A documentary was made about the Pontifical Scottish College in Rome. The Scottish College, together with the National Church of Scotland and a hospice, is part of the Scottish National Foundation in Rome, which was founded in 1600. The idea for this came to Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585) and was supported by Queen Mary Stuart. By that time, the unity of faith in Scotland had already been broken and the state was shattered by radical Protestant tendencies (in 1560, the Scottish Parliament had introduced Calvinism against the will of the Queen). Rome sought ways to support Scottish Catholics and the Catholic faith in Scotland. The documentary was broadcast on Easter Sunday. It also showed footage of a meeting between the Scottish seminarians and Pope Francis. However, some of this video footage was removed from the film at the intervention of the Holy See. Vatican censorship concerns a scene, as reported by the Daily Record, where the Scottish seminarians presented the Pope with a bottle of Scotch whisky. Not what can be seen addressed by the censors, but what could have been heard: Francis said at the presentation of the whisky:
"That's the real holy water".
The final version of the documentary about Scots College, which aired on Sunday, lacked the above-mentioned scene, according to the Scottish Daily Record, which is close to the Labour Party. Actor and TV presenter Tony Kearney, a member of BBC Alba, the Gaelic-language broadcaster of BBC Scotland, was the documentary's production director. He confirmed the incident to the newspaper:
"He was really down-to-earth with everyone, and when they gave him the bottle, he took it and said 'questa' la vera Acqua Santa' instead of simply giving it to his assistant, as he would normally do with a gift. It means, 'That's the real holy water.'"
The pope then "laughed loudly."
Pope Francis on the whisky he was presented with: "This is the real holy water"
The "joke," Kearney says, served to break the ice with the seminarians. All footage relating to the pope had to be approved by the documentary filmmakers from the Vatican's Communications Department, which was set up by Francis in 2015. Upon its intervention, the scene was deleted.
"I am a Freemason, and Bergoglio too"
Tony Kearney called it a "joke." There have been several similarly joking, ambiguous scenes with Pope Francis. Is this also the basis of the following episode?
Roberto Garcia is a well-known journalist in Argentina. From 1970 to 1972 he was Programme Director of Canal 9, 1983-2008 editor-in-chief of the business daily Ambito Financiero. Today, he is a sought-after columnist. Since 2009, a permanent column by him has appeared in the daily newspaper Perfil. On the private channel Canal 26 he hosts his own talk show La Mirada – de Roberto Garcia.
On November 27, 2017, he hosted journalist Edgar Mainhard of the Argentine online news platform Urgente 24 and Juan Bautista Yofre is called "Tata" on his show. In order to better understand the connections, the attendees must first be introduced.
Yofre alias "Tata" was under Argentina's Head of State and Government of Carlos Menem (1989–1999) Secretary of State and head of the SIDE (Secretaria de Inteligencia del Estado), the most important Argentine secret service. He then represented Argentina as ambassador to Panama and Portugal and held the position of Secretary of State in the Presidential Chancellery from 1993 to 1998.
Since 2000 he has appeared mainly as the author of books on Argentine contemporary history. One focus is on state terrorism and the "deep state." For Argentina, he describes the two-demon theory. It equates the terror of left-wing guerrilla organizations during democracy until 1976 with the terror of the military during the military dictatorship from 1976 and analyzes action and backlash.
Garcia and Yofre have known each other since the early 1980s, when Yofre was a columnist for the newspaper Ambito Financiero, which was run by Garcia.
Along with others, Yofre, Garcia, and Maainhard were accused of treason during the tenure of President Cristina Fernandez Kirchner (2007–2015). Prosecutors were investigating an alleged "spy ring" that allegedly hacked the president's email access. The former SIDE boss "Tata" Yofre was brought to justice as the head of the "gang", Garcia, Mainhard and others as accessories and contributors. The defendants, on the other hand, spoke of a political maneuver by the left-Peronist leadership, which wanted to stifle their unwelcome journalists and journalistic voices. In 2016, all defendants were acquitted because, as the judges found, there was no criminal offence.
In the above-mentioned broadcast of 27 November 2017, former Secretary of State Yofre spoke of a telephone conversation that had been intercepted by the secret service as part of the investigation into Iranian influence in Argentina. The investigation took place after the bombing of the headquarters of the Jewish community in Argentina on 18 July 1994. 85 people were killed and more than 300 injured. It was the worst attack in Argentina's history.
In the broadcast, Roberto Garcia asked his guest about "the impossible ones from Argentina who surround the Pope".
Yofre then revealed the intercepted telephone conversation between "Yusuf and Karim," which can be found under the transcripts of 40,000 telephone conversations that are part of Special Prosecutor Alberto Nisman's investigative files. Nisman, himself a Jew, has been leading the investigation into the 1994 terrorist attack since 2005. In 2013, he indicted six people linked to Iran and Hezbollah. He accused the Iranian government of commissioning the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out. In 2015, there was a bang. Nisman issued an arrest warrant for President Cristina Fernandez Kirchner for obstructing the prosecution of the assassins and their masterminds. He was then summoned to a hearing before Parliament because the Members of Parliament wanted to receive information. A few hours later, he was found dead. President Kirchner spoke of suicide. The Argentine prosecutor's office, and with it many Argentines, assume that he was murdered.
Back to the phone call that Yofre revealed.
The daily newspaper La Nacion had published on its website the recording of the intercepted phone call between "Yusuf and Karim" for a short time, but then quickly deleted it.
"They could have listened to it. I listened to it to be able to judge it," Yofre said.
By "Yusuf and Karim" are Jorge Alejandro "Yusuf" Khalil and Abdul Karim Paz, two senior representatives of Iran and the Shiite community in Argentina. Khalil was General Secretary of the At-Tauhid Mosque in Buenos Aires at the time of Nisman's death, Paz was born Santiago Ricardo Paz Zuberbühler Bullrich and comes from the Argentine upper class. His cousin Patricia Bullrich was Argentina's Minister of Security until 10 December 2019, while his cousin Esteban Bullrich was Argentina's minister of education until 2017. The Catholic converted to Islam, which he studied in its Shia form at Iran's Al-Mustafa University. He was given the rank of Shiite Sheikh and became an Imam of the At-Tauhid Mosque. At the same time, he is Iran's "informal ambassador" to Argentina. Argentina severed diplomatic relations with Iran after the attack. Paz is seen as a hub for Iranian recruitment among the country's radicalized Shiites. Although the conversation was intercepted for very different reasons, Yofre described it because of a detail contained therein. Yusuf told Karim about meeting Bergoglio's "intelligence chief" in Argentina. Yofre confirmed the existence of such a "intelligence service", which Jorge Mario Bergoglio had already built up as archbishop of Buenos Aires and Primate of Argentina. He had known the head of the service personally, but did not mention his name on the show. Only so much did he say that it was a layman. Yusuf told Karim that the head of the Bergoglian intelligence service told him at the meeting that he was a Freemason "and Bergoglio too." Former Secretary of State Yofre followed the description with a reference to "Marcelito", Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, the political arm of Pope Francis.
The topic was undoubtedly discussed by an illustrious panel in the 2017 TV show. Yofre reported facts.
-- Fact is, the intercepted telephone conversation exists
-- Fact is, what Yusuf told his co-conspirator Karim
But this ends with the verifiable parts. The rest can be noted, but not confirmed. Yusuf reports that an unnamed head of the Vatican secret service in Argentina revealed to him something about Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis, during a face-to-face meeting. The credibility of Jorge Alejandro "Yusuf" Khalil, and even less that of the great unknown, the actual source, cannot be verified. The Catholic publicist Maurizio Blondet, until 2015 editor-in-chief of the Italian press service Effedieffe, published the video of the show already in 2017 with the note:
"I think it is a testimony that should not be underestimated."
The corresponding position in the show La Mirada – de Roberto Garcia can be found from minute 20:45.
Bild: Youtube/La Mirada/Vatican.va (Screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG
