by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

Cold cases are extremely difficult to solve. But unraveling fake news is even more of a knot to figure out how to unravel.

Sometimes we are presented with narratives which do not add up. Sometimes the facts presented are not entirely coherent with the explanation for them. Sometimes facts present themselves which open questions.

In this present article, which is entirely speculation, I proceed to analyze what I do know and ask what I do not know. This is an experiment in forensic investigation. It by no means means that there was a crime.

Here goes.

I know from my contacts in Rome, that Pope Benedict XVI was violently opposed during the first 8 years of his pontificate. He was even, on one occasion, at least, physically assaulted, by none other than Cardinal Bertone, who took the Holy Father by the shoulders and shook him, yelling at him these words like these: “It is I who rule here, get that into your head!” — So, I am very certain that Bertone did physically assault the Holy Father. Then there is the strange photo of the Holy Father with a black eye, on Oct. 19, 2017 A. D., where it was also claimed that he fell.

But perhaps the Holy Father was assaulted on other occasions?

And I think such a thing might have been, in July of 2009 at the Papal Summer Vacation spot of Les Combes, Aosta, Italy, which was put up for sale in 2017.

The news reports about a week later, say that the Holy Father “broke his wrist” when he “fell”, or  “tripped” in the bathtub.  Another report says that he “slipped”. There is a big difference and it does not make sense that a reporter would get it wrong.

But what is strange about this, is that the Holy Father is reported to have gone to the hospital at about 9 in the morning.

Who takes a bath in the morning? It was the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Was the Holy Father taking a bath after the long offices of that morning? He has the habit of saying mass at 7 A. M., so he took the bath after Mass? if so that is even more bizarre.

Stranger still, the Holy Father is reported to have “thanked” the policemen who helped him after his fall.

Who calls the police after a fall in the tub?

But stranger still, he says, afterwards, on July 29, that he thanks the police for being his “angels”, and remarks that his “guardian angel” did not come to his help because he evidently received commands from superior authority. — But Guardian Angels do not receive commands to NOT do something. They never take initiative. They only do what they are told to do. So what the Holy Father says here is theologically off, or it is code, for something else. Because who gets orders to assault the Holy Father? — I know who: Freemasons in the upper clergy who act as their agents at the Vatican, that’s who. And if the police are “angels” is his “guardian angel” his private secretary is “Monsignor Ganswein?”.

All this took place from July 16 to 26, 2009 A. D..

Then 9 months later, the Holy Father decides NOT to return to Les Combes for his summer vacation. In fact, he never returns.

That is kind of a strong reaction to a slip in the tub.

Nearly 2 years later, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, his secretary of state who assaulted him, at some unspecified time, goes to the same Summer vacation spot in the Alps and inaugurates a walk way in honor of Pope John Paul II.

That is strange.

Strange, I mean, psychologically. Did the Cardinal push the Pope in the same locale 2 years before. Is that why he slipped or tripped. Is that why the Holy Father called the police, not the ambulance after his fall? Is that why the press did not know about it for about a week?

Yes, Bertone did know how to get to the Holy Father’s private retreat in the Alps. John Paul II had used it, and Bertone was invited there in the summer of 2006 to be asked to become the Secretary of State by the Pope Himself.

So I open the discussion: did Bertone threaten the Holy Father physically in July of 2009 at his summer retreat in the Alps at Les Combes? Was it because he was enraged that the Holy Father had reconciled the 4 Bishops of the Society of St. Pius X earlier that year, or because the Holy Father was not allowing him free reign in running the Vatican?

All this is pure speculation. But the facts are not consonant with the explanation given and the behavior of the Holy Father after the incident indicates he had personal and grave reasons not to go to Les Combes where he could be alone with anyone again.

I will emphasize, that I have no evidence that Cardinal Bertone visited the Holy Father at Les Combes on July 16, 2009. But if anyone can give me information about his whereabouts on that day, we can include or eliminate him as a probable suspect to a probable crime of the most grave kind.

I do know, however, that Cardinal Bertone gave a talk at Romano Canavese, Piedmonte, 109 KM away from Les Combes on July 19, 2009, because the Vatican has published his talk on that day, here. That’s 1 hour and 13 minute drive from the former Papal summer retreat, scene of the hypothetical crime.

The Cardinal was there to prepare his home parish, where he was born, for the visit of Pope Benedict XVI! Pope Benedict XVI, despite his broken wrist, visited the Parish that day, anyway! What a spirit. But because of the accident, the Cardinal presided at the Mass.

The first reading that day was Jeremiah 23:1-6.

Hmm.

But the most important take away from this forensic escapade, is this: that Pope Benedict XVI after his “fall” on July 16, 2009, says that he is going to withdraw into prayer and solitude. He seems to be saying the same thing in his Declaratio of Feb. 11, 2013. And so, I wonder whether the real motive for his resignation was that he was being physically assaulted in the last year of his pontificate? We may never now, because, now being at the mercy of the personnel in the Vatican, it is not clear he has the freedom to say what really has been going on since his election in 2005.