BOOK REVIEW: VATICAN SPIES: From the Secord World War to Pope Francis
By Yvonnick Donoël/ Hurst
Reviewed by: Rolf Mowatt-Larssen
The Reviewer — Rolf Mowatt-Larssen served over three years as the Director of Intelligence and Counterintelligence at the U.S. Department of Energy. Before that, he served 23 years as a CIA intelligence officer in roles that included Chief of the Europe Division in the Directorate of Operations, Chief of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Department, Counterterrorist Center, and Deputy Associate Director of Central Intelligence for Military Support. He is the author of State of Mind: Faith and the CIA and Vampires Rule!
REVIEW — In his book: Vatican Spies, author Yvonnick Donoël writes that “In Italian counter-espionage, the following joke is often repeated: The right wing of the Italian cardinals informs the CIA, and the left the KGB…But nobody informs the Italian services.”
Actually, “the Vatican has no secret Service,” as the author acknowledges. “Institutionally, this is correct…nobody we spoke to from whatever country has been able to draw up an organogram of the Vatican’s intelligence service.”
If the Vatican eschews intelligence as an institution, at least formally— do intelligence services target the Vatican?
When I joined CIA as an operations officer in 1983, we were taught in orientation that CIA was prohibited by law from recruiting clergy from any religion. As a rule, my observation is that other western intelligence services also shy away from recruiting priests and clergy as spies.
Of course, there were no restrictions on the part of Eastern Block intelligence agencies from conducting espionage and covert action operations against the Vatican during the Cold War. One of the book’s many highlights is the carefully constructed and nuanced perspective of KGB and Bulgarian intelligence influence operations and the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II. The KGB and their brethren exploited religion in any way they could, including the use of clergy as cover for intelligence officers.
The author did well in offering an explanation to guide the reader to a proper understanding of what “Vatican Spies” was about, and not about. He was not interested in lending credence to conspiracy theories about a vast Vatican intelligence apparatus with tentacles all over the globe — because the real story about the complex relationship between intelligence services and the Vatican was far more interesting, because it related to the “human factor” that lies at the heart of both professions, as clergy and intelligence officers.
The French historian, publisher and intelligence specialist Donoël declared that his thesis in framing and guiding his investigation into Vatican-related activity is based as follows: “The pope is really the person who defines, consciously or not, the position that intelligence and secret activity have during his pontificate.” Their ability, or not, to manage scandals is what risked placing the authority and legitimacy of the church in doubt.
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The author fulfills the potential of his thesis by covering papacies from World War II through the present in chronological order, in chapters entitled Pacelli (Pope Pius XII); Roncalli (Pope John XXIII); Montini (Pope Paul VI); Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II), Ratzinger (Pope Benedict), and Bergoglio (Pope Francis).
The resulting product is 435 pages of dense prose, chock filled with information and case studies on a vast range of subjects that share broad characteristics in common, e.g., secrecy, intrigue, corruption, sex crimes, geopolitical influence and interaction with governments, banks, and groups vying for influence inside and outside the church. Among the topics explored are the relationships between Opus Dei and the Jesuits and connections of the Mafia to the church. Essentially, any subject that did not relate to church dogma, theology, pastoral duties and matters of faith was fair game.
The machinations would make Machiavelli blush.
But there is also much in the story that is uplifting for the church and its mission. For example, principled work during World War II to fight fascism and during the Cold War to confront communism, Vatican efforts to work with governments to bring about freedom and end oppression, and diplomacy to bring about more religious freedom in Cuba and China.
Although the author does not venture into the world of faith, as such, for this reader many of his most compelling stories relate to courageous efforts of clergy to seek out truth and justice—even when the pursuit of God’s will entailed dangerous interactions with governments and intelligence services.
Popes had their own problems to deal with, but the author cites poignant cases of clergy who had their own hard decisions to make, often with little guidance or without the backing of the church. He offers moving examples of priests, bishops and others who, without training and experience in intelligence, operated with “relative amateurism” in the course of their contacts with intelligence services, sometimes entailing life and death decisions. One such case is the story of Father Jose Mario Bergoglio (who later became Pope Francis) during the fascist takeover in Argentina, when he sought ways to protect believers and shield fellow priests, not always successfully, and not without controversy.
The overall effect of the book leaves the reader’s head spinning from a dizzying array of case histories involving Vatican secrecy, intrigue and activity. The seemingly endless stories, presented in a stream of consciousness style that is at times overwhelming, are populated with a vast array of colorful characters of all moral and ethical description that we would expect to congregate in this decisive battleground between good and evil.
In the final analysis, what made this book worth reading are the questions it evoked for me about good and evil. How can we fulfill, especially in difficult circumstances, our duty to act consistently with high moral and ethical standards in performing our duties, whether we are members of clergy or intelligence officers?
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