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John follain city of secrets3/10/2023 ![]() Ī competing hypothesis was published in L'Agent secret du Vatican (2004), by journalist Victor Guitard and Markus Wolf, former No. In his 2008 book Poteri forti, Ferruccio Pinotti asserts that Estermann repeatedly travelled to Poland in 1981 to coordinate the arrival of military equipment from Scandinavia to support the Polish anti-communist organization Solidarity. Īccording to a piece edited by Fabio Croce, the three were all murdered by "a Vatican killer", due to Estermann's supposed knowledge of the small state's trafficks. This document suggests that Estermann was killed in the course of a supposed struggle between the Opus Dei and masonic parties within the Vatican hierarchy, both attempting to annex the Swiss guard. The conspiracy allegation originates with Bugie di sangue in Vaticano (1999), written by "a group of Vatican ecclesiastics and lays who cannot continue to avail, with their silence, official truth told by the Vatican". The high-profile homicide gave rise to various speculative theories over the following years. Pope John Paul II personally celebrated Estermann's Funeral Mass in the church of Saints Martin and Sebastian. A note written by Tornay shortly before the murder indicates that he regarded Estermann as a harsh martinet with a personal bias against the Vice Corporal. Tornay had earlier been reprimanded for breaches of discipline and had been passed over for a medal routinely awarded to Guards after three years of service. Estermann, formerly Acting Commander of the Swiss Guard, had been confirmed in his position the same day. In 1988 he was appointed Commander of the Swiss Guard.Īccording to official Vatican statements, Estermann and his Venezuelan wife, Gladys Meza Romero, were killed on by a young Swiss Guard Vice Corporal Cédric Tornay, who then committed suicide. ![]() In July 1980 he rejoined the Swiss Guard as an officer, thereafter receiving promotions to Major (1983) and then to Lieutenant Colonel (1987). He then lived in Argentina for two years. In 1977 Estermann served briefly in the Pontifical Swiss Guard at the Vatican. ![]() He subsequently reached the rank of lieutenant as a Swiss reserve officer. In 1975 he graduated with a degree in commerce from a business school in Lucerne.įrom 1975 through 1976, Estermann attended the officer training school for the Swiss Army at Thun. ![]() He grew up as a member of a farming family living near Beromünster. It is also the story of shameful efforts by men of the cloth, including a would-be successor to John Paul II and one of his most trusted servants, to obstruct the course of justice, vilify the character of Tornay who had fallen victim to barrack mobbing, stifle a potential scandal over homosexual affairs within the Guard, and hide fatal failings that make the force unfit to protect the pope.Alois Estermann (Octo– May 4, 1998) was a senior officer of the Pontifical Swiss Guard who was murdered in his apartment in Vatican City.Įstermann was born in Gunzwil, in the Canton of Lucerne. Powerful and suspenseful, it is the product of a three-year investigation, and a chilling portrait of actions unworthy of the Catholic Church in the twilight of John Paul II's papacy.This is not only the story of a gruesome crime on holy territory. City Of Secrets contains some of the most dramatic and sensational revelations ever published about the internal affairs of the Vatican. Timely and explosive, City Of Secrets is the story of a still-unsolved crime on holy territory- the infamous Swiss Guard murders on 5/4/98-and of a systematic attempt to hide the fatal failings of a security force charged with protecting the Pope.
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