Malachi Martin’s Windswept House: Deep Dive & Analysis

“Not to believe in evil is not to be armed against it.”

― Malachi Martin

The famous priest, Malachi Martin (1921 – 1999) may have been the last apostle of the pre-Internet age. Here we have a man, however, whose apostleship had to remain clandestine, because authentic Catholicism antagonizes today’s treacherous hierarchy, almost completely addicted to Satan (no exaggeration).

His fantastic but controversial book, Windswept House (1996), helps us comprehend a fast-changing yet altogether mystifying period in modern history. The second half of the 20th century was the final era where shadowy evildoers could conceal things from us, prior to the Internet. In 2024, everything has changed, since many “citizen journalists” can expose diabolical clerical misdeeds on an array of platforms.

Malachi Martin, the late Vatican insider, pioneered those tactics when information was much harder to obtain, secrets more easily kept, and email communication far more primitive. That made him a rather special whistleblower against what some of us consider the “antichurch hierarchy.” All of that is reason enough to consider this tell-all book, a game-changing exposé of how (and why) things have fallen apart since Vatican II.

Here’s a quick rundown of the topics you’ll find in this Windswept House review:

1. Vatican Enthronement to Lucifer: A Two-Chapel Affair
2. So, Why Call the Book, “Windswept House”?
3. The Plot to Resign the “Slavic Pope”
4. Globalism & Europe – The Epicenter of Everything Evil
5. The Twin Seduction of the Gladstone Bros.
6. More Character Analysis
7. Other Important Windswept House Themes
8. Conclusion

Before reviewing its themes and lessons, I’d like to address a common complaint levied against Windswept House: It’s too long. Some readers believe Martin repeats himself too often, or that the dialogues are excessive/redundant.

Yet, I also hear the same people constantly crave and clamor for ever more details regarding the ruination of the Church. They satisfy themselves primarily on a steady diet of “clips” and “memes.” However, when someone comes along, and offers a 600-page, full banquet, complete with delectable entrees and all the trimmings, they blast it for being “too long.”

So goes the instant-gratification mentality of the typical ADHD-riddled, modern American reader. If it doesn’t fit into a 15-second YouTube “short,” then they won’t consider it.

That being said, this review of Windswept House won’t be a “play-by-play” analysis, but an assessment of its most essential themes. The book itself follows a linear/chronological progression, beginning in 1958 with warnings against globalism from Pope Pius XII, followed by the Luciferian Enthronement narrative. It finishes with an extensive account of the ecclesiastical deterioration from 1978 to the time of its publication in 1996.

Let us begin with that dreadful Enthronement business . . . 

Vatican Enthronement to Lucifer: A Two-Chapel Affair

“The Guarantee of Our Tomorrow Is Today’s Persuasion That We Do Not Exist.”

-The Vatican Luciferians’ Rule (Page 9 of Windswept House)

Because of that crucial rule, the Luciferians had to use discretion over how they performed their Enthronement ceremony, should they wish to avoid detection in the Vatican. Since the city was well occupied, it prevented them from holding a full-throated, Satanic Black Mass with all the usual (and wretched) bell’s and whistles. It would be too difficult to keep it under wraps, leading them to devise a two-chapel procedure.

They broke it down into dual Luciferian ceremonies: one in the Vatican, the other in South Carolina, USA. So, while they sought to conquer the Eternal City for their “Prince,” they performed the most hideous ritual acts at what they dubbed a “targeting chapel” in South Carolina. The concept of targeting and target chapels is very important, and later I will explain how it ties into the book’s title.

Purpose of the Enthronement Ritual?

Why in the world would anyone wish to enthrone Lucifer, of all demons, to rule over the Catholic Church (in Rome, the Eternal City)?

Well, for anyone who isn’t hopelessly naïve, by this point, the answer is obvious. In the 1950s/1960s, the Church had already suffered a slow, but deliberate hijacking by freemasons/communists/sodomites. We usually refer to them as “modernists.” Since they didn’t enjoy full dominion just yet, the Enthronement would allow their master, the Prince of this world, to subjugate Christ’s true Church (God forbid).

Martin describes the Enthronement ritual as an opportunity with a time limit, or “Availing Time,” allowing for the “Ascent of the Prince.” This means that the evildoers had a finite opportunity to leverage the disorienting effects of the ritual (which were enormous) to seize control of the Catholic papacy. The book doesn’t specifically state how much time this “availed” them, but we might deduce that it would have been roughly 40 or 50 years.

Once it would expire, the Enthronement would dispel, and conquering the papacy would become nigh on impossible. I’ll address my hypothesis on the duration of the Availing Time in a later section. Now, let’s examine the excruciating elements of this foul deed, which Martin and others corroborate as a very real event.

Our “friends,” in high places, who believe they run the world, have been involved with lots of similar activities as of late . . .

What Exactly Happened at the Luciferian Enthronement?

READER DISCRETION ADVISED

The Enthronement contained several recognizable “liturgical elements” bastardized for a gruesome ritual of satanic worship. Most of it resembled an inverted form of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

I’ll summarize the worst horrors of this demonic ceremony in this bulleted list.

• Instead of an opening hymn, they rattled bones together, mumbled incoherent prayers and noises, until reaching a near hysteria, what Martin called a “convert of chaos.”
• A mockery of the Apostolic Creed, including 14 invocations, such as “I believe in One Power, and its name is Cosmos,” or “I believe in the Mysterious One, and he is the Snake & Venom of the Apple of Life.”
• A father would offer his daughter as a victim sacrifice to the Prince. She was an 11-year-old, named “Agnes” (alluding to the Agnus Dei).
• This occurred on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul (June 29th). The Vatican target chapel gets its name from St. Paul, happening shortly after the coronation of a pope who took the name, Paul.
• Both chapels performed the spoken parts in perfect synchrony, and with flawless Latin.
• They adorned everything with hideous black pillars, shields, a bowl of bones on the altar, and other Satanic symbols.
• They referred to Jesus as the “nameless weakling,” 
• Agnes’ pet puppy was used in a “Ritual of Pain Giving,” involving a brutal castration.
• After confecting the Eucharist (since it involved Catholic clergy), they laid it atop the poor girl, Agnes, drew blood from her (making two “species”), and uttered several more blasphemies.
• The Enthronement culminated with all the participants (numerous clergy and lay people) receiving Holy Communion before participating in a “Ritual Violation” of the poor girl, including her father.
• They chanted the “Final Invocation,” (emphasis mine): “Whoever shall, by means of the Inner Chapel, be designated and chosen as the final In-the-Line successor of the Petrine Office, shall by his very oath commit himself and all he does command to be the willing instrument and collaborator with the Builder of Man’s Home on Earth and throughout Man’s Cosmos. He shall change the Ancient enmity into Friendship, Tolerance, and Assimilation as these are applied to the model of birth, education, work, finance, commerce, industry, learning, culture, living and giving life, dying and dealing death. So shall the New Age of Man be modeled.” 

Beyond any doubt, if true, this must have been the most blasphemous scene anyone could ever witness, and . . . all done for the Brotherhood of Man, under the mantle of Lucifer. Again, this happened in both South Carolina, led by then Fr. Bernardin and local Bishop John Russel, along with cardinals in the Vatican’s Pauline Chapel.

The timing and location of the Enthronement isn’t perfectly clear (the book claims 1963; other sources say 1957). The real-life Agnes, who purportedly provided the story to Malachi Martin, said it happened in Greenville, SC in 1957, whereas the novel only specifies “South Carolina.” Also, if it included Bishop Russel, the 1957 timing makes more sense since he had transferred to Richmond, VA by 1958.

This agonizing affair would contribute to almost limitless detriments to the Church. By the end of the book, we learn that even Paul VI wrote a letter to his successor, JPI (implied to have been killed), warning him of its implications. He stated, point blank, that the Church would be impossible to govern from the Vatican because of the Enthronement.

So, Why Call the Book, “Windswept House”?

Why does Martin call his book, “Windswept House” rather than the “Enthronement of Lucifer in the Vatican”?

Windswept House is a mansion in Galveston, Texas, owned by a prominent Catholic family, the Gladstones, who I’ll explore further in a later section. Their patriarch, who lived in the late 19th century, provided enormous monetary support to Pope Pius IX right as Rome suffered a foreign invasion and loss of the Papal States.

In exchange, the imprisoned pope granted the Gladstones the right to establish a beacon tower or chapel back in Galveston, which would replicate Rome’s secret Tower of the Winds. This created “twin towers,” as it were, both furnishing the Blessed Sacrament, a symbol of hope amid the transforming, Freemasonic secular world. Here we see His Holiness almost pre-empting the wicked “Targeted/Target Chapels” by honoring the Holy Eucharist in high places in both Rome and the U.S.

Of course, if you’re familiar with Old Testament history, this is like the opposite of how the evil kings would offend God by erecting idols in the Temple’s high places. The towers, at Windswept House and Rome, would counteract iniquity by honoring the Holy Eucharist (somewhat reminiscent of St. John Bosco’s vision about twin pillars).

It’s almost as if Pius IX knew this would come in handy someday. In a sense, he was right. That’s because the future residents of Windswept House (Cessi Gladstone and her son, Fr. Christian Gladstone) who would become great allies of a future pope after the Enthronement.

Before we get to the Gladstones, let’s go over the immediate consequences and side effects of that Luciferian ritual.

The Plot to Resign the “Slavic Pope”

Following the Enthronement scene, most of the remaining plot occurs between 1978 and 1996, encompassing the lengthy pontificate of John Paul II. Martin code-names him the “Slavic Pope.” This is for three reasons: 1) To avoid sensationalism, 2) He comes from a Slavic country, and, 3) He was a SLAVE in the Vatican.

For anyone unaware, the word “slave” does indeed derive from the Slavic people of Eastern Europe, who experienced that unpleasant disposition under several torturers (Muslims, USSR, etc.). Martin explains how the Slavic Pope almost always sought diplomacy, universal dialogue, and negotiation to address nearly all disputes, even as an influencer at the Second Vatican Council.

Of course, one has to wonder if all that negotiation was simply a side effect of . . . well . . . being a slave.

Stronger popes, such as Pope St. Leo the Great or Pope St. Pius V, would have never been caught dead negotiating with the abominable Huns, Muslims, or heretics. The Slavic Pope, to the contrary, had to contend with both the modernist infiltration (which he inadvertently helped during the council) AND an ungovernable Vatican after the Enthronement. If Martin’s depiction is accurate, then it would explain quite a lot about the JPII pontificate.

In Chapter 15, there’s even an explanation of why an otherwise lenient pope would excommunicate the prelate Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre for merely consecrating new bishops. Most of it revolves around the stranglehold those wicked Satanic cardinals had over the Slavic Pope’s every decree, appointment, and public appearance.

In other words, it wasn’t the Holy Father who expelled Lefebvre, but the wicked pseudo-subordinates, including the Secretariat. They controlled almost every official action emanating from the Vatican: horrible curial appointments, dubious teachings, a bizarre “catechism,” and more. While the Holy Father certainly struggled to mount an effective opposition to clerical corruption, he was still a mostly orthodox pontiff in private.

Nevertheless, the upper hierarchy STILL despised this pope, shackled as he may have been, because of his insistence on adhering to Catholic dogmas and Marian apparitions, which they hated. As such, they would hatch a scheme (with the help of secular figures) to eliminate him and install a more collegial government, with a weaker and manipulable papacy. 

To avoid a repeat of the stupid 1981 assassination attempt on the pope, they devised something more subtle: a plot to corner him into resigning his office. This time, they’d get rid of him without bloodshed, replace him with a puppet, after gaining the full consent of the Catholic episcopacy.

Thank goodness it was fiction, though, and that something like that would never happen in real life.

What Was This Resignation Plot? Who Orchestrated it?

The primary instigator of the resignation plot was the second-highest-ranking cleric, the Secretary of State, Cosimo Maestroianni (the fictional version of Agostino Casaroli). He possessed the most pull with the greatest number of cardinals and bishops, and would have an important say over a potential papal successor. This man, Maestroianni, and his fellow modernist cohorts, drafted a letter of resignation, and then began an elaborate campaign to get the world’s bishops to pressure the Slavic Pope’s signature.

The whole matter depended on what they called a “Common Mind Vote,” which was their way of forcing a Motion of No Confidence (without calling it that). The Slavic Pope still had to acquiesce, which they believed he would, given his devotion to collegiality and “everybody getting along” since Vatican II. It was an elaborate trap (with many other details), all designed to force the aging pontiff to either resign, or risk offending his fellow Churchmen by opposing their common mind.

To make matters worse, the reader would discover that much more powerful forces (secular figures) possessed similar motives for removing someone they considered a stubbornly orthodox and troglodyte pontiff. Doing so would ease the way for many nefarious agendas, like eugenics and population control, to be unleashed onto the world without moral opposition. These villains (Freemasons, Klaus Scwab, and so forth) deemed this to be a crucial step toward fulfilling “the inevitable logic of history.”

These figures no longer wished to eliminate the papal office (having already tried so numerous times). Their mission was to “get their guy on the throne.” From there, with the support of complicit cardinals, they could control a figurehead pope, thus the rest of the hierarchy, and hence the entire Church. Then, there would be little else to oppose their New World Order.

“Ah, But This Never Happened in Real Life! What a Stupid Story!”

Now, of course, Malachi Martin obviously didn’t conceive of all this with perfect precision (since JPII, the real-life Slavic Pope, never faced an overt resignation coup). However, if he were playing horseshoes, we could say he scored a “leaner,” just not the full ringer with this toss. That’s because a resignation coup DID come to fruition, albeit with a different pope.

We would find out, 14 years after Martin’s death, that the real pope to be cajoled into resignation would be the Slavic Pope’s successor, Benedict XVI. He was the pope who resigned under VERY dubious circumstances and procedures. You can follow that hyperlink to learn all about the errors, fear, manipulation, and other bizarre elements involving Benedict’s resignation.

The irony is that Malachi Martin’s resignation narrative was actually more legal, plausible, and less like extortion than the real-life Benedict XVI partial resignation. Benedict never even had a real resignation letter, whereas at least Maestroianni and company got the Slavic Pope to initial the ridiculous documentation they drafted.

So, if Martin simply had made his prediction too soon (with a JPII resignation, which never occurred), would the eventual Benedict resignation cohere with all that Enthronement business? I believe so, provided there was still enough Availing Time left on the clock, which I mentioned earlier. Although the modernist Luciferians achieved neither a JPII resignation, nor their preferred man at the 2005 conclave, things certainly changed in 2013.

Was the Availing Time just about to run out when they installed Bergoglio as an antipope? It looks as if the Enthronement, if it took place in June 1963, would have expired by 2013, 50 years later, not long after Bergoglio’s March 2013 usurpation.

This is my hypothesis, because although his “papacy” has been wildly illegal, he appears to be all the modernists have needed to spread unmitigated globalism in such a short order. That’s been especially true since the lawful pope (Benedict XVI) died, leaving the throne vacant since Dec. 31, 2022. Therefore, from the point of view of the Bernardins, Russels, and other Enthroners, the Bergoglian antipapacy proved the Enthronement to be a resounding success (for now, anyway).

Mission accomplished . . .

I’ll leave that miserable plight for your further meditation and speculation, but I’d like to share one last parallel regarding the two popes’ mindsets (JPII and Benedict) on resignation. 

Slavic Pope or Pope Benedict???

The Slavic Pope wasn’t altogether opposed to the resignation concept, given how miserable the job had become; at least when he wasn’t traveling. In one part of the novel, he thought to himself how grand it would be to “free himself from this papal indenture.” Whether the real-life John Paul II genuinely felt that way is a matter of debate.

His successor, on the other hand, held this view without a shadow of a doubt.

Finally, the book also predicts the novel concept of the “contemplative pope,” made infamous by Benedict XVI’s resignation. Martin’s JPII depiction shows us a pope who would be right at home either doing Fatima pilgrimages or praying contemplatively with a few monks in a monastery. Most of his life, upon ascending to the papacy in 1978, revolves around getting the Hell out of the Vatican.

**SPOILER ALERT: The rest of this section reveals the book’s ending**

The book ends with the Slavic Pope attempting his long-anticipated Russian pilgrimage, only to get hit with the resignation demand (from the cardinals) before reaching Moscow. Windswept House ends with a cliffhanger where he has to decide whether to quit and retire to a monastery, or return to Rome and oppose the cardinals.

We don’t know what the Slavic Pope would have chosen to do. However, we DO know what Pope Benedict would have done . . . since he went ahead and did it. He fled from the wolves, as he forecasted upon his election in 2005, preferring to retire to a contemplative life rather than fight.

Malachi Martin predicted the fleeing from the wolves, albeit too soon, and with the wrong pontiff.

Final Analysis of the Slavic Pope, John Paul II

One might conclude that this book is as much about His Holiness, John Paul II, as it is the world takeover by Freemasonic Luciferians. Malachi Martin gives what I’d call a very fair and judicious account of his pontificate, and perhaps a way to calibrate our own perception of it.

This is well worthwhile for Catholics who either idolize or demonize the Polish-born pontiff. Windswept House shows both his positive aspects (strong devotion to spreading the Fatima message and Eucharistic devotion), but without sugar-coating the obvious flaws (failure to control his cardinalate).

Furthermore, we saw how the Slavic Pope didn’t always set the best example for his subordinate clergy. It’s possible to conclude that his timorous leadership may have even inflicted a clerical-style generational curse against multiple generations of Catholic priests. Did his example encourage countless clergy, men without chests, NEVER to fight back or assert their dignity as holy priests of Jesus Christ?

The book also explores other explanations for the Slavic Pope’s reticence and complicity. Was the Holy Father non-confrontational out of obedience to heaven? Had the Blessed Virgin (who appeared to him in visions) ordered him to stand down and allow the Church to suffer Her Passion, just as Jesus Christ had done? Was it somehow better to await the chastisement, announced in the 3rd Secret of Fatima?

Regardless of those rhetorical considerations, the real-life JPII pontificate was the third longest of all time, and never clarified or enforced much at all. His crowning achievement may have been the dubious 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church, a collegial document requiring no less than 24,000 suggested amendments before publication. That’s shining proof of the pope’s insistence on a collaborative (synodal) Church, a la Vatican II, without the firm, governing hand of a strong supreme pontiff.

The Slavic Pope’s legacy, both within and without this novelization, has contributed way more questions than answers for Catholics everywhere.

Globalism & Europe – The Epicenter of Everything Evil

“Poor, poor Europe.”
-The Slavic Pope

Windswept House isn’t just an effective treatise on Church transformation. Its author offers the reader a dandy education on geopolitics and the transition of the world from the Cold War to globalism. Secular Europe, as Pope Pius XII once lamented, was at the epicenter of it, and for all the wrong reasons, because of its animosity against the papacy.

The book also provides a thorough description on the complicated growth and sophistication of the European Community, from about 1958 to the mid-1990s. There’s plenty to discuss here, although much of the institutional/structural topics may seem too dense for many readers. I’ll attempt a “reader’s digest version” of the development of the EC, from a minor regional group, into a 450-million-person political behemoth with authority over sovereign countries.

• 1950 – The European Coal & Steel Community → only six members: the Benelux Countries, Italy, France, and West Germany (notice: started by mostly Catholic nations)
• 1979 – The European Parliament Creation (i.e., an unprecedented supranational legislature)
• 1992 (Maastricht Treaty) → formally making it the “European Union,” expanded to 27 member states
• EU Scope & Powers → socialized everything (competition rules, common monetary policy, common commerce laws, rules governing international agreements, etc.)
• 2010s – Present (Regret!) → Now members want to leave (see: Brexit); lamenting their decision to join a proverbial Hotel California in Europe. Today, they want to expand even further to include supposedly European nations like . . . Turkey!
• Tyrannical Supranationalism? Its critics complain the EU represents peak elitism (hmm, you don’t say?). They also criticize its forced austerity, massive bureaucracy, lack of transparency, leftist values, encouragement of limitless immigration, and attempts to abolish the veto rights of its members.

Why did all that institutional European junk matter?

Short Answer: This was the embryo and model for doing the same thing worldwide.

In some sense, the road to globalism follows a path paved by Europe, and exacerbated by the brutality of the USA. This is true of the 20th century clergy, too. In Europe, you have innumerable bishops and cardinals schmoozing with Freemasons and secular politicos, whereas the U.S. leads the satanic-pervo-clerical revolution through figures like Bernardin and Ted McCarrick. Both serve the same purpose, since all these folks are friends (but not with you or I).

Then, in the story, there were the Gladstone brothers (who I’ll discuss in the next section) two men manipulated into brokering crooked financial relationships between the EC and various bishops. With the aid of the EC’s economic incentives (low-interest loans, for example), many European bishops, easily exploitable financially, were easy suckers for this European-style globalism.

We shouldn’t act surprised, then, when we discover that clerics from that area (and elsewhere) have become slaves to Mammon. The ever-expanding EC was quite the harbinger for this worsening problem: the conversion of the Church’s sacred shepherds into mere “members of management.”

Having said all that, there was one important monetary detail Martin seemed to have omitted from his story . . . 

My One Minor Criticism of the Book 

One of my few criticisms of Windswept House is that Martin neglected to include much on the EU’s common currency (the Euro), enacted by the end of the 90s. Maybe he knew that lazy American readers zombies would not tolerate his book if it reached 700 pages with more Euro-geopolitical content. Who knows?

Though it’s hard to imagine the Euro creation wasn’t a significant globalizing/secularizing factor since it was the first major and massive attempt at a common currency. This was in the works since the 1950s, and common currencies (ones forced upon an unsuspecting citizenry) are always a viable contender for Mark of the Beast consideration.

I can scarcely believe Martin wasn’t aware of this dynamic, or that it didn’t fit the designs of the “Luciferian Master Engineers” somehow.

Speaking of beasts, I’d like to switch gears over to the devil and some of the complex ways he might ensnare us. Martin uses his narrative to show how evil forces seduce traditional Catholics to fulfill diabolical purposes through tactics like obedience and career success.

The Twin Seduction of The Gladstone Bros.

This section will illustrate the story arcs of two American brothers: Christian and Paul Gladstone. I won’t spend too long covering their narratives since an unaffiliated reader won’t appreciate it outside the novel’s detailed context. Nonetheless, the seduction of the Gladstone brothers, into the massive web of global politics, provides vital lessons for 21st century Catholics.

Fr. Christian Gladstone’s story begins while he’s working as an out-of-place visiting professor, teaching at the Vatican’s Angelicum (pontifical university). He came from a very traditional family, but almost by accident, got stuck working for the anti-traditional Secretary Cosimo Maestroianni. He was initially cautious with the treacherous prelate. That was, until he went against his better judgment and (long story, short) found himself collecting information about bishops in Europe and the U.S. for Maestroianni.

The nature of his duty required him to canvas those areas and essentially “get the ball rolling” for the prelate’s Common Mind Vote. Although repulsed by the overall mission, he went through with it anyway, mostly from a mis-placed sense of obedience (a typical fault I excoriate on the Catholics Aren’t Zombies blog).

Meanwhile, because of his friendship with a few traditionalists in Rome (few as they were anywhere), he became friends with the Slavic Pope. In fact, the only thing that saved Fr. Gladstone from total subservience to Maestroianni was the Holy Father sending him on an alternate mission.

That task redirected him to the U.S., specifically Chicago, where he and another priest uncovered the murderous, Satanic, pedophilia network headed by then-Cardinal Josef Bernardin. Recall that Bernardin was the main presider over the Enthronement ritual some 25 or 30 years prior.

The book ends with Gladstone discovering the truth about the Enthronement and attempting to inform the Slavic Pope before falling into Maestroianni’s resignation trap. There’s a dramatic scene where he finally met the pontiff and basically yelled at him not to resign amid all the Luciferians in the Vatican.

Paul Gladstone, the younger brother, was discovered by Maestroianni at the same time he got ahold of his brother, Christian. When the prelate noticed that Paul worked for his powerful Freemason friend, Cyrus Benthoek, the two began a scheme to install him as EC Secretary General. There are many more details involved, but this might be enough to show how contrived EC politics can be.

As this happened, Paul, who came from the same traditional family as Christian, would be coaxed into abandoning Catholicism and join a Freemasonic Lodge. Unable to resist the allure of power, honor, and purpose in life (by worldly standards), Paul ignored Catholic teaching, and took a Freemasonic oath in Jerusalem.

What horrible circumstances, might we ask, could have led Paul to commit such a grave sin?

Well, earlier as a young man, like his brother, he discerned a call to the priesthood, but attended a more ordinary diocesan seminary. Christian had reached ordination after attending a traditional seminary in Spain, but Paul left formation upon witnessing one too many fag parties, heretical coursework, and irreverent Novus Ordo liturgies. While Christian would become a priest in the old rite, Paul encountered scandalous degrees of paganism, Buddhism, Taoism, and the “spirit of Vatican II” saturated into the seminary experience.

Paul Gladstone would understandably leave the modernist antichurch formation, attend Harvard, embrace a secular mindset, and become successful by the world’s standards. He spent years becoming increasingly lukewarm, but by God’s grace, it would not be permanent. Despite his missed vocation and entrapment in global politics and Freemasonry, Paul would experience a reversion.

In dramatic fashion, Paul would see the light, and confess his sins (joining the lodge, in particular) to none other than his brother, the priest. It took two interventions for this to occur:

1. The Near Death of His Son → After marrying a non-Catholic Asian woman, Paul had a son who would later become trapped in a spelunking accident. Once he thought his son was dead, it occurred to Paul that the incident resulted from his decision to leave Catholicism and join Freemasonry. He would repent, renounce the oath, and confess his sins. After doing so, in an almost miraculous fashion, a search party discovered and retrieved his injured son. This goes to show how such acute suffering can stimulate conversion, and one of the best reasons to never shun its redemptive purification.
2. His Wife’s Conversion After Praying the Rosary → Malachi Martin mentions it very briefly, but I cannot ignore its significance. Paul’s wife, Yusai, grew up in China with little exposure to anything but Confucianism. Alas, Paul, throughout all their years of marriage, dedicated little effort toward explaining the faith, compounding problems. Despite that, something would change in Yusai’s heart, inspiring her curiosity of the Catholic religion. On page 535, Martin explains how Yusai began praying the Rosary at about the time Paul was becoming despondent over his Lodge activities. This was about four chapters before their son got stuck in the cave, and almost certainly played a role in his survival (and Paul’s reversion). As usual, time and time again, we see how Our Lady’s Holy Rosary plays a stupendous role in conversion, even when prayed by neophytes.

Thanks be to God, it would end well for the Gladstones; with Paul’s reversion and Fr. Christian’s escape from Maestroianni. Let this be a consolation for anyone worried over those folks who temporarily stray from the flock (a legitimate concern for traditionalists these days).

More Character Analysis

What about some of the other characters (fictional or semi-fictional) found throughout Windswept House?

First, as a disclaimer, I strongly recommend, if you choose to tackle Windswept House, to utilize this cheat sheet, explaining the identities of Martin’s characters. Now, let’s delve into the significance and symbolism you may notice among certain folks, including the physical Windswept House itself.

Windswept: An Actual House?

According to Malachi Martin, it is. If so, then which famous mansion in Galveston, Texas fits the bill as the real-life version?

The closest possibility (that I can find) is the Bishop’s Palace, located in the historic section of Galveston. It seems to have several similar design features, including a spire and chapel. Also, like in Martin’s story, the “palace” was said to be more like a castle, and adorned with abundant frescos along its interior.

Granted, I don’t find any evidence that its original owners (the Greshams) were Catholic. Also, the family sold the property to the Catholic bishop in 1923 (hence its name). That makes it difficult to configure into the narrative of the Gladstone family occupying it through the 1990s. At any rate, the mansion’s architect, Nicholas J. Clayton, had a reputation for designing several gorgeous Victorian-style Catholic cathedrals.

Francesca (Cessi) Gladstone

It’s worth mentioning that when asked whether Windswept House really existed, or if the Gladstones were real people, Martin insisted they were (see this interview for details). In the novel, the family matriarch, Cessi Gladstone, was the mother of three children: Christian, Paul, and Tricia, whom she raised almost alone after the untimely death of her husband.

Cessi, a wealthy heiress, persevered despite many hardships, even as the Catholic world transformed rapidly following the 2nd Vatican Council. Part of her story would hit home with many Catholics forced to travel long distances to find a Traditional Latin Mass on Sunday. If you live in a dumpster fire diocese, then you can sympathize. Back in the 1960s, Cessi had to jump through several hoops to get a priest from the SSPX to offer Mass at a local chapel.

Later in the book, as the Vatican Bank became further embroiled in scandal, Cessi was called to bail them out with her inherited resources. In doing so, she gained an audience with the Slavic Pope. In exchange for financial support, Cessi convinced the Holy Father to approve the creation of a secret network of canceled priests, who would continue offering the TLM in various locations.

If that last part has any veracity, then some of the traditional priests we have throughout America may have come from this stealth, traditionalist pipeline. We might think of it as the proto version of today’s Coalition of Canceled Priests or Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s Exsurge Domine group. Resistance may be difficult, but never futile.

We might also conclude that Paul’s conversion (aided by his wife taking up the Rosary) might not have happened were it not for his mother. Cessi’s fervent prayer no doubt aided his conversion, not unlike those of St. Monica for St. Augustine.

Throughout the entire book, Malachi Martin portrays Cessi Gladstone as a venerable and prayerful woman, yet unafraid to go toe-to-toe even with contemptible prelates. She possessed both the tenacity of St. Catherine of Siena, all while fulfilling the important duty as “heart of the home,” and of her community.

Gibson Appleyard

This character represents the typical American outsider to Catholicism. Gibson Appleyard was a high-ranking American intelligence officer/diplomat, tasked with investigating the Slavic Pope. His mission as part of the American President’s “Committee of 10” required him to meet with the pope, and decipher his foreign relations tactics.

His research, interviews, and investigations led him to realize he was dealing with an especially holy man, a geo-political mastermind, but still someone “you just can’t peg.” Despite having met a multitude of heads of state, he would consider the Slavic Pope to be the most admirable out of all he had ever encountered.

Although Appleyard’s wife was raised Catholic, both devoted themselves to Rosicrucian Freemasonry. Unlike others around him, he seemed to despise most of the tenants of modern “atheistic” Freemasonry, which became far more rampant. He was much more inclined to various spiritual elements, thereby rendering him open-minded to what he heard from the pope.

His story arc represents a man coming closer to a Catholic conversion, following multiple meetings with the Slavic Pope. There’s one point where he walks in on him offering Eucharistic Exposition, leading to him receiving Benediction joyfully.

Like the rest of us, Appleyard would never comprehend the Slavic Pope. We’re led to wonder, of course, how close the intelligence officer was to a full Catholic conversion, and whether he would have embraced all the faith’s traditions. With more exposure to holy priests (he also became friends with Fr. Gladstone), would he ever disavow Freemasonry?

Several Catholic Cardinals

One of the more amusing aspects of Windswept House has to be the hilarious pseudo names Malachi Martin assigns to real-life individuals, especially the curial cardinals. He refers to Josef Cardinal Ratzinger as Cardinal Reinvernunft, which seems to be a composite of Reinen + Vernunft, or “pure reason.” This appears to suggest Ratzinger’s devotion to the confusing, non-Catholic philosopher, Immanuel Kant, who wrote A Critique of Pure Reason.

Then there’s the least likable prelate, His Eminence Cosimo Maestroianni, the Secretary of State, who perhaps takes his name far too seriously (translation: Master of the Universe). 

Maestroianni is one of the most important figures, though. Indeed, he’s a close depiction of the real-life Agostino Casaroli, and believes he holds almost omnipotence over the Catholic hierarchy, over and beyond all cardinals and the Slavic Pope. He’s also a gigantic control freak. At one point, he just about loses his mind when the pope sends him on a random errand to find and fax a photo of the Noli Me Tangere sculpture.

There are many more of his antics throughout the book. However, what’s interesting about Maestroianni, which becomes clear in the end, is that he was NOT part of the Enthronement cabal. Most of the other important curial cardinals were, whereas he was totally unaware of it (or how it related to his precious papal resignation ambitions). Yet, this was a man who fashioned himself “master of the universe,” without being part of the inner sanctum of satanic clergy.

Granted, the other curial cardinals aren’t much better. The book also details the terrible influences of the tongue-speaking, Charismatic Renewal pusher, Cardinal Leo Suenens (“Svensen” in the book). Even the other commie cardinals thought he was bizarre because of his “long yelps of apparent gibberish” during sermons.

Then there’s another loathsome prelate, Cardinal Pensabene, based on real-life Cdl. Laghi, who was a papal nuncio to Argentina during the 1970s. That was the time, when Jorge Bergoglio was rising through the ranks, while the nation underwent an ugly military revolution, known as the Dirty War. Both he and Bergoglio have credible links to the brutal Peronists from that regime.

Martin also describes a Cardinal Aureatini (real-life, Silvestrini), who had participated in the Enthronement, created a super-ecumenical RCIA education program, and was part of the St. Gallen Mafia. Trust me, again, that this merely grazes the surface of these abundantly crooked clergy.   

At one point (in Chapter 38), Gibson Appleyard and his superior discussed what would happen if one of these twisted cardinals ever reached the papacy. They believed they would be “dealing with an ecclesiastical thug wearing a tiara.”

Perhaps we should rejoice since we’ve never had to endure that awful problem in real life.

To illustrate these thugs’ excessive morbidity, consider the assassination of the Fr. Gladstone’s friend, Fr. Aldo Carnasecca. Since he knew about the secret letters from Pope Paul VI, warning his successor about the perfidious Enthronement, Fr. Carnasecca sustained multiple attempts on his life. Vatican cardinals, fearing their exposure, swapped hydrochloric acid with the priest’s eye drops, burning his eyes completely, leading him to trip and tumble down the stairs to his death.

Folks, they don’t call it a Lavender Mafia for nothing.

Secular Villains (Cyrus Benthoek, Dr. Ralph Channing, etc.)

Paul Gladstone, as I mentioned, was vaulted into power almost out of nowhere. That was thanks to two powerful figures: his boss, Cyrus Benthoek, and that man’s mentor, the renowned academic, Dr. Ralph Channing. Both are based on real individuals, but it’s not entirely clear who. These are upper-tier freemasons and secular kingmakers, though. 

There’s also a mysterious villain, “Capstone,” who only appears in telephone conversations. His identity is difficult to determine, but the moniker seems to be an inverse play on Jesus as the Cornerstone. Then again, that name might have simply symbolized the opposite of the protagonist “Gladstones,” but we don’t hear from this character enough to be sure of anything.

Besides those men, the secretive Concilium 13 group consisted of many powerful business elites such as Ted Turner and former EU MP and tycoon, James Goldsmith. These were the upper echelon of “Master Engineers,” a shadowy council, totally devoted to the Ascent of the Prince, and the “Progress” of his world dominance. Dr. Channing and Benthoek led these dastardly men, in cooperation with the curial cardinals, to enact the papal resignation conspiracy, which they saw as the last barrier to ultimate success. 

Last, there’s another enigmatic figure, Otto Sekuler, a suspected KGB agent, who appeared all over the place during any important development within the European Community. Nobody knew his origins, but he was a staunch abortionist, clicked his heels like a Nazi, assisted with the Enthronement, and always evaded the detection of American intelligence (including Appleyard). His real-life version could have been someone like Markus Wolf, a notorious spy, but that’s just my speculation.

Overall, Martin discusses these villains often, without a perfect divulgence of their identities, origins, or other connections.

Other Important Windswept House Themes

Finally, I would like to finish with some other minor themes and teachings you should absorb from Windswept House.

False Unity Under the Antichurch

As you read this book, be prepared to marvel over the never-ending obsession with “unity, unity, unity” . . . on behalf of the villains and Slavic Pope alike.

It’s in the name of unity that the pontiff refused to correct heretics, oppose dangerous movements, halt communion in the hand, and scores of other problems. It’s not that the Slavic Pope agreed with those abominations, but his inactivity gave such an impression. We could almost surmise that the Church legally had a pope, yet effectively did not.

Windswept House elaborates extensively on the pitfalls that arise from pursuing unity without a strong, legitimate, unifying force (an uninhibited, authentic papacy). It was bad enough for the Church to be governed by a weak, enslaved pope. Oh, how much worse it would be under no pope, a REALLY enslaved pope (Benedict XVI), and/or the hostile takeover of a freemason antipope.

Any unity achieved through those arrangements would be useless, unholy, and suitable to the maxims of Christ’s enemies. The unity you would get from today’s wicked cardinals and “Master Engineers” only involves the “horizontal unity” of collegiality. As a review, remember that collegiality is the opposite of a strong pontificate, the inverse of Vatican 1, exemplified by the equality, liberty, and fraternity espoused by Freemasons.

What does this have to do with our current real-life plight, as traditional Catholics, versus the Antichurch?

If we adopt a strategy of “unite the clans,” as some commentators rashly insist, we cannot expect it to work until we’ve repudiated the antipapacy. Otherwise, we’d be playing the same game as the Windswept House villains. Without a legitimate pontiff, strong like Blessed Pius IX, we’ll only retain more horizontal unity, per the Freemason agenda.

Never forget that horizontal governance is just another expression for “synodality,” the total bane of Church leadership, nowadays. I propose we ignore the shouts for “unity, unity, unity,” which echo the aims of our opponents, until we fix the roof over our heads: the eclipsed Roman pontificate.

Globalism is Hyper Complex

Martin’s novel further challenges readers to decrypt who the world’s real primary villains are. On some level, we cannot determine who’s truly calling the shots among men, to say nothing of the preternatural influences underpinning everything.

As Windswept House demonstrates, the progress of globalism has many layers, shapes, sizes, colors, textures, facets, secret codes, and escape hatches. You see this play out through all the meetings, gatherings, and committees throughout the book. It’s hard to tell who really pulls the strings (unless you know about the Enthronement and “Master Engineers”).

Just within the Church hierarchy, you’ll notice semi-competitive interests among curial cardinals, core-European prelates, Trans-Atlantic prelates, American prelates, and, of course, the infinitely crackpot intentions of crazy-old Maestroianni. Some Churchmen are satanists, others are cowards/careerists, and a few of the good ones suffer malaise over all the digitalization of Church administration (see Chapter 37).

Then on the international/secular level, it’s even more complex. In just the 1980s/1990s, you had at least this many evil actors with varying levels of cohesion.

1. Concilium 13 Master Engineers (see Chapter 13’s Strasbourg meeting)
2. Mikhail Gorbachev and the post-USSR remnants
3. Boris Yeltsin’s New Russia
4. The American President’s “Committee of 10”
5. A Vast European Community of Bureaucrats & Politicians
6. The Clinton Administration and radical depopulation
7. The Mysterious Otto Sekuler and his Baby-Harvesting Industry
8. . . . and several others.

If this looks familiar, it’s the same way Hell operates: comprising many demons, of various strengths, who still hate one another, but reluctantly cooperate. Thankfully, there is hope for us to overcome all this. Regardless of the secularists’ “well-laid plans,” let us discover their antidote by returning to God’s Holy Words in Psalm 2, most applicable to these ridiculous “engineers.”

Why have the Gentiles raged, and the people devised vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes met together, against the Lord and against his Christ. Let us break their bonds asunder: and let us cast away their yoke from us. He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at them: and the Lord shall deride them. Then shall he speak to them in his anger, and trouble them in his rage.

Conclusion: Windswept House → Non-Zombie Recommended!

If you have the patience to tear through over 600 pages, then I believe you will find this book either shocking, informative, and/or strangely consoling.

The discovery of these alarming truths; staring into the abyss, so to speak, can accomplish much for the melancholic soul. After all, once you unveil the mysteries of ecclesial misbehavior, up to and including unabashed satanism, it becomes much easier to avoid scandalized or disorientation. Many Catholics teeter on the precipice of despondency, for lack of a better comprehension of today’s evil in the Church (evil, not incompetence, EVIL).

As usual, considering our difficult times, please don’t forget to do at least the following . . . 

1. Pray the Rosary every day (15 decades) for all wayward Catholics, including those, like Paul Gladstone, who jettison their faith for foolish career ambitions.
2. Meditate on the Passion of Our Lord, which included the pain and misery felt by every “Agnes” all throughout man’s sinful history.
3. Meditate on the final things: death, judgment, heaven, and hell. That last item will help you realize why we shouldn’t play games by enthroning Lucifer to anything.
4. Read good books rather than binging on that obnoxious “Conservative Outrage Porn.”