And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon […]. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name (Revelation 13, 11; 16-17).

Few people know what SWIFT is (the acronym stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication): it’s supposed to be a world “clearing house”, which joins 10.500 banks (by 215 Countries) together. Actually, it’s the most concealed and unquestionable centre of the global – and internationalist – financial power, the source of the blackmail to the dollar hegemony; it constitutes the most powerful means of economic and political spying (especially to the detriment of the Europeans), and, above all, the most dreadful means which allow global finance to overwhelm the States which dare rebelling against it.

When a bank or a Nation is thrown out of the SWIFT system, all transactions are stopped. This is the kind of threat Russia faced after the annexation of Crimea, but Moscow responded by establishing, together with China, an alternative financial circuit, extended to the other BRICS Countries and operating through yuan and roubles.

However, not everyone is strong enough to oppose such diktats. In early 2013, a violent campaign was triggered against the Institute for the Works of Religion (Italian, IOR), the “Vatican Bank”: a campaign which had as its armed wing, among others, the Italian magistracy, always obsequious to power.

A blackmail, orchestrated through SWIFT by someone who was plotting in the shadows, for never revealed reasons – but, perhaps, they can be guessed in the light of what happened later.

In February, 2013, treacherously and arbitrarily, the IOR was thrown out of SWIFT. All payments were impossible to the Vatican, the Church was suddenly treated as a “terrorist” State (actually, even worse, since the banks fallen into the ISIS’ hands in Iraq and Syria are still part of the SWIFT system), and Vatican finance could no longer pay the nunciatures nor convey money to the missions – indeed, even the ATMs in Vatican City had been blocked. It was the Church’s economic ruin.

And then, like a bolt from the blue, on February 11^th, Benedict XVI announced his resignation. Pope Ratzinger, a brave and tireless defender of the Faith against the ruling secularization and relativism, the Pope who would have never allowed Peter’s Boat to submit to the will of the great internationalist powers, sacrificed himself to let the Mystical Body of Christ survive.

Resignation under duress, or so it would seem… And, perhaps, Benedict XVI’s very declaration may support this scenario. As pointed out by Latinist Luciano Canfora, His Holiness’ original (i.e. Latin) message contained some embarrassing grammatical mistakes, such as the lack of the case concord. A literate man, a man of culture, a man of such an intellectual culture as Joseph Ratzinger is would have never made similar blunders. Which makes very likely that the text was read, but not written by the Holy Father. So much for the motu proprio.

And – coincidentally – just after Benedict XVI’s difficult announcement, SWIFT unfroze Vatican transactions, opened ATMs again, rehabilitated the IOR.

Why did it do this? Did it have a kind of guarantee about the course of the subsequent Conclave? And why didn’t it simply let the Catholic Church fail – an institution which would have hardly yielded to the worldly and internationalist ideologies?

One possible answer is disquieting. SWIFT may have acted this way to get the mental control of believers. Because, if it could, somehow, guide the Vatican policy (by even leading, possibly, so-called doctrinal openings), it would get a most powerful – and hidden – tool of persuasion.

And it seems that ancient words can echo again – words said by Pilate standing in front of Jesus Christ. What is truth?

Perhaps, the false lamb with the power to starve and stop, so that “no man might buy or sell” without the mark in his hand or forehead, was showing itself, although staying in the dark. The world – and its Prince – had won another battle.

Those who remained, those who weren’t going to give up, were anyway given a simple but powerful comfort. Jesus Christ’s promise. Non praevalebunt.