“In Murder In The 33rd Degree, author Father Charles T. Murr, a close and lifelong friend of Cardinal Gagnon, gives his firsthand account of what transpired during that papal investigation. Murder In The 33rd Degree answers many questions that many people have been asking for half a century.” Was Pope John Paul I murdered just after 33 days after becoming Pope?
When Pope Paul VI made his cryptic statement that the ‘Smoke of Satan’ had entered the sanctuary of the Church, as was also given by Our Lady of Fatima in one of Her apparitions, Pope Paul VI was announcing to the whole world an actual truth. It was on 29th June 1972, the feast of St Peter and St Paul, during a homily which had also happened to coincide with the ninth anniversary of his coronation to the papacy, when he stated:
“We have the impression that through some cracks in the wall the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God: it is doubt, uncertainty, questioning, dissatisfaction, confrontation…. We thought that after the Council a day of sunshine would have dawned for the history of the Church. What dawned, instead, was a day of clouds and storms, of darkness, of searching and uncertainties.”
What was he referring to? His words had made headlines around the world as commentators tried to figure out what he meant while sparking debate, with commentators debating the true meaning of his words.
In terms of the actual nature of the satanic’smoke,’ Pope Paul VI had grave concerns, prompting him to order a full investigation into where those other-worldly fumes could be coming from. He was also well aware of the unpleasant truths that an investigation could reveal, as well as the potential dangers that it could cause. So he sought out senior clerics he knew he could trust, beginning with one of his closest friends, Cardinal Giovanni Benelli, Archbishop of Florence, who, in turn, turned to Canadian-born archbishop Edouard Gagnon, former president of the Pontifical Commission on the Family and now working with the poor in Colombia, to launch an investigation into all aspects of Vatican life in order to uncover the source(s) of the smoke.
It was a massive task, complicated not only by the nature of Gagnon’s discoveries and the identities of their perpetrators, but also by direct threats to himself, such as ransacking of his rooms, office burglaries, and even death threats. All of this points to the existence of sinister forces within Vatican corridors intent on keeping their schemes hidden.
Gagnon’s final report, a three-volume dossier, took over three years of lonely and arduous work to complete. Despite his three attempts to present his exhaustive findings to three successive pontiffs, each of whom he hoped would launch a much-needed fumigation, none of his attempts were successful. And the dossier is still missing nearly 50 years later.
But, it had to be Father Charles Murr, the American priest and long-time friend of Archbishop Gagnon, whose interviews and commentaries, this site has already published about, who recounted its existence and history in fascinating detail in his memoir, Murder in the 33rd Degree: The Gagnon Investigation into Vatican Freemasonry.
It’s a remarkable document. In it, Father Murr, recounts his firsthand experience with the investigation ordered by Pope Paul VI after his mysterious remarks about the ‘Smoke of Satan’ electrified the world. Father Murr also describes the subsequent odyssey, including key events and people involved.