How Vatican’s secret spy service ‘The Entity’ trained priests in dark arts, infiltrated USSR & helped Pole become Pope

WITH ruthless ambition, suspense and adjacent spies, deed movie Conclave lays bare the combat to win arsenic a caller Pope.

The thriller has not lone won captious plaudits, yesterday it clinched a singular EIGHT Oscar nominations.

Among them, Ralph Fiennes is up for Best Actor for his portrayal of Cardinal Lawrence who indispensable oversee the conclave, wherever Catholic Church leaders are unopen disconnected from the extracurricular world, to elite a caller Pontiff.

The film is mired successful double-dealing and soiled tricks by different elder ­clerics. But successful reality, the ­Vatican has not lone its ain concealed work but besides a roster of “James Bonds successful cassocks” trained to ­parachute down force lines.

New publication Vatican Spies, by Yvonnick Denoel, reveals an bonzer communicative of espionage that includes Queen Elizabeth I, the Cold War, Mafia, KGB, CIA and MI6, arsenic good arsenic unthinkable fiscal scandals and cold-blooded murder.

The shadowy assemblage archetypal came into the airy successful the aftermath of a treble execution successful the Vatican — erstwhile Yvon Bertorello, a young priest, claimed determination was a “state wrong a state . . . to destabilise communist regimes”.

He said: “Diplomacy was often utilized arsenic a cover. In reality, it was a net-work of quality agents.

“Some of them mightiness person usage for the cassock but they were nevertheless not successful Holy Orders.”

This would go 1 of the ­Vatican’s astir notorious scandals but, similar the Devil himself, its concealed ­intelligence limb has had galore names implicit the years.

It comes nether the umbrella of the Secretariat of the State, which is based successful the Apostolic Palace successful ­the Vatican City.

Major scandal

The governing assemblage of the Catholic Church, it houses assorted branches — including the celebrated Swiss Guards known for their elaborate uniforms, and the Vatican’s police unit called the Vigilanza oregon Gendarmerie.

Within the Vigilanza, which is mostly staffed by erstwhile Italian cops and quality agents, are secret-service units that bug telephone lines, show message and process suspects.

There are astir 120 officers, including plain-clothes detectives and close-protection officers, whose jobs are to marque definite the Pope remains safe, not slightest aft assassination attempts successful the past.

The origins of this secretive body, however, tin beryllium traced to the ­Catholic Church’s conflict with Protestant England successful the 16th Century and, much particularly, Queen Elizabeth I.

Pope Pius IV appointed a spy ­master, Antonio Ghislieri, who would go known arsenic the “shadow Pope”, to physique up an quality web to combat the Church’s enemies including England.

Ghislieri would aboriginal go Pope Pius V and would acceptable up a ceremonial spy bureau called the Holy Alliance.

In the 19th Century, the Papacy realised it needed to erstwhile again occurrence up a ceremonial quality bureau to antagonistic each the revolutions sweeping Europe and the Americas.

But it was lone erstwhile Pope Pius X acceptable up a caller web of governmental spying, called the Sapiniere, successful 1903 that the Vatican would presume an progressively cardinal relation successful the satellite of planetary intelligence.

Initially, it was designed to enlistee agents and informers, intercept mail, travel suspects and purge anyone viewed arsenic a menace to the Catholic Church’s blimpish ideology.

But it was not conscionable the Vatican doing the bugging and spying. It, too, became the target of overseas quality services.

In World War One, the Vatican had to screen up a large ungraded erstwhile it emerged that Pope Benedict XV’s cardinal adjutant was a German agent.

During the emergence of fascist Italy, Mussolini monitored Vatican message and tapped its telephone lines.

The Pope’s policemen, mostly recruited from retired Italian officers, allowed fascist cops entree to backstage quarters of overseas ambassadors to the Vatican, to bargain their secrets. In 1929, the Vatican struck a woody with the Mussolini government, which progressive mounting up networks designed to infiltrate the USSR.

The downfall of communism would go the Church’s superior purpose up until the Nineties, and saw it physique alliances with galore Western quality services, including the CIA, MI6 and French concealed services.

This became progressively important, arsenic the Americans and British realised they were often “blind” successful the Soviet Union, which ruthlessly flushed retired spy networks and ­monitored Western diplomats.

The Holy See began to presume an ever bigger relation arsenic the Cold War unfolded aft World War Two.

The Western powers realised that successful the Church they had an informal web of accusation acknowledgment to section priests.

They would collate reports connected the section social, economical and governmental representation successful their parishes which would, eventually, beryllium filtered backmost to the Vatican’s Secretariat of State.

In 1930, ambitious Vatican authoritative Eugenio Pacelli became the ­Secretary of State and acceptable up what became known arsenic Russicum, to defy communist oppression successful the USSR.

This would, successful time, instrumentality an bonzer crook aft Nazi Germany and Japan had been defeated and a caller acold warfare would emerge.

In 1949, a US military level took disconnected from Western Germany carrying 2 members of the anti-communist Ukrainian absorption and 2 chartless men, each with parachutes.

After travelling implicit East Germany and Poland, the level descended implicit Ukraine to 650ft earlier the men jumped out.

Remarkably, the 2 unknowns were Catholic priests-cum- missionaries, portion of a Russicum ­programme that trained priests successful “wrestling, athletics, open-combat, firearms grooming and . . . parachuting”.

For the next 5 years, dozens of priests, courtesy of CIA and MI6 training, were ferried into the Ukraine successful this way.

Espionage paradise

A French quality study described Russicum arsenic a “true ‘action division’”, which helped the French infiltrate Eastern Bloc countries.

The CIA helped forge the required ID for cause priests, who were besides expected to make their ain mendacious identities and backstories.

But successful 1954 the programme ended erstwhile it emerged the Soviets were rounding up these cause priests astatine a prolific rate.

Meanwhile Pole Karol Wojtyla, who would yet go Pope John Paul II, was trained and ordained successful implicit secrecy successful Communist Poland.

When helium became the archetypal non-Italian pope for 450 years successful 1978, his people was communism. He instantly beefed up the Vigilanza and wrong this was a peculiar concealed portion that carried retired achromatic ops.

The Pope himself would go progressively confrontational with the Polish regime.

Much later, Tomas Turowski, a erstwhile spy turned Polish ambassador, would remark that ­during John Paul’s reign, “there were much spies successful the Vatican than successful James Bond films”.

He added: “One priest, whose codification sanction was Russian and who transmitted news to the Polish services, worked until precocious successful the Vatican for Pope ­Francis”.

John Paul II’s reign was an espionage paradise arsenic it brought unneurotic an unholy operation of murder, the Mafia, fiscal ungraded and concealed Catholic orders, positive the Cold War.

In 1998, Alois Estermann, caput of the Swiss Guards, and his woman Gladys Romero, were recovered changeable dormant successful their Vatican flat, ­alongside the assemblage of a Swiss Guard called Cedric Tornay.

It was alleged Estermann was an East German spy who had been having an matter with bisexual Tornay earlier the brace divided acrimoniously.

The Vatican declined offers of assistance from Italian constabulary and kept the probe in-house. portion the young victim’s household was convinced of a cover-up.

Tornay’s mother, however, said she had met whistle-blower Bertorello by the casket of her dormant lad and that the execution was “all his fault . . . he adjacent said my lad had been murdered”.

She alleged Bertorello had claimed the dormant defender was investigating Estermann’s links with the secretive Opus Dei sect, agelong seen arsenic a malign power wrong the Church.

Bertorello would aboriginal archer an Italian journalist, utilizing an assumed name, that the Vatican had, nether John Paul II, acceptable up a “closed network” of cells astir the world, made up of quality agents.

These were, helium said, recruited from priests, universities oregon paramilitary organisations.

Bertorello said helium had undergone 4 years of grooming arsenic portion of this web — during which helium was taught codes and ciphers by a Polish priest, concealed photography by an ­Italian priest, portion the Italian Army trained him successful parachuting.

The connection was that the Vatican’s James Bond web was neither shaken nor stirred by the war’s end.