Vatican Spies by Yvonnick Denoël review: 'an exceptional work of non-fiction'

This riveting history of the Vatican encompasses a breathtaking tumult of events, names and scandals, writes Vin Arthey

St Peter's Basilica, Vatican City | AFP via Getty Images

“Blockbuster” and “rollercoaster” are words commonly associated with novels, but they also apply to this exceptional work of non-fiction.

It could be said that the title Vatican Spies undersells the full range of the book, for it looks at some 80 years of world history from the perspective of the Vatican. Yvonnick Denoël has filleted dozens of books and reports to survey this history, from Pope Pius XII’s uncomfortable dealings with Nazism to Pope Francis’s efforts to involve women more in the church’s work.

Unsurprisingly, espionage was particularly relevant early in the Cold War. The Vatican was vehemently opposed to Communism and infiltrated priests through the Iron Curtain. Spying was operated by both sides, of course, with communists being ordained into the priesthood, and existing priests being blackmailed, via sex or money, into working for the Communist Party.

Much of this activity was focused on Italy itself. All four popes of the first half of this book were Italian, and the concern of Italian politics was to keep a powerful Communist Party out of the Italian government. In this they were at one with the CIA, and a significant cohort of American spies were at work in Rome, liaising closely with the Vatican. The CIA was also using the Sicilian mafia to achieve its goals.

Into this mix came powerful American priests, such as Cardinal Spellman - known to have consulted the controversial lawyer Roy Cohn, who went on to advise Donald Trump. At the same time, more American money was flowing into the Vatican Bank’s secret accounts and into lay movements such as Opus Dei and Propaganda Due or P2. The P2 Lodge, drummed out of the Freemasons in 1976, adopted an oath of bloody allegiance that makes the Freemasons’ oath sound like the boy scout promise.

Then, as Pope John Paul II concentrated his attention on the Solidarity Movement in his homeland, the Vatican was found to have ignored the fact that its bank was at the centre of a web of money laundering and murder.

Vatican Spies encompasses a breathtaking tumult of events, names and scandals. It’s all a very long way from the Holy Mass and loving thy neighbour, but ultimately this is not a depressing read. A contemplative concluding chapter is kind to Popes Benedict XVI and Francis. Despite noting their difficulties on a few fronts, Denoël gives credit to their work in reforming the Holy See’s administrative system, the Curia, and the Vatican Bank, the IOR. Hopefully Denoël will provide us with another volume in a few years’ time, showing how all this played out.

Vatican Spies: From the Second World War to Pope Francis, by Yvonnick Denoël, trans. Alan McKay, Hurst & Co, £25