Luis Rocha - The Last Pope

Firenzi, however, had made a mistake entrusting the finding of the papers to his intimate friend, Bishop Francesco Cossega, unaware that Cossega was also a member of the organization. And since Firenzi had continued his search in the Secret Archives, the truth about Cossega was revealed the night he discovered the list and saw the name of his friend in the second column of the first page.

Firenzi was astonished that his friend had never said anything about being a member of the P2, so he began a series of moves in order to protect the documents; he knew that when the investigation into the death of John Paul I was reopened, the importance of these papers would be decisive.

He put the key in an envelope together with the list and a simple code, and he sent it all to Sarah, hoping that her father would understand it. He could not possibly have guessed that she was then vacationing in Portugal, and that it would be some time before she opened the envelope. When she finally did, Firenzi was already dead. She was quite lucky to have avoided the same fate in London.

It was hard for Sarah to understand why Firenzi felt such an urgent need to keep the papers hidden. Basically, he was doing the same as J.C., hiding the evidence instead of destroying it. In fact, the location and custody of the documents were the only changes. But Marius Ferris had explained to her how everything had happened that fateful day in New York, on the night when they’d all been so close to death.

“At first your godfather didn’t want to do anything. Just keep the papers in a safe place. He wanted to guard them himself, or give them to someone he could really trust.”

“Just that?”

“Yes, at first. Later, whatever was needed would be done. Don’t forget that Firenzi was a prince of the Church and his priorities were clear. He wanted the truth, of course, but he also wanted to protect the Vatican ’s reputation from any further damage. His Holiness would find the most appropriate solution. Most likely, the Church would opt for the classic Vatican reaction.”

“Which is…”

“No reaction at all. Silence is the Vatican ’s policy. But simply recognizing the existence of the documents, just knowing that someone in the heart of the Church had been dishonest, was enough of a reason for our brother Firenzi to take some action. And I must confess it was enough for me as well. That’s why you did the right thing, Sarah, and I’m grateful to you for that.”

NOW, THREE MONTHS LATER, everything had ended well, and only one thing still worried Sarah. She had received no news from Rafael, or Jack Payne, or whatever his name was. She didn’t know how to find him, no matter how much she wanted to see him again. She thought of asking her father for help, but finally decided against it.

The Sunday Mass had ended, and the Monteiro family was walking around Saint Peter’s Basilica, like many other tourists and faithful. Later they’d dine at a restaurant and make a tour of Rome.

While mother and daughter were admiring the magnificent dome, Raul went to greet a friend he had noticed among the crowd.

“Girls, I’d like you to meet a very dear friend of mine.” Raul said, as he approached them. Sarah, still absorbed in reading a tourist’s leaflet about the basilica, didn’t look up right away.

“Let me introduce you to Father Rafael Santini.”

Sarah lost interest in the leaflet the moment she heard the name of Rafael. She looked up and down at the man wearing a black cassock.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said quietly

Sarah couldn’t believe her eyes. Rafael, a priest!

“Father Rafael is in charge of a parish north of Rome, isn’t it?” Raul explained.

“That’s right. It’s not far from here.”

I tried to seduce a priest! Sarah couldn’t get the idea out of her head. How was it possible for a man like him to be a priest, to be dedicated to Christ? Now she understood his rejection when they were in that New York hotel room. He had made a different choice, he was a man of God, and, besides, his role in life was to protect the interests of the Church. Nothing was what it seemed.

“Would you like to have dinner with us?” Raul suggested.

“I’d love to, but I can’t. I brought some children from my parish to visit the Vatican. Another time.”

“I hope so,” Sarah’s father said.

“The documents have been saved,” Rafael told Sarah.”Safely kept where they always were, but with the knowledge of His Holiness.”

No one had ever mentioned to Sarah the existence of the Holy Alliance, the organization that seemed to include all the Vatican Secret Services. Numerous legends, stories, and fictions were told about this institution, none of them easy to verify. Some people thought that the Holy Alliance was made up of unscrupulous spy priests, prepared to sacrifice their lives for Rome and for the pontiff.

There was no official address for the Vatican secret services. The names of its agents didn’t appear on any payroll, nor could they possibly be identified. Nevertheless, the CIA and the Mossad, the CNI and the MI6, all readily believed not only that they existed, but also that they constituted one of the most powerful and most skilled spy and counterspy organizations in the world. Naturally, the Vatican agents were carefully selected from among the most capable, and they were probably trained in institutions unrelated to the Vatican.

Rafael Santini had received training very early with an objective in mind: to infiltrate the P2 and the CIA, and to come to light only when it became absolutely necessary. For almost two decades he had been a “sleeper,” watching institutions and organizations that needed to be controlled, until he received an order related to the Holy See, and then he did what he’d been trained for. There were not hundreds, but thousands of priests in the world who said Mass, taught in schools, and comforted the sick, who were just waiting for orders to act according to serious Vatican directives.

“SOMETIMES I WONDER how much we lost with the death of that pope,” Sarah commented thoughtfully, strolling around the outskirts of the Vatican after saying farewell to Rafael Santini.

“John Paul I?” her father asked.

“Yes. I even think, after all that happened, that nobody else would ever deserve to take his place.”

Her father tenderly put his arm around her shoulders.

“I know exactly how you feel. But you must realize that life goes on for the rest of us. One day Albino Luciani will receive his just consideration.”

“I hope so.”

“Don’t worry, Sarah,” her mother interrupted. “God never rests.”

Sarah wanted to believe that to be true. The secret would be well kept, this time by honorable men, in the same place where the murder was committed, as a kind of divine, mischievous wink. Where evil was king, good now reigned.

“Firenzi’s plan didn’t seem adequate to me.”

“He did what he could,” her father countered. “If you hadn’t been on vacation, or if he’d possessed another means of communicating with me, things would have turned out better.”

“Even so, they already had Marius Ferris.”

“The fact that they had Marius Ferris didn’t necessarily mean they could have forced him to reveal the location of the documents. And yet that was something we knew.”

“Do you think he would have died, rather than reveal anything?”

“Let me answer you with another question. Do you think Rafael would have given away the secret?”

“Of course not. What does one man have to do with the other? They have nothing in common.”

“Yes, they do. If your godfather sent the papers to Ferris, it was because he trusted him in the same way.”

Rafael. Just the name still sent chills down her spine, particularly now that she knew much more than before. Her rescuer, a man capable of doing what he did in London, was an Italian priest! Was he more of the devil than of God?