One by one, Follain debunks the conspiracy theories that sprouted in the days and weeks after the Vatican murders - that the culprit was a mysterious fourth person who wanted Estermann eliminated because he was an East German spy (Follain sniffs all this out by going to Berlin), or a plant by Opus Dei the other two victims were supposedly incidental casualties who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But, surprisingly, he does not further pursue Navarro’s connection to the religious group Opus Dei, even though Commander Estermann and his wife Gladys were also involved in the organisation. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Pope’s Secretary of State, is “a rotund figure with owlish glasses” who “loves secrecy as much as he hates criticism” Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, head of the Congregation of Bishops, is “a pure Curia bureaucrat” who has “rabbit teeth and narrow eyes”.įollain deduces that the papal spokesman, Navarro-Valls, “wields more power than most princes of the Church” by sardonically pointing out that he “wears his pink porphyry ring bearing his family’s coat of arms as if it were a cardinal’s seal of office”. He paints a picture of a corps in crisis, and exposes the discrimination that young Tornay was forced to endure for the simple reason that he was a French-speaking member of a force made up mainly of German-speakers.įollain sketches some rather entertaining, if unflattering, profiles of several Vatican officials. Not only are there serious problems of morale and even morality, but the Guards are also deficient in modern military weaponry and preparation. And he finds out plenty, which offers great material for a tantalising tale.įirst, he discovers some ugly stains behind the colourful façade of the Swiss Guards. “The more I studied the way the Vatican had reacted to the deaths,” he writes, “the more I suspected that it was being economical with the truth.” This is where his story begins.Īrmed with the skills of a good investigative reporter, he starts poking about in this city of secrets - and far beyond - to find out whether there is more to the murders than the Vatican is saying. But, like many of the journalists in Rome, John Follain doesn’t buy it. This investigation was meant to prove the truth of the matter. Ten months later, an in-house inquiry (as an independent country, the Vatican had no obligation to seek outside assistance) “ended just the way the Pope’s spokesman predicted it would end”. The double homicide and suicide were committed, says Navarro-Valls, in a “fit of madness”. There were no eye-witnesses to their deaths, yet the Pope’s press director, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, has already solved the case: he says the younger Guard, Cedric Tornay, murdered the other two, Alois Estermann and Gladys Meza Romero, before turning the gun on himself. It is 5 May, the morning after a newly appointed Swiss Guard commander has been found dead in a pool of blood inside the Vatican, together with his wife and a young corporal. The book begins on what Follain calls “the darkest day of the long reign of John Paul II”. But whether or not one believes that Follain delivers the goods, he does spin a page-turning narrative that leaves the reader wondering, at times, whether this is a factual account or a just a clever work of historical fiction. TRUTH? What is truth? The sub-title of John Follain’s book promises more than the author is really qualified to deliver: nothing less than “the truth” behind the Swiss Guard murders in the Vatican in 1998. Book title: City of secrets: The truth behind the murders at the Vatican
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