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(LifeSiteNews) — Today’s episode of The John-Henry Westen Show is an encore episode of my November 2021 interview with Catholic journalist and author Julia Meloni, an expert on the so-called “St. Gallen Mafia” of powerful Vatican prelates who have sought to push the Church in a more progressive direction.

Today’s summary is therefore a re-post as well. Understanding the St. Gallen Mafia and its players is the key to understanding Pope Francis and what he’s up to. This is The John-Henry Westen Show.

Ever since really the start of the Francis papacy, many Catholics have been shocked by much of the agenda coming out from the Vatican and have been trying to make sense of it all. A new book has been released that sheds light on Pope Francis and his connection to a secret group of leftist cardinals that began to meet in the mid-1990s.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Julia Meloni, a Catholic journalist and author of The St. Gallen Mafia: Exposing the Secret Reformist Group Within the Church, about her book and research into the inner workings of the “mafia,” and some of its controversial members.

Meloni mentioned several of the cast of characters connected to the St. Gallen Mafia, including Cardinals Carlo Maria Martini, Walter Kasper, Godfried Danneels, Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, and even former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

However, she pointed that “the formal literature” she has seen has not named McCarrick as a technical member, even though James Grein, his most famous abuse victim, has revealed that the ex-cardinal was a frequent visitor to Sankt-Gallen, Switzerland.

READ: New book suggests St. Gallen Mafia agreement may have led to Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation

But how does Pope Francis fit into this? Well, Meloni described to me how documents and interviews reveal that then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was meeting with Cardinal Kasper several times in Argentina, and the St. Gallen Mafia was talking about him.

Meloni also says that Cardinal Danneels of Belgium was attracted to Francis in the 2001 synod of collegiality, since Bergoglio was one of the synodal officials. And it was actually Danneels who has revealed much of the information we know about the “mafia,” and even gave it the name.

In fact, the journalist told me that Danneels “began speaking about how he had a resurrection, that’s his imagery, a resurrection under Pope Francis.” Meloni detailed that the name “Francis” came from the Belgian cardinal who said in the 90s that “we need a new Francis.”

Another influential cardinal for Cardinal Bergoglio was fellow Jesuit Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini of Milan, whom Meloni puts in the center of her book. She described how Martini and Bergoglio had an “interesting dynamic” and that many of the same positions the former cardinal held were adopted by Francis, almost in lockstep fashion.

All these cardinals that were meeting in secrecy and had an influence in the election and agenda of Pope Francis were discussing how to change the Church and attempt to make it more liberal. They were in favor of abortion, homosexuality, women ordinations, liturgical changes, and other radical ideas.

Therefore, it should not be surprising, but is still very scandalous, for the faithful to see that Francis himself is promoting this same ideology throughout the eight years he has been pope.

But Meloni also offered some advice for Catholics who are fighting the culture wars in the Church and secular world.

“It’s very important to have something concrete that keeps you hopeful because it’s very spiritually exhausting work to have to deal with,” she said.

She called on the faithful to build up their spiritual lives by following devotions, and to remember that at the end the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph.

I especially encourage you to get this incredible book and read the amazing and important work Julia Meloni has brought together. Click here to order the book.

The John-Henry Westen Show is available by video on the show’s YouTube channel and right here on my LifeSite blog.

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You can send me feedback, or ideas for show topics by emailing [email protected].

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John-Henry is the co-founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of LifeSiteNews.com. He and his wife Dianne have eight children and they live in the Ottawa Valley in Ontario, Canada.

He has spoken at conferences and retreats, and appeared on radio and television throughout the world. John-Henry founded the Rome Life Forum, an annual strategy meeting for life, faith and family leaders worldwide. He is a board member of the John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family. He is a consultant to Canada’s largest pro-life organization Campaign Life Coalition, and serves on the executive of the Ontario branch of the organization. He has run three times for political office in the province of Ontario representing the Family Coalition Party.

John-Henry earned an MA from the University of Toronto in School and Child Clinical Psychology and an Honours BA from York University in Psychology.

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