Vatican spies : from the Second World War to Pope Francis /
An astonishing history of the priests and missionaries whose 'special ops' serve the Holy See and 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide. 'Officially' the Vatican has no espionage service, but does no one carry out intelligence operations on its behalf? During the Second World War and C...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Language Notes: | Translated from the French. |
| Published: |
London :
Hurst and Company,
2024.
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| Summary: | An astonishing history of the priests and missionaries whose 'special ops' serve the Holy See and 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide. 'Officially' the Vatican has no espionage service, but does no one carry out intelligence operations on its behalf? During the Second World War and Cold War, Rome was teeming with spies. A band of undercover monsignors and priests hunted for Vatican 'moles', led clandestine diplomacy, investigated assassinations of priests and other scandals threatening the Church and conducted high-risk missions behind the Iron Curtain. Drawing on freshly released archives of foreign services that worked with or against the Holy See, Vatican Spies reveals eighty years of shadow wars and dirty tricks. These include infiltrating Russian-speaking priests into the Soviet Union, secret negotiations between John XXIII and Khrushchev, the future Paul VI's close relationship with the CIA, the Vatican's infiltration by eastern bloc intelligence, the battles between the Jesuits and Opus Dei and the secret bank funds channeled first to fight communism in South America, then to support Solidarity in Poland. This entertaining book journeys right to the present, uncovering startling machinations under Benedict XVI and, today, Pope Francis. |
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| Item Description: | First published in French as "Les espions du Vatican : de la Seconde Guerre mondiale à nos jours" by Nouveau Monde éditions, 2021. |
| Physical Description: | vi, 488 pages ; 25 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781911723400 1911723405 |