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Radio War Nerd EP #524 — The American Pope, feat. Annibale (Patreon)

Published:
2025-05-24 00:46:13
Imported:
2025-05
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Guest: AnnibaleRecorded: May 20, 2025

Annibale joins us to discuss the politics of Pope Francis and his hand-picked successor, Pope Leo XIV, in the era of American decline. We also discuss the Vatican Bank (IOR) scandals, Mafia suicides, "the Pope's Marines" and more...

*Roberto "God's Banker" Calvi, and Archbishop Paul "The Gorilla" Marcinkus

*Calvi's "suicide"

Total time: 1:38:02Direct link to this episode's mp3 here

*

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Sound production by Telescope Audio

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Comments

Steven Wilsher

I was going over Blackfriars on Thursday, where I always spare a thought for Roberto, Paul and the boys, having devoured In God's Name as a teenager. Actually I'm quite lucky to live in a place where the assassination sites have really nice views from the river, and for me going over Waterloo Bridge is a nice mixture of Ray Davies and Georgi Markov.

a clash of purple

For me, the most interesting point raised in this discussion was what choosing a U.S. Pope means. It never occurred to me that they'd refrained from picking an American Pope because the U.S. is too strong, or that the choice of Leo might be a recognition that the U.S.'s position in the world is weakening.

xnfec

Wasn't James Jesus Angleton a devout Catholic?

j

Glad the cat is safe… check for burns on the paws,, our cat had friction burns from sliding down the bark,, pretty sever burns to… might explain the limping.

Joe S.

So how many divisions does this new Pope have?

OH

So glad you’re enjoying my land. John highly recommended checking out Bacalar, some pirate stories in that area.

Mac

In regards to the cat, if it happens again an arborist company may be able to help, they have the equipment and experience to climb some very sketchy trees, usually they are all ropes and climbing spikes so unstable ground shouldn't matter.

blazed uncle

Marcinkus is easily the funniest figure in the modern history of the Church

SB

Bill Colbey rather?

Demented Avenger

But it makes sense, however. Picking an American Pope in 1978 doesn't really do anything as American power was so great that all you're gonna get is the Vatican sucking up to Washington, compromising it elsewhere. Now Washington might actually have to listen to the Vatican to get a thing or two it wants.

Demented Avenger

Christ, this one was interesting. I really started to understand the Church's place in the world and how it interacts with and differentiates itself from other sources of power for the first time. It's less of a bunch of sleazy rentier pedophiles to me now.

j

Been listening to grey alliance series from Aaron Good on American exception podcast/YouTube. Angelton is featured often, after hours of info I don’t think anyone can say that Angelton was a devout anything.

a clash of purple

They're a bunch of sleazy rentier pedophiles, but so is very other hierarchical institution. I never understood why people act as if the Catholics are somehow uniquely bad in that regard. And secular organizations are no better. Remember Jared Fogle? Even Subway spokespeople have their crimes covered up and are moved around to protect them.

Matelda

There are several churches in Gaza. Pope Francis was calling Holy Family which is Catholic and still standing, though it has been attacked by Israel since 10/7, as has St. Porphyrius, the Orthodox church. As I understand it Pope Leo only registered as a Republican in 2023 and voted in a couple primaries. Correct me if I'm wrong but the record i saw indicates that he doesn't vote much at all. Hopefully conservative Catholics will be more likely to listen to him based on that identification though. I'm a little worried that there seem to be a lot of fake sermons on Youtube attributed to him and fake quotes of him circulating, reciting babybrain rightwing nonsense. Maybe why some of his first statements have been against AI.

Jonathan Penn

An interesting, if overlong episode.

Jonathan Penn

The Catholic church has been deeply corrupt since the 1500s (remember what so annoyed Luther?) and I am afraid that neither Francis nor Leo are going to be able to fundamentally change that. I doubt very much that the Catholic church has seen the end of its endless sex abuse cases and settlements. Finally, although Leo may be taking a "strong" stance on Gaza, it will make little difference either in the short or the long term. Netanyahu is going to let in just enough food so that it qualifies as a fig leaf, not one calorie more. The starvation will continue, but at a slightly slower pace. The Gaza Strip has already been effectively leveled and rendered uninhabitable. Nothing Leo says is going to even ameliorate conditions there, let alone provide anything resembling justice to the Palestinians. Gaza's future much more resembles Trump's condo-city-by-the sea than a place for Palestinians. Catholicism's relevance in geo-political terms is slim to none. And please, never, ever, ever refer to J. D. Vance as Catholic. If he had to betray Christ 27 times (yes, 3x cubed!) to become President, he would do so without hesitation.

Matelda

Leo's stance on Gaza won't affect Netanyahu directly but depending on how far he takes it, he could affect American politics dramatically.

Bryan Nicholson

As a product of Jesuit education (US grades 3-14), and a lapsed Catholic, I ate up this episode with a fork and knife. Fascinating to hear Annibale speak of the dictatorship of Francis and touch briefly on the financial scandals of recent decades before speaking on the political grounding of the current Pope. I found myself feeling oddly optimistic about the future of the Church. Or if it has none, at least I can hector all the politically conservative US Catholics in my family for the foreseeable future. Long live all the Leo’s 🦁 (and Løven)!

Exotic Instinct

Just clicked that the Bene Gesserit were Jesuit

a clash of purple

Until we get a Pope with the guts to excommunicate all American Catholics as the godless heretics they are, Vance gets to be Catholic. And I don't think you understood the point of the episode. Francis's goal, shared by Leo (according to Annibale), was to revitalize the Church. They aim to provide *moral* leadership in the world, not political. It doesn't matter if they actually achieve something. If anything, they get more out of championing lost causes. They want to get those conversion and church attendance numbers up.

Benke

Pope Hannibal the first

Benke

Tbh I always felt that the child abuse scandals were overblown sensationalism that glossed over huge financial scams like Bank Ambrosiano, CIA dark money going to anti soviet dissidents, mafia money laundering, P2 lodge connections etc. Pope JP2 just like Zbig Brzeziński took the resources of their countries to help Poland regain independence no matter the costs.

Jonathan Penn

I'm glad you put "moral leadership" in quotes. After the Church's performance in W. W. II, the Catholic Irish Laundries for young women, the world-wide sexual abuse, the Church has precious little in the way of morals which with to lead...

drizzly_november

I’m sorry, I don’t think the revelations that the Church was knowingly harboring serial rapists on an industrial scale was overblown. I grew up in Boston when the Spotlight stories broke, and it ripped a wound in Catholic community life that’s never really recovered. And it’s part of the financial story too, the settlements stemming from decades of abuse allegations is putting an enormous strain on dioceses, at least here in the US.

Tom Warner

re: gaza, why should anyone bother trying anything then? if there's any correct move for a religious institution to be taking, in my opinion, it's to be a voice of moral authority and to use whatever influence it has to call out the injustices of the powerful. not saying that other things the Church has done are worth defending (many are reprehensible!) but i don't understand criticizing this, especially the pessimistic angle

Jonathan Penn

What the Church has done and is doing vis-a-vis Gaza is such weak tea as to be meaningless. If the Church used its full range of whatever power it has remaining to excoriate the powers that are continuing to arm and assist Israel in the on-going genocide of the Palestinians, that would be one thing and something to applaud, even if it were unlikely to materially improve the conditions in Gaza and the West Bank. But when all the Church can do is make milquetoast level comments that what is going on is bad, I'm sorry, it is pointless and pathetic.

PW

The child scandals destroyed the RC Church in the US. That and books like In God's Name by David Yallop just removed any semblance of ecclesiastical authority from the hearts, minds and pocketbooks of the punters propping up the RCC. Everyone saw that the church was only interested in protecting itself from crimes its employees had committed no matter what harm that caused. Yes, former Catholic here. And good riddance I say. You want real Christianity? Look at Greek, Russian and Eastern Orthodox. That's as close as you will get. Personally, I prefer the consolation of philosophy.

CR

Robert Hannsen was

CR

Just watch The Godfather part 3, guys. The bank. The consortium. The banker’s suicide. Conspiracy theory Coppola is the best Coppola.

Michael S. Judge

"English Catholics" just don't fuckin' sit right with me