From “Vatican II Exposed as Counterfeit Catholicism” by Frs. Francisco and Dominic Radecki, CMRI

Anti-communist Cardinals Mindzenty and Stepinac were prevented from attending the [1958] conclave by their Marxist governments. Cardinal Constantini died only eight days before the beginning of the conclave. Two influential American cardinals died in Rome shortly before the election. Cardinal Stritch of Chicago died on May 27, 1958, five months before the conclave. Cardinal Mooney of Detroit died on October 25 at the Pontifical North American College in Rome at 2:50 P.M., just 40 minutes before the opening of the conclave. Both Stritch and Mooney opposed Modernism and would have tried to block the election of Roncalli. Did someone arrange their deaths?

THE CLOUDED ELECTION OF JOHN XXIII

Following the death of a pope, the cardinals are given 15 to 18 days to gather in Rome for the conclave. Technically speaking, any male Catholic with the use of reason can be elected pope, but it has been the
practice for nearly 1000 years that the one elected be a cardinal. The candidate must be male, a Catholic, properly elected and accept the papal office. Before the conclave began, participants were required to swear an oath that they would be silent regarding the proceedings, or risk automatic excommunication from the Church.

Many events of the 1958 conclave remain undisclosed because Pope Pius XII decreed:

All are bound to the strictest secrecy regarding the election and everything which happens in the conclave, and this also under pain of excommunication. The nine excommunications provided for in this Constitution…cannot be absolved by anyone…but the Roman Pontiff, except in danger of death.

Many wonder how details of papal elections were disclosed to the public even though cardinals and those in attendance are bound to secrecy. With so many people present, word of the proceedings is bound to leak.

Each cardinal is allowed to enter the conclave with two trustworthy persons, one priest and one layman, but these privileged ones may not be prelates, monks, or relatives of any of the Cardinals. Others admitted to the Conclave are the Monsignor Sacristan and a large clerical and lay staff to provide for the everyday necessities of the cardinals and others. Apart from the fifty-one cardinals, there were about two hundred people, including two doctors, a surgeon, a pharmacist, nurses, valets, porters, four firemen, four barbers…The
cooking was in the hand of seven Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul.