Scandal in Italy - Benedict XVI is going to die in coming year?

fot. David Iliff. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0

Whole Italy was discussing the news about revealing the note in which pope Benedict XVI was supposed to die in the coming year.

This anonymous, written in German note was had been published by left-wing daily "Il Fatto Quotidiano", one of the largest newspapers in Italy. It was supposedly given to a pope in January by cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyo. As the source for these notes is considered archbishop of Palermo, Paolo Romeo, who was visiting China last year.

The information was contradicted by Vatican as "nonsense", but it didn't disturb to start a real histeriain Italian media. Comentators have been pointing out, that the archbishop of Palermo didn't have a private visit in China, but according to "Il Fatto Quotidiano" his main aim was to represent the Church in the country.


As prince Gorchakov once said: “I don't believe in news that are not officially denied”, that is why we should consider why such an experienced diplomat as archbishop Romeo is, had revealed such information?

Benedict XVI is not the youngest one, he will be 85 this year, but there can be something more behind the information about pope's possible death, maybe they know something about his health? There were some rumors about possible assasination of Benedict XVI, but it seems that if anybody wanted his death, he would be in a hurry.

Italy controlled by mafia

According to the report published by Daily Mail, the crisis did not affect Italian mafia which seems to be in really good shape. 

Organised crime is very profitable business in Italy, it gives almost 100 bilion euro profit per annum. Its traditional forms of earning money is, thanks to the crisis, getting less profitable than their new business. 

The report reveals that mafia's new source of income are expensive loans given to companies. Marco Venturi, president of Confesercenti - an association of small- and medium-sized companies, and publisher of the report - described the Mafia as 'the biggest bank in the country'. In his opinion more than 190,000 businesses had been forced to shut in the past three years, as a result of extortion and loan sharking.

Due to the report, loans are easier and more profitable than drug running, arms smuggling, prostitution or gambling. What is more, most important players are interested in Italy's capital - Rome: 

• Sycylian mafia - created in 19th centrury widely known as Cosa Nostra (green),

• Camorra - decentralized and conflicted structure from Campania (orange),

• 'Ndrangheta - connected with Calabria (blue), considered as one of the most powerful crime organisations in the world

• Sacra Corona Unita - the youngest one, the strongest especially in Apulia (yellow) and in Albania, 

Italian mafia joins the exclusive and elitist club of the crisis beneficiaries. When we take a look on growing power and influence of several states in the world, we must give credits to popular Polish aforist and script-writer Andrzej Majewski, who noticed that: "well organised criminal group is being called mafia, best organised mafia is being called the state".

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People close connected to Goldman-Sachs influencing Europe

British “The Independent” puts some light on particular connections between one of the largest banks in the world, the Goldman-Sachs and many high-rank state officials from eurozone countries. 

The authors of the article are reminding that the new Italian prime minister, Mario Monti, was earlier an European commissioner for competition and was bank’s advisor for many years. It is not only one example. 

Jean Claude Trichet’s successor on the seat of the chairman of ECB, Mario Draghi in the 2002-2005 period was managing director of the bank and later he returned to public service as a chairman of Italian central bank. Not a long time ago European division of IMF was managed by Antonio Borges who had similar connections, while Otmar Issing as a board member of the German Bundesbank and then the European Central Bank, was one of the architects of the euro. 

Less likely to surprise us are connections of the Greek politicians, where Petros Christodoulou, who is managing government debt was beginning his career in Goldman-Sachs, while present prime minister, Lucas Papademos used to work as a chairman of the Greek central bank and is also a member of Trilateral Commission. 

Goldman-Sachs bank is being cattily called a “Vampire Squid”. In the rank I was quoting in the Polish version ofthis blog, I have displayed the rank of the 147 most influential companies in the world. At that time, Goldman-Sachs was 18th but the rank was based on the data from 2007, I wonder which rank would the bank have now?

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