God’s Banker I 4. The Priest and the Spy

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Campsite Media Good evening. The Pope is in Poland.
The leader of the Roman Catholic Church has returned home. Home to a nation that is both communist and devoutly Catholic.
It was a hot day in 1979 when Pope John Paul II's plane touched down on the Polish runway.

Half the world was monitoring the plane's itinerary on television.

No pope has ever visited a communist country before.

It is a profound religious and political event.

He'd been pope only eight months,

the first non-Italian pope in over 400 years.

And as a proud Polish citizen, he was returning to his homeland for the first time since taking on the papacy. But it wasn't just a homecoming.
It was an incredibly dangerous political act. Most members of the Polish Communist Party Presidium had strong objections to the pope's visit, but realized there was little they could do to prevent it.
Because Poland at that time was 90% Catholic, and Poles were desperate to see their beloved son come home. But Poland was also communist, part of the Soviet bloc.
And communist leaders saw religion, and the Catholic Church in particular, as a threat, a rival. They'd been trying to banish Christianity in Poland for decades.
In the 70s, protests and strikes were breaking out in multiple cities across the country. And now, here were over a million pro-Christian and likely anti-communist citizens altogether lining the streets of Warsaw, amped up for their pope.
A crackdown seemed inevitable. If not by Polish authorities, then by the Soviet army.
Though Polish officials didn't want to allow the pope's visit, denying his entry meant that they'd face a possible riot. No other pope had managed to slip behind the Iron Curtain before.
But this pope, the Polish pope,

he made his way in, which was unbelievable.

Christ had breached the Iron Curtain.

The West had breached the curtain.

Every Catholic who grew up during the Cold War

probably knows about this trip.

It was like a grudge match.

The pope facing off against the communists.

At stake was the fate of Poland. ...shaping up as the greatest demonstration of church loyalty ever seen in a Soviet bloc country.
I've heard this story from my grandmother, who watched this scene from her television in Rome. But I never actually saw the images until now.
In front of millions, and I mean millions, of Poles, Pope John Paul II strode confidently on a platform that was half-altar, half-monsters-of-rock stage. He was calm, like he knew exactly what he was doing.
He knew that his next move could change the course of Polish history and really world history. Would he encourage Poles to rise up against communism and risk their lives? Or would he play it safe? With police and spies for the KGB watching in the wings, John Paul didn't explicitly tell his country folk to fight, but he did tell them to keep living the life that God wanted for them.
To keep going to church, keep supporting trade unions in defiance of Soviet policies. John Paul's call is clear.
Embrace God. Choose him, not a communist doctrine.
Have faith. Then the Pope looked out into the crowd and paused.
I assumed that there would be mass arrests erupting at this point, but no. At the end of the homily, the Polish crowds began to sing.
Frequent long applause interrupted him and once led spontaneously to an old Polish song they sang with their Pope's amplified voice in unison, changing the Soviet-approved words, God bless our independent Poland, to the words, God bring an independent Poland. Then the crowds chanted, we want God.
Some say the cheers went on for 14 minutes as Soviet police looked on helplessly. His speech had finished an hour before in this town square, but they wouldn't let him go, nor did he want to.
It's clear from the videos that emotions were running high throughout this demonstration of Catholic faith in the heart of Soviet Poland.

But even with over a million devotees of Pope John Paul

standing in the heart of Warsaw and thousands of cops at the ready,

the day didn't end in violence.

But a revolution had begun.

The Pope spent nine days in his mother country, nine triumphant days, according to a New York Times headline. And when he went back to Rome, the Pope was determined to keep the momentum up.
He wanted to throw fuel on the anti-communist fire. He wanted to keep the resistance alive.
And what the resistance needed now was money, lots of it. But the Pope couldn't just deliver hundreds of thousands of dollars to them.
This was the Cold War. And if the money was traced back to the Vatican, hell, if it was detected by the Soviets at all, it could incite a violent backlash against his beloved Polish Catholics.
Or worse, it could begin a full-on war.

The Pope needed someone who could come up with the money

and smuggle it across the world without being traced.

Someone who was in a desperate enough position

to do whatever the church asked him to do.

And in the early 80s, there was one banker who fit the bill perfectly. From Crooked Media and Campside Media, this is Shadow Kingdom, God's Banker.
I'm Niccolo Mainoni, and this is episode four, The Priest and the Spy. Suddenly, a hand, a gun, and a volley of fire.
The people who pulled the strings, the puppet masters, had been from Moscow. Shadow Kingdom is brought to you by Lumen.
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advertising purchases and select media, and U.S. purchases atvi, whose name had been outed in a secret Masonic conspiracy, needed a high-powered patron to bounce back.
And they, the Pope and Calvi, would come together via a six-foot-two, rugby-playing bishop. He is a man of great power, the governor of Vatican City and the head of the Vatican Bank.
Marcinkus is roughly the Vatican's number three. He is also a kind of chief bodyguard for the Pope, the burly figure you see next to John Paul on foreign trips.
Archbishop Paul Marcinkus was an American from the outskirts of Chicago. Author Gerald Posner shared more.
He was larger than life. He smoked his cigars.
He played golf, and he was garrulous. He was outgoing.
And in 1971, shortly before meeting Calvi, Marcinkus added a new title to his Vatican resume. President of the Vatican Bank.
Did he have the financial experience to lead a bank? No. But did that stop him? Not a chance.
He knew his own limitations. He might not express them to anyone.
He would never say to the Pope, by the way, I don't think I'm cut out for this job. What he viewed himself as was the quintessential judge of good character.
And so therefore, he could find the right outside

bankers to do the work for him.

He could find the investment people

who would help him make

the Vatican Bank big.

Investment people like

Roberto Calvi.

After his 1979 trip

to Poland, Pope John Paul II

started to privately invite officials from the CIA to give him regular briefings and also invited Polish protest leaders to talk strategy.

He told Archbishop Marcinkus that he wanted to support the Polish resistance financially.

According to multiple reporters and the bishop himself, it was now Marcinkus' duty to get money to the Polish anti-communist groups without being caught. So, of course, Marcinkus turned to Calvi, who had already perfected the art of making Vatican cash disappear.
Gerald Podsner again. Marcinkus suddenly moves from just being the head of the Vatican Bank to having this position where he's now involved in this covert, surreptitious financing of, you know, money, CIA money and church money and others, back to Poland to destabilize communism.
As God's banker, Calvi would also become an anti-communist cash smuggler. You're probably thinking, why does the Vatican Bank, the one that can make money disappear, need Calvi to help them move funds anonymously? Well, the Vatican Bank is like a black box.
Cash that went in could disappear. And then it was a simple transfer to Switzerland or the Bahamas.

But as Posner told me, this holy war was more complicated. You weren't just transferring money to some Western hub.
You were sending money behind enemy lines, which required a higher level of skill and anonymity, often physically smuggling money and material. Plus, the Polish economy was on the verge of collapse, and the Vatican Bank had liquidity issues.
The Pope needed someone who could deploy millions ASAP. So, according to Calvi's written account, the Vatican asked for his help to find sources of cash and also ensure that cash was received behind the Iron Curtain.
And to Calvi, this seemed like the best way to gain some salvation from his own critical debt situation. Gerald Posner told me that after the P2 membership list was outed, many of Calvi's investors wanted to distance themselves from him.
So it's bad for him because they're suddenly trying to show less of those connections. And that means he can't pick up the phone, just call them and ask them to write a check for him for another one of his ventures in the Caribbean.
Which meant less cash in Calvi's bank. This created a problem for Calvi.
The money that he would normally use to keep his operation going was drying up.

If he was in the Pope's good graces,

perhaps he could leverage that trust

to gain more support for his bank.

He needed to make sure

that the church kept the investments

they already had in his bank,

Banco Ambrosiano,

as other investors were jumping ship.

And so, Calvi got to work.

But soon after, Calvi received word from a spy who said he knew all about his plans with the

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See you out for details. Espresso, pre-interview espresso is being made.
It's the summer of 2023. Another sweltering day in Italy.
And I'm in what looks like a pool house at a villa, waiting for an espresso to be made before my source is willing to talk to me. He didn't give me his address until a few minutes before the interview, which I'm getting used to at this point.
Do you have a favorite place to sit somewhere? Maybe. I put my ass wherever I want.
You put your ass wherever you want? Yeah. Okay.
He lights up his pipe and will continue to do so, refilling and lighting throughout our five-hour interview. My name is Francesco, but everybody call me Frank.
Francesco, Frank, Pazienza is a jack of all trades. He was a medical doctor, a hard-nosed businessman,

and most importantly,

Patienza used to be a spy

working for the Italian version of the CIA.

Posner told me that if I wanted to understand

how Calvi and the Pope were working together

to send money behind the Iron Curtain,

I had to talk to Patienza

because at the time, he was spying on the Vatican. You see, one of the dirty secrets I've learned about the Vatican was that cardinals and bishops were all spying on each other.
One rival cardinal apparently hired Patienza to dig up dirt on Archbishop Marcinkus.

And so what do you, he tells you this, he implies, fuck Marcinkus.

What are you thinking?

What's going on in your head?

I was thinking, I was thinking, I said something funny is going on over there.

But I had the idea that I was living probably one of the most important situation of the world. So I say I have to find the documents.
Frank Pazienza had to find a document so scandalous that it could take down Marcinkus. So Pazienza worked his connections and said he found damning financial statements between Marcinkus, Sindona and Calvi.
He wouldn't go into more detail except to say this would have undermined the Calvi-Marsinkus covert operation. The two men would be exposed before they'd barely begun.
But being a very Italian spy, Pazienza didn't bring this information to the cardinal who hired him. He had his own agenda.
He made contact with Calvi. And then the banker invited him to meet.
The rendezvous was set for an office on Via della Concilazione in Rome, the massive boulevard that goes from the Tiber River to the doors of St. Peter's Basilica.
On the day of, Patienza made his way to the address

and went up a few flights of stairs to the room.

And there he saw God's banker.

Suit, tie, mustache.

Calvi was seated.

So he gets up and he shakes your hand.

Do you remember the handshake?

You just shook my hand and it was kind of limp. That's right.
That's a Calvin. Oh, you think it's emblematic of him? Emblematic.
Very emblematic. So you shake his hand.
It's limp. Then what happens? I think, President, we have a problem.
I say, what's the problem? You're making a gesture that you're taking out documents from a briefcase. Pazienza said he laid out the documents showing Calvi's secret transfers between the Vatican, the Ambrosiano, and its offshore companies.
He told me, what do you want to do now? I say, listen, I'm very frank. I don't give a shit about you.
You said this to the most important private banker in Italy in 1981. I is classic Pazienza.
He told Calvi, I don't give a shit about you. Maybe you don't understand.
I only care about the Pope. Pazienza thought this was a true conspiracy against the Pope inside the Vatican.
And he said he didn't want to be a part of it. Patienza was on their side.
I was considering myself a fighter, a soldier. A soldier for what army? A soldier against the international communists.
Why? Why fight international communism? Because I was I was hating the communism. I was hating the extremism.
Patienza hated communism. Why? Why fight international communism? Because I was hating the communism.

I was hating the extremism.

Pazienza hated communism.

He hated the extremism of it.

And so...

I took the...

You ripped...

The scrap is for you. I have no copy.

Pazienza is saying here

that he ripped up the document

in front of Calvi, handed it to him, and told him he didn't have any other copies. I had to ask this a few ways to confirm with Pacienza, but basically, he waltzed into Calvi's office and showed the banker blackmail material on the Vatican Bank, then tore it up.
From there, Pacienza told Calvi he was ready to quit the Italian CIA,

that he didn't have a special allegiance

to the left-leaning cardinals.

And Pazienza, anti-communist soldier,

thought he'd be better off working privately for the banker.

And I explained everything.

He didn't have any reaction.

He doesn't have any reaction.

He doesn't freak out and cry.

He says, actually, come work for me.

Yes.

And you tell him, yeah, but only if I do exactly what I want.

No, no.

I only report to you.

I only report to you, and we agree on my steps. This sounded unbelievable, except that it was confirmed in every book, every article I've read about Patienza's hiring.
In early 1981, he became Calvi's fixer for about a half a million dollars a year. Instead of fucking over Marcinkas, Patienza quit being a spy and went to work for the covert Marcinkas-Calvi Cold War slush fund syndicate.
What did that actually involve? Well, Calvi normally moved through loans and wire transfers. But to ensure that the money was untraceable, the best way here was to go with literal cash, gold preferably, moved across borders.
One story that Patiencea told me was about a call he got from Archbishop Marcinkus. He said that the Pope wanted to transport $3 million in gold across the Iron Curtain to a Polish anti-communist group.
If you send me, I would send you $3 million. A gram, two grams, et cetera, et cetera.
Pacienza flew the money to Calvi's associates in Switzerland, where the currency could be converted to small ingots of 99.99% pure gold. Pacienza then brought the gold back into Italy and then to the border of Italy and Yugoslavia.
There, he met a priest who would drive the gold to Poland in a small car. This is the car, the most expensive car in the world, I say, because it's $3 million car.
So I let check heaven, the brake, everything. Patienza said he checked every inch of this beat-up Soviet car, then put a false bottom for the gold And when the car was ready, I said Monsignor, how long did you take here? I said, listen, I drive day and night, a couple of days Okay, I said, this is the number you have to call from Danzica.
When you arrive in Danzica, you call me and say, Happy birthday! I understand that you arrived. Okay.
Pacienza told the priest, when you arrive at your destination in Danzig, Poland, give me a call. The code is Tanti Aguri, which is Italian for happy birthday.
So, Pazienza said day one passed and he stayed near his phone. Day two passed and still he waited.
On day three, Pazienza began to get nervous. Finally, the phone rang.
Dottore, buongiorno. Tanti auguri per il suo compleanno.
Grazie, grazie, grazie, grazie, grazie. Happy birthday.
Yeah, so the signal. Tutto a posto.
Ok, arrivederci. That was it.
That's enormous. That's huge.
That's an incredible moment.

This was the historical moment.

And it wasn't just in Poland.

Patienza told me he helped Calvi and Marcinkas

send money to anti-communist groups in Latin American countries

like Costa Rica and Panama.

And Calvi, in return, got to keep using the Vatican's money and reputation to keep his bank afloat, just as he had hoped. I have to admit, though these stories are great, it's hard to totally corroborate everything Patzenza has told me.
But when it comes to the basic question of did the Vatican task Calvi with moving funds to anti-communist groups,

there's a document I mentioned earlier that confirms it all for me.

Remember back in episode one when I talked about the letter Calvi had written to the Pope just days before he died?

The one where he proclaims the Pope to be his last hope?

A copy of which was also discovered tucked away in Calvi's briefcase. In Italian, Calvi wrote, quote, it was I who willingly took on the mistakes and faults of the Vatican bank.
It was I who on precise orders from your representatives arranged for money to get to entities throughout the East. In his final weeks, fearing for his safety, Calvi leveraged what he knew to try and get the Pope's protection.
He's begging and threatening all at the same time. But why was Calvi so scared in those final days? I know generally about the mafia and the fascist Freemasons,

and I'd learn more about the specifics of Calvi's death.

But in the spring of 1981,

something happened that would really set Calvi on edge.

Pacienza told me everything was going smoothly

in their new money movement operation for the first few months. But then he got a call from the Pope's right-hand man.
So the telephone rings. It was Marcinko's.
He said, you, you, you didn't see what's happened. I said, no, Monsignor, what's happened? No, you don't know.
They shot the Pope. Come here immediately.
Suddenly, a hand, a gun, and a volley of fire. The Pope slumped, hit by two bullets.
There was just an instance of silence, and then the screams, at which point the crowds just swarmed over the vehicle, and almost immediately, armed guards, there hadn't been any scene previous to that, came out and a lot of screaming and yelling going on. Patienza rushed to St.
Peter's Square in Vatican City where Pope John Paul II was shot, but was caught in a sea of worshippers, of priests and journalists. Patienza regrouped with Calvi and Marcinkus to judge the fallout.
And very quickly, suspicion drifted toward the Soviet Union. NBC News has accumulated a great deal of evidence linking the attempted murder here in St.
Peter's Square to the political and diplomatic needs of Red Square. There were all types of rumors, and so the question was whether the communists had decided to kill the Pope.
Gerald Posner again. There's no question.
Marchinkus and others inside the Vatican thought it was a very real possibility that the people who pulled the strings, the puppet masters, had been from Moscow. And in the year to come, Calvi would become increasingly afraid for his own personal safety and increasingly desperate.
If the Pope's anti-communist activities made him a target, if the Pope, with his own security force, could be shot in broad daylight, what might happen to Roberto Calvi? Calvi had poked the biggest bears in Italian society at this point,

from the Soviets to the Freemasons to the mafia. There were a ton of powerful people with motives to punish Roberto Calvi.
And just a few days after the Pope was shot, someone finally did come for God's banker. But it wasn't P2 or the Russians.

It was the police.

That's next time on Shadow Kingdom.

You see what's happening, but you don't fully understand.

Pazienza called me.

He was screaming and crying, saying, Clara, we can't find him. Carboni was a very intelligent man.
Bart was a son of a bitch. Shadow Kingdom is a production of Crooked Media and Campside Media.
It's hosted and reported by me, Niccolo Mainoni,

with additional reporting by Simona Zeki and Joe Hawthorne.

The show is written by Joe Hawthorne,

Ashley Ann Krigbaum, and me.

Joe Hawthorne is our lead producer,

and Ashley Ann Krigbaum is our managing producer.

Tracy Samuelson is our story editor.

Sound design, mix, and mastering by Mark McAdam.

Our theme song and original score are composed by me and Mark McAdam. Our studio engineer is Iwan Lai Tremuwen.
Voice acting by Bonnie Biagini, Andrea Bianchi, Ferrante Cosma, Luca De Gennaro, Michele Teodori, and Mustafa Zialan. Field recording by Justin Trieger, Jonathan Zenti, Pete Shev, Jonathan Gruber, and Joanna Broder.
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You can also listen to Shadow Kingdom in Italian.

Look up Il Banchiere di Dio wherever you get your podcasts.