"The Aim of Pius IX", 1855, Library of Congress

It sounds like an absurd question, doesn’t it? What could the Pope possibly have to do with Lincoln’s death? Possibly quite a lot, it turns out.

It’s not a new idea, by any means. A friend of his, Pastor Charles Chiniquy, was a former Roman Catholic priest who became a client and friend of the future president, after Lincoln helped him legally fight the Church. Chiniquy claimed that alone was sufficient to mark him for death, and warned him of his danger from the Jesuits. But there were many other reasons as well.

Not that the mainstream media would ever consider such a possibility. Yet, with the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, there’s been a number of shows about his life recently. Most of them, such as PBS’ American Experience episode, The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, follow the typical line. John Wilkes Booth is portrayed as the original “lone gunman” – an embittered loser given an unlikely chance by fate – such as Lee Harvey Oswald and Sirhan Sirhan.

Yet, while people still debate the Kennedy assassinations, in the case of Lincoln, there definitely was a proven conspiracy. People were hanged for their roles and most of them were Catholic.

One of the conspirators who got away was named John Surratt. When finally located, he was found serving in the papal guards in Rome. And that’s just one of the amazing coincidences. For more, see The Pope, the President and the Pastor.

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