The Vatican Exposed: Money, Murder, and the Mafia

Rating:
Summary: Vatican is worse than the mafia!
Review: At least the Mafia does not pick on little boys and sexually abuse them.

This book is non-fiction, but is as entertaining as fiction.

It is sad but true, and quite sickening.

Rating:
Summary: Most Catholics still don't get it.
Review: Criticize the Catholic Church, and suddenly the lapdogs come out of the woodwork and accuse you the equivalent of anti-Semitism. The anti-Semitism of the intellectual elitists, these trashers of discourse often say. What, exactly, are they trying to protect--or better yet--hide? And why? The Catholic Church has such a long and grotesque history of sins--from papal sex toys, to pederasty, to graft, extortion, and torture--that it is hard to believe that anyone aiming to be Christ-like in their behavior would remain a member of the Church.

But, as this book persuasively shows, the early 20th Century provided no respite from Church-sponsored evils. Many think the Catholic Churched committed "mere" errors of omission during World War II, such as maintaining close relationships with the Nazi Party in Germany, and merely looking away from the horrors of the Holocaust. But it was much worse than that. As Williams shows in albeit simplistic terms, the Vatican took money from scoundrels and devils, assisted Mussolini and his henchmen in both taking and holding power, and more actively worked with fascists in Germany and elsewhere for the singleminded quest to obtain sufficient funds to continue its lavish ways.

Every Catholic should read this.

And then revolt.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Look at Vatican Corruption
Review: During the late 1970's and early 1980's, the Vatican's finances were in the hands of Cardinal Paul Marcinkus. Marcinkus was corrupt and he placed the Holy See's investments in the hands of Roberto Calvi and Michele Sidona, both of whom were Mafia-connected bankers. Their corruption lead to the collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano in 1982 and caused the exposure of one of the greatest scandals in Papal history.

Where it stays on focus on this scandal, Paul L. Williams's The Vatican Exposed: Money, Murder, and the Mafia is an excellent work. However, when it strays from this scandal into other aspects of the Vatican's finances, this book gets shaky. Williams simply bites off more than he can chew.

For instance, Williams calls the Vatican's financing of anti-Communist efforts during the Cold War a scandal. But is not sticking up for your fellow Catholics against atheistic dictatorship a fundamental duty of a church? Also, he attempts to link the Vatican to other financial scandals often without any real proof. In other words, he tries to make the Vatican out to be more corrupt than it really is.

Ths book is worth reading only as far as the Marcinkus scandal is concerned. After that, it becomes not much more than shallow sensationalism and bad reporting.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Look at Vatican Corruption
Review: During the late 1970's and early 1980's, the Vatican's finances were in the hands of Cardinal Paul Marcinkus. Marcinkus was corrupt and he placed the Holy See's investments in the hands of Roberto Calvi and Michele Sidona, both of whom were Mafia-connected bankers. Their corruption lead to the collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano in 1982 and caused the exposure of one of the greatest scandals in Papal history.

Where it stays on focus on this scandal, Paul L. Williams's The Vatican Exposed: Money, Murder, and the Mafia is an excellent work. However, when it strays from this scandal into other aspects of the Vatican's finances, this book gets shaky. Williams simply bites off more than he can chew.

For instance, Williams calls the Vatican's financing of anti-Communist efforts during the Cold War a scandal. But is not sticking up for your fellow Catholics against atheistic dictatorship a fundamental duty of a church? Also, he attempts to link the Vatican to other financial scandals often without any real proof. In other words, he tries to make the Vatican out to be more corrupt than it really is.

Ths book is worth reading only as far as the Marcinkus scandal is concerned. After that, it becomes not much more than shallow sensationalism and bad reporting.

Rating:
Summary: A slight problem with 'image'
Review: Genuinely shocking book if you are not up on the literature in this nook and cranny, dark and ominous--coreleonic. Beyond questions of shadow finance lies the sherlockian big one. It is hard to grasp how media manipulation can succeed here. It is a sad exploitation of innocent believers. At least enter the undeground by acquainting yourself with the facts.

Rating:
Summary: Fact over Fiction
Review: People often find it disheartening to be told that something they hold reverence too is not what it seems. This book will surly suffer commendation by those that either refuse to allow such thoughts to permeate their beliefs or those that lack the historical reading to nod in agreement with Mr. Williams work. This book makes an excellent primer for those seeking the history of the Vatican or Catholicism in general, however, if you are not willing to except harsh criticism of such then I suggest to those, do not read it.

This book is a historically accurate work, however, it is brief. If are well read in the histories of Catholicism or the Vatican it is unlikely that you will learn anything new.

Rating:
Summary: Fact over Fiction
Review: People often find it disheartening to be told that something they hold reverence too is not what it seems. This book will surly suffer commendation by those that either refuse to allow such thoughts to permeate their beliefs or those that lack the historical reading to nod in agreement with Mr. Williams work. This book makes an excellent primer for those seeking the history of the Vatican or Catholicism in general, however, if you are not willing to except harsh criticism of such then I suggest to those, do not read it.

This book is a historically accurate work, however, it is brief. If are well read in the histories of Catholicism or the Vatican it is unlikely that you will learn anything new.

Rating:
Summary: The Title says it All
Review: This book is nothing more than the usual claptrap from someone trying to make a buck. if you bought this yellow journalism thinking you were getting beef on the whole "vatican-nazi" connection, mr. williams has played you for a stooge. even the guy who critiqued this book before me had nothing out of the ordinary to say--just more of the same, 'the vatican is full of pediphiles, the pope himself shoveled people into furnaces for hitler, the college of cardinals is the original COSANOSTRA, yada, yada.' where are the documents, people? why did the entire world--no less a global figure than golda meir--mourn the death of pius XII as "a great friend of the friendless jews"? why did the new york times declare that in the winter of 1942-3 only pius' christmas addresses spoke out as a "lonely voice in the wilderness" on behalf of european jewry? why did the SS in rome report back to hitler that pius was "obviously speaking on behalf of the jews and...other undesireables" whenever the pope would condemn racism, "purity of blood myths", unchecked military aggression, and so forth? why did vatican city itself gain a reputation as the only safe haven for downed allied pilots strafing german positions in rome? more recently--why was pope john paul II 'warned' not to go to sicily and roundly condemn the mafia dons that allied generals like patton kept in power at the end of WWII? if the church and mussolini had anything at all in common, it was their common loathing of the italian--namely the sicilian--mafia. how could they have been as cosy as mr. williams suggests if mussolini purposely set out to destroy the mafia (i.e., the church, according to the author) as they constituted a blatant rival to his consolidation of power? please...you're straining your own convoluted logic.