On 17 March 1981, a was found in his country house (Villa Wanda). The list was a combination of P2 members and the contents of Gelli's
Rolodex. Many on the list were apparently never asked if they wanted to join P2, and it is unknown to what extent the list includes members who were formally initiated into the lodge. Since 1981, some of those on the list have demonstrated their distance from P2 to the satisfaction of the Italian legal system. On 21 May 1981, the Italian government released the list. The Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry headed by Tina Anselmi considered the list reliable and genuine. It decided to publish the list in its concluding report, . The list contains 962 names (including Gelli's). It has been claimed that at least 1,000 names may still be secret, as the membership numbers begin with number 1,600, which suggests that the complete list has not yet been found. After the list was discovered, the Prime Minister
Arnaldo Forlani waited until 21 May 1981, before making public the list of P2 members, which included the names of two ministers then in office (the socialist
Enrico Manca, and the Christian Democrat
Franco Foschi) and five undersecretaries ( of the PSDI, Pasquale Bandiera of the PRI, of the PSI,
Rolando Picchioni of the DC and of the PSDI, the latter however mentioned as "asleep", i.e. resigned). Among the 962 people listed as members of the Masonic lodge were politicians, businessmen, lawyers, company directors and, above all, members of the Italian armed forces and the Italian secret services. Michele Sindona himself appeared on the list of P2 members, confirming the suspicions of the investigating judges. Colonel Bianchi resisted various attempts at intimidation, as most of the people mentioned were still in power, and forwarded the list to the competent authorities. Among the generals, the press repeatedly mentioned
Carlo Alberto dalla Chiesa, although there was only a registration form signed by him and no evidence of active membership. Regarding the secret services, it was noted that not only the chiefs were registered (among them
Vito Miceli, who along with Captain (also a member) was suspected of colluding with the subversive cells of
Franco Freda and for this reason tried and convicted of aiding and abetting. The hypothesis was put forward that the list found in Gelli's villa was not the complete list, and that many other names managed to avoid being implicated. In the parliamentary commission's reconstruction, to the 962 on the list found, one would have to add the alleged members of that occult circle of which Gelli was supposedly the link with the lodge. Gelli himself, as also highlighted by the Anselmi Commission, in an interview in 1976, had spoken of more than two thousand four hundred members. According to the prosecutor of Rome at the time, there were a total of 2000 members on the two lists, while on 29 May 1977 the weekly magazine ''
L'Espresso'' wrote: «P2 Lodge... It is the most compact and powerful nucleus of the Freemasons of Palazzo Giustiniani: it has 2400 members, the cream of finance, bureaucracy, the Armed Forces, the state's boyars, listed in a coded archive... Gelli, a regular interlocutor of the highest offices of the State (he often sees Andreotti and is received at the Quirinale), is listened to as an advisor to the top brass of the Armed Forces, with trusted and devoted friends in the judiciary». Gelli himself, commenting on the presence of numerous P2 members in the committees of experts that dealt with the kidnapping of Aldo Moro (March–May 1978), stated that the presence of a large number of lodge members in these committees was due to the fact that at the time many prominent personalities were members, so it was natural that several of them would be found in these committees. Gelli claimed that the members were not normally aware of the identity of the other members, but that the existence of the P2 Lodge was well known, having also been discussed in several interviews well before the list was discovered. Hypotheses were made about who the occult head of the organisation could be, Roberto Calvi's widow declared that Giulio Andreotti was the real head of the lodge, while the role of vice-president was supposedly held by (who was registered on the P2 list with membership card number 1618): however, no reliable evidence has ever been found to confirm this statement. Nara Lazzerini, for many years Licio Gelli's secretary and lover, also stated in 1981 and 1995 before magistrates that it was said in the lodge that the real boss was Giulio Andreotti: Rosati and Giunchiglia were two regional leaders of Lodge P2: the first was the manager of a private clinic and head of the P2 group for Liguria with sympathies for the extreme right (membership card no. 1906, died in 1984); the second official of the Ministry of Defence (card no. 1508) for the provinces of Pisa and Livorno. During the trial for the massacre in Bologna, Lia Bronzi Donati, Grand Master of the traditional female Masonic lodge (and the most important, and perhaps the only, female figure in the Masonic world at the time), told the magistrates who were questioning her as a witness that the list of P2 members consisted of at least 6,000 names and that Andreotti was the presence above the P2 Lodge": this information was confided to him by William Rosati "who became the moral reference of P2 after the seizure of the lists". Andreotti, for his part, had always denied knowing Gelli, until the publication of the aforementioned photo of Buenos Aires. Licio Gelli, for whom the judiciary issued an arrest warrant on 22 May 1981 for violation of art. 257 of the penal code (political or military espionage), temporarily took refuge in Uruguay.
Notable people on Gelli's list in the P2 masonic lodge Notable individuals include: • General Aldo Alasia (Argentina). • Federico Carlos Barttfeld (Argentina), ambassador of Argentina to Yugoslavia (1991–1995) and China (1998–2001), and later under-secretary of state in
Néstor Kirchner's government, relieved of his functions in 2003 following allegations of involvement in the
Dirty War. •
Silvio Berlusconi, businessman, future founder of the political party and
Prime Minister of Italy, who explicitly confirmed his membership. According to Gelli, Berlusconi was "the only charismatic figure who can truly lead" Italy. • General Luis Betti (Argentina),
Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1973–1974). •
Brunetto Bucciarelli-Ducci, former
president of the Chamber of Deputies (1963–1968) and judge. •
Roberto Calvi, known as "God's banker", chairman of
Banco Ambrosiano from 1975, was allegedly killed by the Mafia in London in 1982. •
Vincenzo Carollo, politician of the
Christian Democratic Party (DC),
President of Sicily 1967–1969 and member of the
Senate of the Republic 1972–1987. • (Argentina), Secretary of State for Minors and the Family in the
Ministry of Social Welfare (1973–1974), while it was headed by his friend
José López Rega (see below); ambassador of Argentina to
UNESCO (1974), France (1974–1975) and Denmark (1975–1976). • , director of . •
Franco Foschi, politician of the
Christian Democratic Party (DC),
Minister of Labour and Social Security (1980). ... Watch out, the Force will be overwhelmed by this." • General , commander of the
Guardia di Finanza (1974–1978). • General , head of Italy's civilian secret service
SISDE (1977–1981). •
José López Rega, Argentine
Minister of Social Welfare under
Juan Perón and
Isabel Perón (1973–1975) and ambassador of Argentina to
Spain (1975–1976), founder of the
Argentine Anticommunist Alliance ("Triple A"). • General
Vito Miceli, chief of the
Operative Informations and Situation Service (, SIOS), the Italian Army's intelligence service from 1969 and head of the military intelligence service
SISMI/SID from 18 October 1970 to 1974. Arrested in 1975 on charges of "conspiracy against the state" concerning investigations about , a state-infiltrated group involved in the
strategy of tension, he later became a member of the
Italian Social Movement (MSI). • General
Pietro Musumeci, deputy director of SISMI. • General Giovambattista Palumbo, commander of the 1st Carabinieri Division "Pastrengo". •
Mario Pedini, politician of the
Christian Democratic Party (DC), Minister of Scientific Research (1975–1978),
Minister of Culture and Environmental Heritage (1976–1978) and
Minister of Public Education and Universities (1978–1979). • General , head of Italy's military intelligence service
SISMI (1978–1981). •
Gaetano Stammati, President of the
Italian Commercial Bank (COMIT),
Minister of Finance (1976) in
Aldo Moro's government, Minister of Treasury (1976–1978), Minister of Public Works (1978–1979) and
Minister of International Trade (1979) in
Giulio Andreotti's third, fourth and fifth governments. ==Relationships with the regular Freemasonry==