Vatican Spies: From the Second World War to Pope Francis

by Yvonnick Denoël

‘Officially’ the Vatican has no espionage service; but does that mean that no one carries out intelligence operations on its behalf? During the Second World War and Cold War, Rome was awash with spies. In response, under the cover of the Secretariat of State, a band of monsignors and priests hunted for ‘moles’ spying on the Vatican, carried out clandestine diplomacy, investigated the assassination of priests and other scandals threatening the Church, and conducted high-risk missions across the Iron Curtain.

Drawing on the freshly released archives of foreign services that worked against or with the Holy See, Vatican Spies reveals eighty years of secret wars and dirty tricks. These include infiltrating Russian-speaking priests into the Soviet Union; secret negotiations between John XXIII and Khrushchev; the close relationship between Cardinal Montini—the future Paul VI—and the CIA; infiltration of the Vatican by the Eastern Bloc’s intelligence services; and the secret Vatican bank funds that were channelled first to fight communism in South America, then to support Solidarity in Poland.

Denoël also investigates the internecine struggles between the Jesuits and Opus Dei; and deciphers the machinations that marked the pontificate of Benedict XVI, which are still ongoing under Pope Francis today.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Espionage

384 pages, Hardcover

First published December 5, 2024

Reviews

[Cassidy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contrary to the other reviews of this book I thought this was solid in terms of information as well as entertainment. It’s true though that it doesn’t do a good job of introducing topics sometimes and large parts of the book are probably better enjoyed if you’ve already read books about similar topics or have at least wasted a good deal of time on Wikipedia prior.

I hope for a sequel to this book one day when I’m like 75 called Vatican Spies 2: 2 Vatican 2 Spy after some more files have been unredacted (the Benedict and onward chapters were disappointingly not as long as hoped for).

[Marc Blake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating topic. Translation from French to English maybe misses some narrative and context.

[Juanathang · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. This was so dense and pitifully organized, you could hardly keep up with what was going on. This should have been more focused geographically or on specific characters but instead it read like a deck of Wikipedia pages on similar topics that were randomly shuffled together.

[Mary · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF didn’t like the style of writing. I was hoping for a more storytelling writing style but instead it’s written more like a higher education textbook. Couldn’t keep track of all the Italian phrases and terms.