“For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 2:7).

Coincidence is a funny thing, isn’t it? When I first began researching this new article for the website, I learned that on that day, it would have been Malachi Martin’s 83rd birthday. Amazing!

In all that I have read and discovered about him, I have to ask myself, was he just a misunderstood man or a mischievous priest on the make, or maybe a little of both.

His first name means God’s messenger. But I do have to ask in all sincerity, was he such a suitable person for such a title, or would he ever be?

Malachi Martin was born in the Republic of Ireland on July 23rd 1921.

Obviously, a very gifted boy, he would later through his scholastic studies, receive many distinguished doctorates in Semitics, archaeology and oriental history.

His educational skills would later be honed to perfection at Trinity College in Dublin, at Oxford in England and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He could also make people laugh in seven languages, remembered one colleague!

His Ordination day was 15th August 1954 (the feast of the assumption of the Virgin Mary). He would later remark, perhaps with tongue in cheek when asked about our lady of Guadalupe “she’s my favourite.”

But it was whilst he was studying in Israel that his attention must have been captured by the exciting discovery and examination of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

This resulted in the publication of the first of his sixteen books, titled The Scribal Character of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This would launch his name as a theologian and popular author.

Many years later, the Dallas Morning News in reviewing one of his books, said of him: “In Biblical times they would have called him a prophet.” To a Jesuit, this would be praise indeed.

In 1958, he was sent by his religious order to Rome. It may be that the then Pope’s confessor, ‘Fr’. Augustine Bea requested him. Later as Cardinal Bea, he would be very instrumental in orchestrating the many changes proposed at Vatican II. These were the final dying days of Pope Pius XII (1939-1958.)

For nineteen difficult years, the pontiff had been at the helm of his church in guiding it through many assaults from Nazis and the Marxists. Sadly according to Dr. Martin, the Marxist subversives were already in the Vatican, toiling away with much success! Or so it seems.

These fifth columnists were now plotting an open assault upon the Catholic Church and the newly called Ecumenical council. Dr. Martin would be very busy in those years of the Council, preparing drafts and setting liturgical agendas. Exciting times for any ambitious priest.

Interestingly enough, the German Jesuit, who I suspect was instrumental in bringing the 37-year-old priest to Rome was, in fact, Augustine Bea, later to be created a Cardinal by John XXIII (1958-1963).

Both Bea and Roncalli would be the two most important architects in the future role of the Catholic Church and where it would eventually lead. It should also be remembered that Malachi Martin was very much a working insider in Vatican politics. In fact, it has been written that he (Martin) carried out many sensitive missions for, the renowned Jesuit Cardinal Bea, Pope John XXIII and Paul VI.

But what is being alluded to here? I suggest that it was nothing more than the open hijacking of the traditional church, that Malachi Martin either willingly or unwillingly got caught up in before he found what the real plot was. Many other Archbishops, such as Heenan and Mcquaid, had no idea of what was happening under their noses. The greatest force of religious change came from many north European clergy and distinguished theologians.

Perhaps Martin was a small cog in the religious plot. Or maybe he did not fully understand what was about to happen during the council’s many debates on the future role of the church in the modern world. Later he would argue vociferously against all of the changes brought during the mid-1960’s.

Also much later he would castigate the state of the church he had loved. This especially through its embracing of the ecumenical movement and sloppy liturgical practices. In fact, an organization that had flourished since Vatican II. The Pontifical Commission for Justice & Peace, for example, would be in his sights.

One such group that did seem to escape his virulent view was the shadowy powerful Opus Dei group. And of the role of the Jesuits in helping to bring about full-blown Marxist liberation theology? He was strangely silent. On his fellow Jesuit brothers and their role in political issues in and out of the church, he remained as always very lenient when asked to comment!

I certainly suspect and have done for many years that Bea, along with others in the Sacred College of Cardinals, was laying the foundation stones for the New World Order. This was a cause that Dr. Martin would espouse vehemently in later years through his books. Certainly, some of the so-called “princes of the church” were, I suspect, fully paid-up members of the Illuminati. This shadowy group set up by Adam Weishaupt has always had strong Jesuit ties. What I find amazing is, that Malachi seems oblivious to what was going on, in and around him, in the Vatican. I wonder why? What’s the old saying, the wife is always last to know about her husband’s extramarital affairs.

One interesting in-house rumour circulating during his lifetime was that he had been created a Cardinal by Pope Pius XII, (in secret of course.) Why had he performed valuable services for the Holy See, we cannot know? I suspect this rumour emanates from the so-called dirty tricks department, either through MI6, Mossad, CIA, Vatican intelligence, or Malachi himself. It is not unheard of for a Pope to perform the honour of bestowing the red hat to a suitable priest, but usually, it is a clerical act to protect the candidate’s life when they are living under dangerous home conditions.

Sometime in the mid-1960s, an event occurred that left an American reporter devastated by the news, that his wife had been having a secret affair in Rome, where the journalist at the time, was covering the Council.

The American writer, Robert Kaiser had authored an early overview of the Council entitled Inside the Council. In the book, the author was given many confidential insights as to what was happening in St. Peter’s. As a frequent guest and visitor to his Rome apartment, Malachi Martin had got to know Bob Kaiser and his young wife Mary. Somehow the affair took off and Mary later gave birth. It was the end of the Kaiser marriage. Friends later confirmed that Robert Kaiser never recovered from this act of betrayal, perpetrated by his young wife and a Catholic priest.

In 1964, Malachi Martin petitioned the then Pope for a release from his vows of poverty and obedience. As regards the vow of chastity, it seems the Jesuit had personally released himself from that vow some years earlier through the Kaiser episode. Permission, we are informed, was granted.

From then on, all of the liberal reforms introduced through the Council, and in the years following its close, would be attacked by Malachi Martin.

Did the liberal reformer, I wonder, cross the ecclesiastical street and begin to see his church through the eyes of a traditionalist? Or was it guilt for what had happened in destroying the marriage of the Kaisers? Who knows? And is it really any of our business?

Martin would later write of his once beloved church, by saying, Anybody who is acquainted with the state of affairs in the Vatican in the last 35 years is well aware that the prince of darkness has had and still has, his surrogate in the court of St. Peter’s in Rome. No turning back for him after this, I suggest.

But he certainly knew something momentous had happened in the vaults and chapels of St Peter’s. And in five of his books, some of these dark secrets would be unrolled for his many readers, Catholic and non-Catholic to ponder and enjoy. And perhaps question?

The Books of Malachi Martin

Five of his sixteen books are for all literary purposes, classified as non-fiction.

I do suggest that any Vatican sleuth with a fair sliver of imagination gently place them under a microscope. You might be surprised at what you learn about the Catholic Church. Or then again you may not be surprised at what Malachi Martin’s books offered his many loyal readers. If nothing else he was consistent!

Hostage to the Devil (1976)

Published in a year that witnessed much turmoil and anguish for the church and for the 79-year-old Pontiff Pope Paul VI.

Arriving some years after the film, The Exorcist, there was still a great deal of interest in the occult that year, so this book landed on bookshelves at the right time. Through 477 pages, the book explores five suitable cases as recorded on tape by five individuals, who believe they are suffering from demonic possession. If they are Catholic or not, is never explained. Mention is also made of the in-house Vatican exorcist, Gabriel Amorth, who in a long productive career, it seems performed some 60,000 exorcisms! One reviewer saw it rather as a one to one with Satan! But he was in a minority with his view of the book. What mattered was that the reading public liked it.

One unsympathetic critic expressed Dr Martin’s works as simply Fiction. Possibly the best review I could unearth was from the Chicago Tribune whose critic stated of the book, “It makes the Exorcist as scary as the tooth fairy.”

The distinguished magazine Newsweek commentated “He [Martin] presents exorcism as a titanic clash of will that threatens the lives, the sanity, even the souls of all attending.”

I had to wonder, during the fruitful period of research leading up to the completion of his book, had Dr. Martin himself acquired a special taste for performing exorcisms?

(In the film The Exorcist, the priest played by Max Von Sydow, was a Jesuit).

The Decline and fall of the Roman Church (1981)

The publication of this book arrived at the same time as a new Pope in the Vatican and a new President in the White House. Each would in covert and other ways, plot the final demise of the evil Soviet Empire. And according to them, with success. But for Malachi Martin it was time, with the help of an advance cheque from a willing publisher, to bring out some dirty Vatican laundry to be dry-cleaned in public. Interestingly at this time, he recounts the story, allegedly spoken by the tortured Pope Paul, that the smoke of Satan which has entered the sanctuary.

Now Malachi Martin, sometime Jesuit, began stoking up even more Roman flames by remarking in an interview, “The next Pope will bring in even more confusion into the church than already exists.” This was damaging material from Dr. Martin. But did he know what he was talking about or was it all Scotch mist? Either way, he didn’t seem to care!

One pertinent review came from the Washington Headliner. It declared almost with a fanfare “His views (Martin’s) are the stuff of tomorrows headlines.”

Vatican (1986)

This is a vast sprawling work in the genre of Edna Ferber that plots a story from the dying days of the War up to the final days of an expiring Pope.

In 657 pages, it is a good read. One of the delights of the book was in the fact that it offered Vatican watchers the chance to try and identify the alias of the fictitious Pope’s featured in the book. For example, Papa Profumi is seen as Pius XII, with Da Brescia covering for Paul VI.

Papa Valenka could only be seen as John Paul II. I particularly appreciated the graphic artwork on the hardback cover of the first edition. And selling over 500,000 copies, this novel must have been a financial success for author and publisher. Interestingly, the book exposes much of the banking scandals of the 1970s and of the financial background that touched the Vatican. We are also introduced to Marcinkus, Michele Sindona and the late Roberto Calvi.

The Keys of this blood

The struggle for world dominion between Pope John Paul, Mikhail Gorbachev and the capitalist West (1990.) This was geopolitics and the role of the Vatican at its best, in building the foundations of the New World Order.

What made this book controversial on its release, was the incredible story from the author, that a satanic ceremony, through a Black Mass, was celebrated in St. Peter’s in Rome, barely a week after the coronation of Pope Paul VI (1963-1978) at this diabolical ceremony called ‘The Enthronement’ of the fallen archangel Lucifer. He is ushered into the waiting church! One must inquire if the new Pontiff was aware of such a blasphemy under his roof?

Heavily laced into this Vatican cocktail of greed and power (is there anything else?) are political revelations that allow the Vatican to be instrumental in bringing about the final demise of the old Soviet Empire.

If this is not enough, into the equation come references to Mariology, i.e. Fatima. The sightings observed in the early 1980s at another shrine were Europe was nothing more than a satanic hoax according to Dr. Martin.

The pontiff, according to Malachi Martin, had received a communication (vision) from Heaven. It was the grand design of God for the new world order explained the author writing with clarity and emotion in offering a new twist that would be essential to the plot of the book.

In the meantime the Pope today awaits and prays for the mother of Christ to inform him of the anointed day and hour of the Second Coming of Christ. Nothing of this is in the Bible, it should be noted.

This, we are informed, will clarify an old legend of prophecy that the church has long known about and expected. (Well I had never heard of it, and I doubt most priests have either, but I might be wrong, please let me know.) This legend was explained as when Jesus Christ comes, then the Pope will give Him the tiara and throne. Jesus will give him the keys and also Jesus will bless the Pope. This, to me, is eschatology gone haywire and has no biblical credibility at all.

So an ailing pope waits in Rome for a sign, as his church sinks deeper into financial moirs, sexual exposes, paedophilia and neo-paganism. Will the mother of Jesus ever communicate with Papa John? One has to ask; did Martin pen this with his Jesuit tongue in cheek? Or are we supposed to believe it might be true? On a personal note, I had a friend years ago who, whenever I told him of a new conspiracy theory, i.e. Kennedy or U.F.O’s, would look at me with large saucer-shaped eyes and ask in all innocence, ‘You’re having me on, aren’t you?’

So was this charming Jesuit, I have to enquire, having all of us on?

But more importantly for Malachi Martin and his publishers, the critics liked his book. According to The Baltimore Evening News, “This book will fascinate you, or anger you, or perhaps both.” Many other critics agreed with this. The book did indeed go onto become a best seller.

Windswept House (1996)

Some scurrilous critic originally called this windswept book a Papal Pot-boiler. The blur on the cover informs us that, “It is a Vatican Novel.” From this author we would expect nothing less, would we?

The literary scenario follows the fortune of two catholic brothers, Paul and Christian Gladstone, one a street-wise lawyer, the other an ambitious Catholic priest (guess which brother is the priest?)

This novel from Martin touches on the New World Order (again) and the doubtful third secret of Fatima (which Malachi Martin knew about back in the 1960s). The book offers even more Vatican intrigue. All the sort of things you would expect from this controversial author. Skilfully woven into the church tapestry is the present false doctrines of Vatican II that have, according to Martin, tragically brought the church of today to this point of time. And he, of course, would have been in a position to witness all of this and much more during his time as private Secretary to the German Cardinal Bea.

But more devastating to any practising Catholic of today, is the nauseating suggestion, that a satanic mass was celebrated in the Vatican (in the spooky chapel of St. Paul, no less!)

Dr. Martin when asked some years later if it really occurred, said: “Oh yes, it is true, very much so.” Later, on sexual abuse and Satanism in the Vatican? “Oh yes, no doubt about it, there are Satanist rituals attended by clerics but there have been such rituals in the Vatican. I think the Roman Catholic Church is decadent in the extreme.” And after these remarks, was he still allowed to remain a priest and a Jesuit and say Mass? Apparently so! This was later amazingly confirmed by another high placed Jesuit!

As regards the ceremony to install Satan into the halls of the Vatican (the ceremony in the book), is coordinated between Rome and S. Carolina, Charleston in fact. This leafy town was the hometown of the notorious Albert Pike, a 33d freemason and today buried deep in the vaults of the Masonic Hall in Washington D.C. Pike was a Luciferian! No doubt about that. So is the location of Charleston a coincidence? Who knows? With Malachi Martin, you could never tell.

Dr. Martin always courted controversy in the church, in or out. It was always open season for him it seems. He even thought that Hillary Clinton was possessed! By now this Vatican insider was tweaking many nerves in the Vatican. Many thought he seemed to have the luxury of nine lives.

The book was not an acclaimed success. But, perhaps in retrospect, it was the most personal of all his sixteen volumes. And much of his personality, I would guess, must be buried in the books DNA, only time and the Vatican will tell.

Primacy: How The Institutional Roman Catholic Church Became A Creature Of The New World Order (1999)

Both Primacy and Keys Of This Blood, do confirm, that as he got older so did the titles of his books. He must have had a sympathetic book editor who indulged him in his Jesuitical defects. Incidentally, in the many interviews he gave over the radio and especially on the Art Bell Show, (Bell a popular radio host would himself mysteriously resign suddenly in the late 1990s) he came across as a man of few words and very guarded in some of his replies to the radio host.

The author called this, “His most controversial and important book. It is burning inside me.” Sadly he was never to see it in print. On July 27th 1999 he died of a stroke. Rumours immediately began to circulate that he had been murdered. But such rumours, false or otherwise, would find a home, wouldn’t they?

However according to his colleague ‘Fr.’ Fiore, the planned book exists only in rough note form and it is a non-fiction piece about Vatican power. What else?

But I can’t help believing that this would have been his most controversial book. Perhaps Martin felt that the Pope had outlived his Pontificate and should make way for someone else, who if Martin had his way, would bring back, many of the lost traditions of the Roman Catholic Church.

Certainly Catholic and non-Catholic readers alike happily enjoyed his books. And even the Daily Catholic named him in their Readers poll, number 54, in the top 100 Catholics of the 20th century. This would I am sure, have appealed to his Irish sense of humour. I don’t think the publishing world will ever see another quarrelsome priest like Malachi Martin again. And that is a shame, for all of his readers past and present. Love him or loathe him you couldn’t ignore him. And neither could the Vatican.

Malachi Martin was born on 23rd July 1921 and died on the 27th July 1999.

I began my research into this author on the 23rd of July in 2004. He would have been 83-years-old had he lived. This article was completed (just) on the 5th anniversary of his death July 27th 2004. Sadly apart from his book Jesus Now, I can find no other mention of him ever talking or writing about the name of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. What a shame! How I wish he could have got out of religion before it was too late and urge others through his books to re-evaluate their own journey in finding salvation in the Lord.

This erudite Irish Jesuit remains to me, an enigma. But aren’t all members of the Jesuits just that? Perhaps it comes in their training. To analyse him, would I think, be pointless. Instead, I will let his books hopefully speak for him. If they can’t, then who can?

Finally, what was the truth about his fascination with women? Was the tragic story about Robert Kaiser wife Mary just that, a story? I don’t think so. And what of the wealthy reclusive widow in Manhattan, his companion for many years? What was her role in his life?

And what of his hasty departure years ago to Ireland? Only to later return to New York and be seen driving a yellow cab. All very mysterious. But all part I suggest, of the persona of this man. But maybe he himself authored much of the living myth of Malachi Martin. Tailored and fitted to suit his own persona.

And what of his throwaway line that an ex-Jesuit (himself) would be likened to being ex-CIA? In fact, he was not an ex-anything, or was he? For according to a clerical colleague, Dr. Martin was laicised in 1965! But apparently still celebrated Mass where and when he could. Old religious habits, it seems die-hard.

The same well-meaning priest also branded Martin, “A conspiratorial-wacko-boogie man.”

I do suggest that this is a rather unkind and perhaps jealous remark from a fellow priest who should know better. However, I do feel that there was perhaps an inner arrogance about Martin. And don’t many high-flyer clerics have it? Even today in post-Vatican II times, it goes with the parochial territory, it rather seems.

One notable way to see if an author is still popular is to check the wooden shelves of your local library. But on checking my large Metropolitan library to see what was available to read, none, it seems were in stock!

Also in checking the very popular website address Find a Grave that lists many thousands of deceased people, nothing I discovered, came up for Malachi. Now, why am I not surprised by this find? Even to the end, it seems he remained as mysterious as one of his spirited heroes, written about in all of his enjoyable books.

The living truth of any author is concealed in his books I suspect. Each of his many enquiring readers will learn something different about him, but some will never discover anything of a writer’s personality. Perhaps with Malachi Martin S.J. that would be how he would wish it to be. After all, hadn’t he himself authored such plots? Finally, we are informed that Malachi Martin never recanted on any of his claims of a satanic ritual in the Vatican, or anything else it seems that offered a good story.

I can only suggest that with the late Malachi Martin S.J. even more conspiracy theories will emerge and take root in the forthcoming years, on the Internet and elsewhere, all concerning him and his religious claims. And you know what? I look forward to reading them all. Won’t you?

 Oh Malachi, Oh Malachi,

Why do you make us sigh?

Your lengthy books seem to offer us little hope,

 And if we’re not careful, we may all perhaps turn to dope!

I hope not!

The Irish mystic and saint of the Catholic Church, St. Malachi predicted that after the death of the current Pope, there would be only two more occupants of the throne in Rome.

The first successor he named Gloria Olivae or glory of the olive. This future Pope, whoever he may be, will have a Jewish connection. How or where this comes from, we don’t know.

The final Pope to reign before the Second Coming, Malachi called him Petrus Romanus. Will this Pope of the future we may ask, name himself Pope Peter the Second? Again we cannot say.

Interestingly enough, the Roman Catholic Church understandably repudiates any such speculation on all future Pontiffs.

But then they would, wouldn’t they?

While writing this article, I spoke to an American Jesuit, who told me that Malachi was: “A pathological liar.” But this friendly and informative Jesuit did have to admit that Malachi had indeed been in Rome when he said he had been, and this American Jesuit admitted that he himself had not been there when Malachi was there, so how he can completely rubbish the elusive Malachi, when he wasn’t there himself at that time, is anyone’s guess!

 

 

GPB

2004

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