Gates of Hell Podcast Project

A geopolitical history of the cataclysmic events that shaped the First Vatican Council and the Dogma of Papal Infallibly.

This new pope, Pius IX, immediately displayed the qualities the power brokers of Europe, both lay and ecclesiastic, had hoped for. He was young and affable, conciliatory and responsive to modern sensibilities. He was popular among the local Italian citizenry, spoke to their interests and gained a reputa...

A geopolitical history of the cataclysmic events that shaped the First Vatican Council and the Dogma of Papal Infallibly.

An Ultramontane Church instantly became a cause for the papacy. Pius threw his weight in on the issue, choosing sides where previous popes declined to get involved. Gueranger, doing the bidding of Pius, went for the low hanging fruit first, he attacked the hymns of the French liturgy were written in the...

A geopolitical history of the cataclysmic events that shaped the First Vatican Council and the Dogma of Papal Infallibly.

Many bishops were just simply skeptical of anything Pius IX was up to, from Bishop Freppel of Anger, France:

The Council is being held either too soon or too late. Too late, because we are at the end of the pontificate of a tired and discouraged old man who views everything through the misfortu...

A geopolitical history of the cataclysmic events that shaped the First Vatican Council and the Dogma of Papal Infallibly.

On September 8th, the Italian king’s messenger arrived in Rome to deliver the last plea of Victor Emanuel III. Reading the letter, Pius slammed the document on the table and unleashed his famous temper. He raged at the Italian diplomat, calling his countrymen a set of vipers, whited sepulchers, and want...

A story of the persecution and survival of the Polish Church during communist rule.

Jaruzelski too recognized the winds of change and embraced Gorbachev’s policies of perestroika and glasnost: progress and transparency. Jaruzelski desperately needed an off ramp from where he had taken Poland. After the kidnapping and murder of Father Jerzy, his regime was completely delegitimized, and only sustained itself by tanks and gun...

A story of the persecution and survival of the Polish Church during communist rule.

The story of this Christ-nation begins over a thousand years ago with the conversion of this agrarian people and ends in the offices of the most powerful people in the world. The pope, representing a Vatican at peak world-wide influence, and the president of the United States, at peak geopolitical consequence, when at any moment the world m...

A story of the persecution and survival of the Polish Church during communist rule.

And so, it was these two men, Wyszynski and Gomulka who would represent the front lines of a new yet long forecasted confrontation: Communism VS Roman Catholicism. Prior to occupying Poland, the Soviets had a relatively easy time of taking over state churches. The Orthodox disciplines of the east were already highly nationalistic with few, ...

A story of the persecution and survival of the Polish Church during communist rule.

The head of the KGB in Moscow, Yuri Andropov, telephoned the KGB office in Warsaw and demanded to know how they could possibly let this happen. They responded that Mr. Andropov should direct his questions to Rome, not Warsaw. When Polish communist politician Stanislaw Kania read the news that Wojtyla had been elected pope, he uttered under ...

A story of the persecution and survival of the Polish Church during communist rule.

On the dark night of December 12th, as most Poles were preparing for the coming Christmas season, Operation Azalea commenced. Phone lines in Poland were suddenly cut. Radio and television stations were swarmed and commandeered by military police who came out of nowhere. At exactly midnight, military reserves loyal to Jaruzelski combined wit...