1932: Playing with the Japanese Communist Party with a doll

The candle flame popped into a flower, and everyone gasped and looked at their Pope with a little surprise.

Good idea!

This is definitely a good idea!

In this way, even if the Vatican has faults, they are only the fault of "excessive political considerations and insufficient promotion of reforms"!

Compared to being "inquisitioned for heresy," this charge can even be ignored! It can be brushed off with a phrase like "political and practical considerations"! Reform!

As the saying goes, a single move can affect the entire body. For an organization as large as the Vatican to implement reforms, there must be a lot of work to do and many difficulties to overcome. It's unlikely that results will be achieved quickly!

How many years did Martin Luther's Reformation adventure take before he barely achieved partial success?

We can't expect the current Vatican to achieve success overnight, right?

Poor Father Anderson, his status was too low, he could not understand the difficulties faced by the higher-ups, and his impatient personality led to the tragedy.

To put it bluntly, the Vatican has to find a way to make the outside world believe that Father Anderson was actually a reform pioneer appointed by the Vatican, a reform martyr who died accidentally, and not a self-immolator who initiated a heresy trial against the Vatican.

However, this raises another question:

Reform, reform, is needed because of internal drawbacks, and reform will inevitably lead to damage to some people's interests.

Even if Anderson's self-immolation was an "unforeseen tragedy during the reform period," someone important must be held accountable.

Otherwise, it would not be enough to appease the anger and sorrow of the believers, nor would it be enough to calm public opinion and the current chaos, let alone resist the "attack" of the saint.

"Responsible? Of course someone needs to be responsible."

"But who is responsible?"

It can't be His Holiness the Pope, right?

"Of course, it's the die-hard conservatives and moral degenerates who are not on the same page as us."

Everyone was stunned for a moment, and then their eyes gradually widened.

Who are you talking about, die-hard conservatives, moral degenerates?

There is no doubt that it cannot be the gentlemen of noble character present here.

Those who are too low-ranking within the Vatican are not qualified to be responsible for matters of this magnitude, and those who are qualified...

There are only the central cardinals who were not called here and more ordinary cardinals.

(Note: There are approximately 200 cardinals in the Catholic Church worldwide, only about 100 of whom have the right to elect the Pope, but only about 10-20 of them are permanently stationed in the Vatican and can actually participate in core decision-making on a regular basis.)

But they dared to confront the Pope directly, so how could they possibly be willing to take responsibility?

Obviously guessing what his subordinates were thinking, Pius Ten-Shi said leisurely:

"I know it's difficult to admit one's mistakes, but the Vatican must do so at all costs. Facing these unrepentant individuals, how can we convince the world if we don't take extreme measures?"

Everyone's eyes widened again.

The meaning of this statement is obvious:

Several or even more diehards must pay the price of their lives to prove that the Vatican has indeed long been determined to reform, to prove that some people have been influenced by Anderson, and to prove that the Vatican is not rotten to the core;

What if you are unwilling to sacrifice your life for the Holy See?

It doesn't matter, if they are not decent, then we will make them decent.

Don't forget that, apart from the Swiss Guard and the Vatican Gendarmerie, the Inquisition within the Holy See has never been disbanded.

Just because you don’t use it regularly doesn’t mean it’s useless.

It turns out that the price in His Holiness's phrase "at any cost" is...

Everyone couldn't help but shudder, and gained a new understanding of the Holy See, whom they had always believed to be weak in character.

It turns out that when His Holiness the Pope is ruthless, he can be so cruel, and when he is quick to react, he can be so quick...

Pope Pius XI knocked on the table again: "Well, everyone? What do you think?" "...I agree."

"I agree." "I agree too."

"

For these core decision-makers, there is no psychological barrier to abandoning some colleagues in red clothes.

A necessary sacrifice!

Besides, some cardinals have indeed gone too far—sexually assaulting multiple boys and girls, openly participating in real estate speculation using their own accounts, embezzling and misappropriating public funds for loan sharking...

The point is, damn it, they just did it, and they couldn't even cover it up, so the victim went to the Vatican and forced the Vatican to help clean up the mess!

Although the Holy See is large, it cannot withstand such frequent turmoil. It is time to let out some pus and blood.

Even if the pus and blood would taint the glory of the Holy See itself, that was no longer a concern.

As the expensive cigar lit by Cardinal Lateran flickered in the darkness, several people drew up a preliminary "face (kill) list".

"This Cardinal de Witt on the list made two hundred thousand pounds when he was in charge of the South American Inquisition."

Cardinal Basili pressed the tip of his pen into the vellum, and the ink smudged into blood-like dots beneath the name "Paul DeWitt":

"Last year he drowned three seminarians in the Tiber who had denounced pedophilia." "This"

A few sneers were heard amid the cigar smoke.

Cardinal de Witt, who calls himself the "Guardian of Tradition", may never have imagined that the dirty deeds of covering up the crimes of his colleagues in the past would become the best rope for killing people today.

The candlelight cast a long shadow over Cardinal Gaspari as he added a new item to his list:

"Cardinal Pierre Noailles, of the Diocese of Lyon, France, strangled a fourteen-year-old boy in the confessional in March of this year. He faked an epileptic seizure, thinking we didn't know..."

"Cardinal Girolamo Benedetti, General Director of Economic Affairs for the Diocese of Rome. Oh, this bastard is an expert at reselling holy relics. It is said that he also has shares in DuPont and MGM..."

"Cardinal Lucio Marchetti, of the Diocese of Innsbruck, Austria. This guy is obsessed with the 'Ceremony of the Holy Spirit'. The explosion of the 'Espiritu Santo' that killed 300 stowaways was his doing, wasn't it?"

"Cardinal François Dupont, Archdiocese of Lille, France, is the worst offender. He installed a phonograph in the confessional to blackmail confessors..."

"Cardinal Louis-Charles Beaufort, Archdiocese of Poitiers, France. He ordered the three craftsmen in the Rose Window tragedy to be sealed in cement..."

"Cardinal Philippe Leclerc, Diocese of Marseille, I've told you countless times that indulgences can no longer be sold, but this guy is actually paying companies to create a 'moral exemption zone'..."

"...Holy See, isn't the French cardinal a bit too..."

"Um?"

"No...nothing, the French guy is indeed a heinous criminal." "Well, go on!"

These disgraceful cardinals will eventually be restored to dignity by the Holy See; when they are restored to dignity, can the Holy See restore its dignity? It is hard to say.

507 Being the Saint's dog is the greatest honor!

Faced with the threat of life and death and under the death order of the College of Cardinals, the ancient and bloated Church moved at an unimaginable speed.

Among the major moves being plotted by the core decision-makers, the suicide of certain cardinals required meticulous planning, and revising the "leaked" Apostolic Instructions required adjusting all previous records, which also took some time.

The simplest, quickest and most effective way to deal with the current crisis is naturally to forge Father Anderson’s "Reform Petition" and last will and testament.

The Vatican quickly summoned several experts who were good at imitating handwriting and began a vigorous counterfeiting work.

First, there are the "petitions" that Father Anderson has "written" to the Vatican over the years, which the cardinals call the "Anderson Reform Memorandum";

In these documents, Anderson detailed his criticism of the current state of the Church and his expectations for the future, calling on the Vatican to abandon corruption, return to its original purpose, and carry out thorough internal reforms;

The second is "Father Anderson's Last Letter".

From the few words in his suicide note, we can see that Father Anderson was a devoted believer who deeply loved the Church. He chose to self-immolate in order to awaken a spirit of reform within the Vatican, not out of dissatisfaction with the Church.

In short, after careful planning, on the surface, the Vatican successfully portrayed Anderson's self-immolation as a noble sacrifice rather than a "heresy trial" against the Vatican.

However, neither the previous collective discussions nor the subsequent "core decisions" were made public by the Holy See, causing them to continue to endure overwhelming questioning, accusations and even abuse.

The storm is coming, and the Church has a broken umbrella in its hand but it does not open it;

Even though most of the cardinals thought that the work was still in preparation, it was still... a little strange.

the other side.

Field was stirring the coffee cup gently with a stainless steel spoon. His slender fingers in white gloves looked so elegant and charming, but his brows were slightly furrowed, as if he was thinking about some important issue.

No one knew that the American president was "hijacking" the signal from the large overseas radio station assigned to him to report the situation to a prince far away in China.

Of course, since both the sender and the receiver are advanced humanoids like Springfield or agents, both encoding and decoding are calculated in milliseconds, so the communication between the two parties is extremely fast, basically equivalent to QQ chatting.

"...It's strange. He's clearly formulated such an effective strategy and has laid the groundwork. Why doesn't His Holiness implement it immediately? Is he guarding against me? Or has he guessed something?"

"...The commander's opinion is that it doesn't matter. If the Vatican doesn't make a move, then don't make a move. They fight their battles, and we play ours. There's no need to think too much about this in a crushing situation."

"I understand."

After the communication was cut off, Haruta sighed to himself.

That being said, if I'm alone, things could easily go wrong...

Do I have to play the game I played before again? Or...

“This signal… is it you?”

The followers standing respectfully by the side stared at Haruta with fanatical eyes. Suddenly, they noticed that his body trembled, his brows slowly relaxed, and after a moment, he smiled but looked at everyone solemnly:

"Everyone, please get ready. We are going to do something for that saint."

For the Holy See, Springfield, the "Wild Saint", is undoubtedly an enemy. It can even be said that she is an extremely rare and dangerous enemy of the Holy See in the past thousand years. If possible, they really want to burn her to death at the stake.

Despite this, despite so many unpleasant things happening, when Springfield proposed to visit the Vatican, the Holy See still did not dare to refuse, and even had to carefully prepare a grand welcome ceremony to avoid "neglecting the distinguished guest."

The bronze doors of St. Peter's Square slowly opened in the morning mist, newly cut white satin fluttered on the stone-pillared corridor, and scarlet velvet curtains slowly opened between the bronze columns.

Twelve papal officials wearing golden crowns held high a cross-staff inlaid with pearls, and four deacon boys lifted a brocade canopy in the shape of St. Nicholas's cape;

The gold tassels on the cardinals' dark purple robes weighed two kilograms and hung heavily between the pleats of their skirts sewed with brocade with the Annunciation pattern;

Eighty Swiss Guards stood on both sides, marching in the parade pace that has been passed down since 1512, their silver-plated halberds striking the marble floor with a steady clang.

The crushed petals of the visiting procession were mixed with the specially made colored sand from the Vatican Armory to create a woven pattern of irises and the Stars and Stripes on the cobblestones.

When the Pope's tiara appeared at the entrance to the throne room, twenty-four silver censers erupted in unison, releasing frankincense smoke. The sound of cannons came from the direction of Castel Sant'Angelo, the sound was crisp and melodious.

The children's voices of the Sistine Chapel choir rose to the dome along with the sound of the organ, and seven ancient harps made of cedar and tortoise shells played Gregorian chants;

The boys wore golden scarab badges on the collars of their crimson robes. These were gifts brought back by Leo XIII when he visited Cairo in 1903. Each wing of the scarab was engraved with the dual emblems of Egypt and the Vatican.

From any perspective, there was absolutely no impoliteness in this welcoming ceremony, which fully demonstrated the Vatican's thousand-year heritage and respect for guests.

In this solemn and ancient atmosphere, the black limousine presented by a certain prince and the iconic American military uniform worn by Haruta seemed so out of place.

However, her beauty and temperament that transcend this era can make people ignore all problems.

When the car door opened and Springfield appeared in front of the people in the Holy City, the sound of metal collision just cut through the "Pontifical March" that was playing, and the breeze in St. Peter's Square suddenly subsided.

The six altar boys holding holy water bottles froze in place. For the first time, the surface of the exquisite silver pots cast in 1505 in their arms reflected such a "non-human" female face.

If there really were saints or virgins of the level described in the Bible in this world, they would probably look like the person before me, right?

Not to mention young people, even knowledgeable older people like the Pope and cardinals couldn't help but feel amazed and have a desire for male possession.

Damn it! How could such a beautiful woman appear in the United States? Why was she unknown before? Why did she become our enemy?

As Springfield's long riding boots made a steady thump as he walked towards the Pope on the steps, the entire Vatican finally remembered to breathe.

The first to react was Pope Pius XI. He brushed the golden tassels dangling from his vestments with his fingers, suppressed all the emotion in his eyes, and walked down the stairs. He paused at the last step, extended his right hand, and spoke in a low voice:

“Gratia Dei sumus quod vos ad limina apostolorumaccipimus. (By the grace of God, we welcome you in this apostolic land)”

A warning to suppress arrogance.

Being on a high place is one thing, using Latin is another.

However, the Pope's restraint was excellent, preventing anyone from getting angry. After all, deep down, the Vatican didn't want a direct conflict with Springfield. However, such petty tactics were insignificant in the face of the Tactical Dolls.

Haruta nonchalantly extended her right hand and gently shook the Pope's hand. When the silk glove touched the ring of authority, she responded in the same tone of voice that complied with Vatican rules:

“Pax sit velut tapete Pontificium, auratis filissubtiliter contextum, Beatissime Pater.” (Peace should be like the tapestry of the Holy See, woven with threads of gold, Your Holiness the Pope)

Pius X's eyelids twitched, realizing that this young woman was not to be trifled with. He quickly adjusted his plan and greeted her again in English:

"Welcome to the Holy City, Ms. Field."

Crafty guy.

Chuntian curled his lips inwardly, and led everyone into St. Peter's Basilica with a smile on his face.

According to the pre-announced itinerary, Chuntian came to the Vatican to visit the holy city, but everyone knew that her purpose was not this.