darkest secrets and conspiracy theories of the Vatican. The Pope Knew About The Holocaust, But Still Did Nothing (this should appear as a title card) During World War II Pope Pius XII led the Catholic Church, and for the world's holiest man, the fact that he seemed to remain so quiet on the mass murder of millions of Jews and other undesirables seems fishy.
Critics claim that the Pope knew about the Holocaust, but was more scared of atheist communism than of Hitler, and thus turned a blind eye to Germany's atrocities in exchange for protection. Others claim that the Pope was terrified that opposing Hitler publicly would lead to him disbanding the seat of power of the Catholic church. Yet others say that the Pope merely played ignorant publicly so that he could help cover up secret aid behind enemy lines for refugee Jews.
So which is it? The Vatican Archives recently became publicly available to journalists and investigators, giving an unprecedented opportunity for digging into the history of the most powerful organization in the world. For those interested in the church's silence during the second world war, the archives have proven to be a wealth of information- and a lot of it isn't good for the Catholic Church.
In 1963, public interest into the church's handling of the holocaust spiked due to the premier of a German play where Pope Piux XII was portrayed as largely indifferent to the suffering of millions. As public outcry grew thanks to the play's popularity, the Vatican was pressured into publishing an 11 volume collection of the pope's documents collected from his writings during and just before the war. Critics however claimed that the documents were highly selective, and lacked sufficient context.
The Catholic church was accused of carefully cultivating what to present to the public so as to present the best view of Pope Pius XII. New revelations have since then shed a fresh light on the issue. In 1933, Pius- then Cardinal Pacelli- met with the German Nazi party to secure a concordant that would secure the rights of the Catholic church in Germany.
The meeting was spurred by fears that the Third Reich would crack down on the Catholic church, as the church had strongly criticized the Nazi party through the late 1920s and early 1930s. The future Pope Piux XII had been a particularly strong critic of Nazism, but there was hope that the church would suffer no political backlash for its criticism. Hitler ended up not holding up to the terms of the concordant prompting Pius to write several protests against the Third Reich.
When Italy adopted Nazi style fascism, Pius began to criticize it too. With World War II on the horizon, Pope Pius XI died on February 10th, 1939. Pacelli now Piux the XII was elected as the new Pope, and Nazi Germany was the only nation not to send a representative to the coronation.
As the world began to prepare for war, Pius implored world leaders to avoid it and pursue peace at all costs. In an address to the International Eucharistic Conference in Budapest, Hungary in May 1938, the future Pius XII was accused of slandering Jews by claiming that they were a people that, quote, “whose lips curse Christ and whose hearts reject him even today”. This was during a time that Hungary was drafting new antisemitic laws, which would have added a lot of fuel to the fire.
Yet this account has been criticized by historians who point out that Pius was not referring to Jews- if he was, it was left out of the Time Magazine piece that covered his speech in detail. Instead, Pius was clearly referencing those who persecuted the church- Nazis and Communists. Whoever Pius was referencing, it is known that he never once raised issue with the Vatican journal La Civiltà Cattolica which printed constant attacks against Hungarian Jews, even calling for their expulsion from the country so that it could be saved from their influence.
As Pope, and earlier as secretary of state to Pius XI, he would have been very aware of the content of this publication. Officially, when World War II began the Vatican adopted a stance of neutrality, and refused to yield to Allied pressure to publicly denounce the Nazis. Officially, this was because the pope was unaware of the true extent of the Nazis' crimes against humanity.
However, new documents break this myth and paint a very grim picture for the catholic church during this troubling time. Newly unsealed documents show that on September 18th, 1942, Pius' assistant and future Pope Paul VI, received an eyewitness report speaking of the butchery of Jews in Warsaw. Given his close relationship with pope Pius, he would have naturally informed the holy father of what was going in behind Nazi lines.
A month prior to that though, Archbishop Andrzej Szeptycki had delivered a similar report to the pope of atrocities carried out in the Lviv Ghetto by German troops. Not long after both reports, the US envoy to the Vatican asked if rumors of mass killings in Nazi-held territory could be corraborated. Vatican Secretary of State Luigi Maglione is reported to have replied, “I don't believe we have information that confirms this serious news in detail.
” Technically not a lie, but definitely very much refusing to admit that yes, killings were taking place and the Vatican knew about it. But perhaps they didn't find the reports trustworthy not just because the scale of the carnage was truly unbelievable- after all, even US intelligence was having difficulty believing the Nazis were exterminating people by the tens of thousands- but because of a memo from a Vatican staffer. The memo warned that the reports should not be easily believed, as according to the memo writer Jews, quote, “easily exaggerate”, and quote, “orientals are really not an example of honesty”.
The latter was aimed at Archbishop Sheptytsky who had warned of the mass exterminations taking place in Ukraine. Pope Pius XII is a complicated figure, as are the actions of the Vatican. While on the one hand there was obvious racism taking place inside the halls of the holy city, and possibly influencing papal decisions, on the other Pope Pius is also documenting as helping to stem the tide of Nazism in Europe, and even assisting Jews.
After they were ousted from Italian universities, Pope Pius appointed prominent Jewish scholars to positions inside the Vatican, and even engineered an agreement with Brazil to issue 3,000 visas to “non-Aryan Catholics”- basically secret code for Jews fleeing persecution. However, a bribe to Brazil from the German government soon ended that program. The Pope even made public speeches equating gentiles and Jews, opposing Hitler's racist ideologies.
He even assisted the German resistance directly, channeling communications between conspirators seeking to oust Hitler from power. He also passed intelligence along to the Allies on pending Nazi attacks. Yet despite this, he failed to condemn the invasion of Poland at the start of the war, leading many Poles to feel betrayed by their Pope.
All this information paints a picture of a Pope striding a fine line between trying to keep the seat of the Catholic church safe during a time it was in the heart of occupied territory, while also attempting to follow his conscience in regards to the atrocities of the Nazi regime. It can be appreciated that he was a man in a difficult position, as publicly condemning the Nazis would have led to the destruction of the Vatican by Hitler and the dissolution of the church, and yet his failure to take a direct and upright stance against evil leaves him in an unfavorable light for the rest of history. But did the Vatican help smuggle millions of stolen Nazi money out of Europe?
Secrets and Scandals of the Vatican Bank The Institute for the Works of Religion, or Istituto per le Opere di Religione, is best known as the Vatican bank. But wait, why does the Vatican need a bank? Well, as the most powerful religious organization on earth, it receives millions upon millions in donations every year, and managing all that money is quite an effort.
The bank was first established in June 1942 by Pope Pius XII, but details about its inner workings wouldn't come to light until 2013 when it published its first ever annual report under guidance from Pope Francis who sought to reform the Vatican from the inside out. The purpose of the Vatican bank is to help coordinate the massive amounts of money that the Vatican processes every year, and to quote, “provide for the safekeeping and administration of movable and immovable property transferred or entrusted to it by physical or juridical persons and intended for the works of religion or charity”. But how true is that?
In 2019 a Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that only 10% of funds tithed went to charitable causes, with the other 90% being used to pay down the Vatican's operational deficit. But this is only part of the story, and very misleading. This report specifically mentions Peter's Pence, an annual tithing campaign that drums up tens of millions of dollars.
Under Vatican law, the Pope is allowed to use these funds in service of the church however he sees fit- thus the bulk of this tithe is used to pay down a growing budget deficit. However, the Vatican has been rightly criticized for claiming that Peter's Pence is for the purposes of charity, when it should have been more transparent with its use of funds to potential tithers. How does the Vatican have a budget deficit of 70 million euros though?
Well, that's because the Vatican is directly responsible for financing hundreds of catholic churches around the world, and this doesn't just include land lease or building rent costs- it also includes pay for priests and nuns as well as organizational funds. Those priests and nuns often take part in community activism programs such as community clean ups, crime prevention, and family counseling- all free of charge. Organizational funds are used to supplement these community outreach programs.
So the Vatican may not often 'directly' give money to charities, but it is one of the leading charitable organizations in the world because of the vast amount of community programs that it runs through a global network of churches- a fact often overlooked by critics who simply expect to see large checks paid out to charities. Another part of the Vatican's funds go to investments, which are meant to further fuel church operations. As the Vatican doesn't earn any sort of income and doesn't produce any goods to sell, it relies wholly on charitable giving.
Investment opportunities are meant to provide for the long term financial health of the church, but in recent years the Vatican's investments have not been performing well, leading to a growing budget deficit. But the Vatican bank has perhaps been most heavily criticized for its handling of what might have been stolen money during World War II. According to allegations, which have yet to yield any solid proof, money from a Nazi puppet government in Croatia was funneled to the Vatican bank after being stolen from the local population.
Emerson Bigelow, who compiled a report on what would come to be known as the Ustashi plunder, worked for the US Treasury Department and was tasked with financial investigations in Europe in the wake of World War II. The Nazis and their stooges had stolen a lot of money from lands they occupied, and there was hope that the plundered riches could be recovered. In Croatia, the Nazis established a puppet government called the Ustashi, and according to Bigelow's report the Ustashi stole millions in cash, gold, and other valuables from Orthodox Christian Serbs, Jews, and gypsies who were all promptly deported to extermination camps.
According to allegations, about 200 million Swiss francs were stashed in the Vatican bank, where part of it was laundered and used to buy counterfeit passports and passage from Europe to South America for the Ustashi leaders. The rest of the money allegedly stayed in the Vatican's coffers. The connection between the Ustashi and the Vatican bank comes through a Croatian priest named Krunoslav Drganovic.
He was the head of the College of San Girolamo in Rome, and had contact with would-be priests from Croatia who studied in San Girolamo for their ordination. Drganovic had sympathy for the Ustashi, and after the end of the war he allowed fleeing Ustashi leaders to use the college as a safe house. Allegedly, Drganovic then helped the wanted war criminals secure false travel documents and launder cash through the Vatican bank, being paid all the while for his cooperation.
There is some truth to at least some of these allegations, as Drganovic himself admitted that in 1945 he had helped move 40 kilos of gold to Rome concealed in luggage. In 1999 a lawsuit was filed against the Vatican bank by survivors and descendants of the Ustashi, however the case was dismissed in 2009 under the terms of the Sovereign Immunities Act. Under the SIA, the Vatican is immune from litigation under Croatian jurisdiction.
Not that the Vatican would have been of much help to those seeking the missing 200 million swiss francs, as no record of any possible transactions exist anymore thanks to the Vatican bank destroying all financial records every 10 years for its first 70 years of operation. Was the Vatican bank laundering money stolen from victims of Nazi persecution? It's extremely probable, but the key question is if the Vatican itself was aware of it.
Given that Drganovic appeared to be acting alone and even concealing his activities from other church officials, plus the huge sums of money the Vatican bank processes every year, it's doubtful the Vatican itself was implicitly helping launder stolen money and help war criminals flee prosecution. This seems to be the act of a single, or perhaps small group of rogue priests- but the lack of transparency and baffling record-keeping practices that plagued the Vatican bank for years only adds fuel to the fire and makes the real amount of criminal activity impossible to determine. But perhaps the biggest Vatican secret is its secret war against the devil.
Battles With The Devil In 1973 the world saw first hand the terror of demonic possession with the release of The Exorcist. The film horrified audiences and prompted a massive wave of public interest in the little known, and even less understood practice of exorcism. Could the Vatican really be fighting the devil right here on earth?
The answer is terrifying. Sunday morning on May 1st of 2016, and Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican's dean of exorcism, prepares for the grueling labor ahead. Today is his birthday, but the Father has no time for celebration.
He engages in his morning prayers, answers letters from all over the world asking for his services, and prepares to enter combat with the devil. At 3 pm, the Father takes an elevator down to the first floor of his faculty, and there he enters a room occupied by an Italian woman in her late 30s. She was educated and healthy, but had difficulty holding down a job lately due to extreme fits she kept experiencing- specially during Christian holidays.
Her family is here with her, including one man who's own sister had fallen into a severe depression in her thirties. One day he walked into her room to find her on the floor, convulsing and twisting her body in unnatural shapes while growling like a wild animal. After a psychiatrist failed to help her, she was taken to see Father Amorth, and four exorcisms later she was back to normal.
It's this man, whose identity has been withheld to protect those involved, who noticed the woman laying in bed now as she acted strangely while attending mass. Recognizing the signs his own sister had displayed while being possessed, he recommended she meet with Father Amorth immediately. The Father insisted that she seek out medical and psychiatric help first- according to him, out of 100 people who come to him claiming to be possessed, 98 are merely experiencing medical or psychological phenomena.
However, medicine and psychiatry had failed this woman, and Father Amorth was convinced this was the real deal. The devil was trying to take possession of her soul. Father Amorth begins his prayers and he asks the family to join in.
At first, there's little reaction from the possessed woman, but slowly she begins to nod her head involuntarily. Her eyes suddenly roll up into the back of her head and she falls into a trance-like state. Father Armani presses the spirit inside her to leave her body, invoking the Roman ritual of Paul V, developed in 1614 to remove demons from their human hosts.
As the ancient words are incanted, the woman begins to cry out and her body throbs. Suddenly, she falls back into a near comatose state. Father Amorth places his hand over her heart and incants, “INFER TIBI LIBERA”, set yourself free in Latin.
The woman falls unconscious at the incantation, going completely limp. Father Amorth continues, “TIME SATANA INIMICI FIDEM”, be afraid of Satan and the enemies of the faith. Suddenly, the woman comes to life, thrashing violently.
Five men all try to hold her down, putting all their strength into the effort and barely restraining her as she lashes out at Father Amorth. Her mouth begins to foam. “RECEDE IN NOMINI PATRIS!
”, Leave in the name of the Father! The holy command seems to weaken the demon, the mask of rage falling from her face and turning into despair and fear as she renews her efforts to break free of the five men holding her down. She's trying to reach Father Amorth now, trying to violently attack him and cease his incantations.
“SANCTISSIMO DOMINE MIGRA! ”, Let him go, O God Almighty! .
The woman, who does not speak nor understand Latin suddenly thrusts forward and with a defiant snarls shouts out, “MAI! ! ”, Never!
! The group joins in the Father's prayer, the men still struggling to hold down the enraged woman as she struggles to attack Father Amorth. The Father denounces the devil, denounces evil satanic powers and black magic he believes is attempting to possess the woman.
She responds with a guttural roar that fills the room, “MAAAAIIIII! ! !
” Suddenly, the woman speaks again, but this time in a deep voice not her own. In Italian the voice commands, “Don't touch her! Don't ever touch her!
”. Father Amorth commands the voice to surrender. The voice taunts the Father, proclaiming, “I am satan!
”. The woman continues to fight against the men desperately restraining her even as they utter their own desperate prayers. Despite the brisk air conditioning, everyone in the room is sweating- all except for the woman, who despite her vigorous thrashing around is perfectly dry.
The 91 year old Father refuses to surrender, and continues commanding the demonic force within to surrender and leave her body. The unnatural voice responds “She is mine! She belongs to me!
”, in latin it screams out “Maaaai! ” in defiance. Finally, Father Amorth quietly commands, “Requie creature Dei”.
Rest, creature of God. The woman, who does not understand nor speak Latin, suddenly falls still. She blinks as if awaking from a deep slumber, and has no recollection of the encounter.
A priest helps her up and leads her into a corner of the room as her mother receives a blessing from Father Amorth. As the Father begins the blessing, the woman suddenly flies into a rage, shouting obscenities, screaming and trying to claw her way to the Father. A man holds her by the neck and another restrains her legs.
Father Amorth finishes the blessing and slowly, the woman calms down again. The exorcism is not complete, the devil still lurks inside her, but with each session the woman feels Lucifer's grip loosening. This was a real exorcism carried out in the Vatican as documented by William Friedkin, who had received special permission to photograph and film the encounter.
Friedkin is best known for directing the horror classic The Exorcist, and after decades of wondering how close he had come to accurately portraying the ancient ritual, and the power of the devil, he finally succumbed to his curiosity and asked the Vatican to allow him to attend, and record a real exorcism. But while the world has debated the existence of the devil, the Vatican has been battling it for decades- and cases of demonic possession are exponentially on the rise. How bad is this new demonic crisis?
Bad enough that in 2018 the Vatican held a global training session of 250 priests from 50 countries to help them learn the signs of demonic possession and learn how to combat demons. Father Gary Thomas, an American exorcist, blames the global rise in demand for exorcists on a culture that is increasingly adopting superstitious practices such as tarot card reading, fortune telling, and other occult rituals. Yet despite 180 cases brought before him, Father Thomas has only performed a dozen major exorcisms- this is the ritual that is commonly thought of when the term exorcism is brought up.
But this requires strict oversight by the church, which takes great pains to ensure the individual has ruled out other medical or psychological reasons for their problems. This caution comes as a result of several high profile incidents involving exorcisms where victims died during their ritual, many of which were believed to be suffering from mental illnesses and not demonic possession. In 1999 the church carried out the first major reform on the rules for exorcism since 1614, taking into account advances in medicine and psychology.
Now, official exorcists sanctioned by the Vatican work with a team of doctors, psychiatrists, and psychologists- all of them practicing Catholics- to rule out mental or physical illness as the cause of an individual's disturbance. Now back to our exorcism- was it real? Friedkin took the video of the exorcism to two of the world's best neurosurgeons and a group of psychiatrists in New York.
The first to view the video was Dr Neil Martin, chief of neurosurgery at UCLA Medical Center and a man considered to be amongst the top 1% in his field. His response was as follows: “Absolutely amazing. There’s a major force at work within her somehow.
I don’t know the underlying origin of it. She’s not separated from the environment. She’s not in a catatonic state.
She’s responding to the priest and is aware of the context. The energy she shows is amazing. The priest on the right is struggling to control her.
He’s holding her down, as are the others, and the sweat is dripping off his face at a time when she’s not sweating. This doesn’t seem to be hallucinations. She appears to be engaged in the process but resisting.
You can see she has no ability to pull herself back. ” When asked if this could be some kind of brain disorder, Dr Martin responded that the only thing it could be is delirium, but the strange, deep voice that the woman was speaking in could not be attributed to delirium. He went on to say, “I’ve done thousands of surgeries, on brain tumors, traumatic brain injuries, ruptured brain aneurysms, infections affecting the brain, and I haven’t seen this kind of consequence from any of those disorders.
This goes beyond anything I’ve ever experienced—that’s for certain. ” Dr Itzhak Fried, a neurosurgeon and clinical specialist in epilepsy surgery was also unable to offer a diagnosis or possible treatment for what he was seeing. He did however state that he was sure it wasn't the result of any physical phenomenon, and the best he could guess was that it must somehow be psychological.
The psychologists who viewed the video were far less convinced that this wasn't just mental illness however- though there is some truth to the saying that to a hammer every problem looks like a nail. According to one, this looked to him like classic Dissociative Trance and Possession Disorder, however being that the definition of DTPD is a belief that one is possessed, this could simply be the scientific labeling for a very real demonic phenomenon. There is evidence that possessed individuals are often simply suffering from delusions or other psychological disorders- there is however no explanation as to how a woman with no education in Latin is not only able to understand it when engaged in an exorcism, but respond in it as well.
Is the Vatican secretly waging war against the devil? Science has yet to provide a convincing answer for a problem the church claims it has been battling for millenia. But the Vatican is not alone in this, as exorcisms are a common ritual across every single culture in the world, making the belief in demonic possession a global phenomenon.
While science can't offer any definitive answers, the church cautions that even taking an interest in demonic possessions can be all the invitation a wandering demon needs to make you its next host. So if you start speaking in dead languages or you start seeing figures standing at the foot of your bed at night, it might be time to talk to a priest. Now go check out The Real Life Exorcism Even Scarier Than A Movie, or click this other video instead- if you dare!
