The Catholic Church in Crisis
The New American, June 9, 1997
"Catholic priest Malachi Martin does not reside in a rectory, seminary, or any other typical locale for a cleric. In the 1960s, after leaving his post as an official in the Vatican, he obtained release from his vows as a member of the Jesuit order and began living the life of a lay person with canonical approval.
Father Martin is still a Catholic priest who offers Mass in private, but he is deeply troubled by the wholesale alteration of “virtually everything Catholic” over the past three decades. His most recent book, a novel entitled Windswept House (published by Doubleday in 1996), depicts political and religious intrigue by a small group of highly placed Church officials within the Vatican who seek to steer the Roman Catholic Church into the new world order. The novel depicts the efforts of disloyal cardinals who work feverishly to subvert the Pope and the Church, and have no reluctance to use murder, blackmail, and satanism.
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Father Martin was interviewed at his New York City residence by John F. McManus, publisher of THE NEW AMERICAN.**
Q. You state that your book is neither fiction nor fact, but a “factional” work. What do you mean?
A. Windswept House is a novel. But it is 85 percent based on actual fact, and most of the personages appearing in it are real even though I have given them fictional names. There are also some living persons mentioned such as Mikhail Gorbachev who appears as himself. And a few key characters are actually composites of several real persons.
Q. You left the Jesuits and the ordinary priestly life more than 30 years ago. At that time you were assigned in the Vatican as a close personal associate of Pope John XXIII and Cardinal Augustin Bea. What caused you to leave?
A. I found it increasingly difficult to see Christ in any of my immediate superiors. There was no liberal cause Cardinal Bea didn’t pursue. I even regarded the head of the Jesuits at the time, Father Jean Baptiste Janssens, as an enemy of the faith. My colleagues believed that the formal Oath Against Modernism, required of every priest at the time but since discarded, was a joke. That oath bound all of us to oppose the “updating” of dogma so as to bring it in line with “the attitudes of the day.” In essence, modernism holds that dogmas change – a total absurdity. I could no longer lend my name to such subversion.
Q. So you left the Jesuits. But that didn’t relieve you of your duties as a priest. What is your status today?
A. At my request, Pope Paul VI granted me a universal status where I would not be under the supervision of any bishop. I don’t dress like a priest and I don’t hold any priestly assignment. But I am still a priest.
Q. When you sought to leave the Vatican, was there any attempt to ralk you into staying?
A. Yes, I was told that I could expect to made a cardinal, that I had biblical knowledge, a facility with languages, youth, excellent health, and a good memory, all of which made me a candidate for advancement. But I didn’t want to stay because I saw that the faith was being compromised by many.
Q. Your book begins with a vivid description of a sacrilegious “Black Mass” held in 1963 in Charleston, South Carolina. Did this really happen?
A. Yes it did. And the participation by telephone of some high officials of the church in the Vatican is also a fact. The young female who was forced to be a part of this satanic ritual is very much alive and, happily, has been able to marry and lead a normal life. She supplied details about the event.
Q. You refer to one of your chief characters as the “Slavic Pope” and another as the “Cardinal from Century City.” Do you mean Pope John Paul II and the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago?
A. I can’t say yes to such speculations. I have written a book of “faction.” It is not a documentary. There is a glossary floating about that purports to provide the real names of dozens of my characters. I did not compile it and do not concur with its claims although I must say it is well done.
Q. In addition to the “Cardinal from Century City,” you depict numerous other cardinals and bishops in a very bad light. Are these characterizations based on fact?
A. Yes, among the cardinals and the hierarchy there are satanists, homosexuals, anti-papists, and cooperators in the drive for world rule.
Q. Is there as much intrigue and disloyalty within the Vatican as your book seems to indicate?
A. There is more than I have provided in the book. The Pope is surrounded by men in clerical garb who do not possess the Catholic faith; they are working with foundations, organizations, international groups, financial institutions, governments, academia, and other agencies to bring a new world order into existence." …