Vatican 秘かに調査するs by Yvonnick Denoel: Good listeners. Can keep secrets. God on their 味方する? Why Vatican priests make shockingly good 秘かに調査するs

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Vatican 秘かに調査するs by Yvonnick Denoel (Hurst £25, 384pp)

Vatican 秘かに調査するs is 利用できる now from the Mail Bookshop

?In the 早期に 1990s a カトリック教徒 助祭 called Yvon Bertorello was sent to train for four years at the Minerva, a college run by the Vatican to 準備する its 最高の，を越す priests for overseas postings.?

Bertorello was 長，率いるing to Armenia and ウクライナ共和国 on 使節団s so secret that only the ローマ法王 and a few other 信用d 助言者s were in the 宙返り飛行.?

公式に, the Minerva dispensed 指示／教授／教育 in ‘外交’ but Bertorello 設立する himself 存在 taught codes and ciphers by a high-最高位の prelate with a ポーランドの（人） accent.?

There were also lessons in secret photography from a 上級の priest who sounded Italian.?

Finally, Bertorello was sent to train 内密に with army パラシュート（で降下する） 部隊s.

?All that is 行方不明の from this James 社債-in-a-clerical-collar シナリオ is Q standing by with a smart new gadget and a 乾燥した，日照りの martini.

Of course, you won’t get anyone from the Vatican to 確認する any of this. Bertorello has since left the Church and even today the papacy will not 収容する／認める that it has anything approaching a secret 知能 service.

?But, as French historian Yvonnick Denoel convincingly shows, there have been many moments in the second half of the 20th century when the Vatican’s 同等（の） of MI6 has been linked to international スパイ.

One of the most 悪名高い 出来事/事件s occurred in 1982 when Roberto Calvi, known as ‘God’s 銀行業者’ thanks to his の近くに 関与 in the Vatican’s 高度に 隠しだてする 財政上の 操作／手術s, was 設立する hanging under London’s Blackfriars 橋（渡しをする）.?

Calvi’s death has long been recognised as a 殺人 that was 行う／開催する／段階d to look like a 自殺, and with an oddly ritualistic overtone (there’s the religi ous connotations of ‘Blackfriars’ for starters).?

The Banco Ambrosiano, which Calvi ran and in which the Vatican was ひどく 巻き込むd, had 崩壊（する）d leaving millions of dollars 行方不明の. Was this why he was silenced? The 陪審／陪審員団 is still out.

自然に, during wars and 革命s the Vatican’s covert ops ratchet up even higher. Take the 事例／患者 of Alois Hudal, a Rome-based bishop who organised 避難所, ビザs and cash for Nazi war 犯罪のs to help them slip away to South America.?

Hudal’s biggest クーデター was getting Franz Stangl, the former commandant of Treblinka, 安全に to Brazil. By way of balance, Denoel reminds us of hero priests such as Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty who, in the Second World War, 始める，決める up a secret 網状組織 of 安全な houses in Rome to hide escaped PoWs.?

True to life: Gregory つつく／ペック 星／主役にするs as Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty in The Scarlet And The 黒人／ボイコット, 1963

一方／合間, カトリック教徒 修道女s and priests 密輸するd hundreds of Jews to safety. Those 聖職者のs who were unlucky enough to get caught were 国外追放するd to Dachau.

It migh t seem 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の that the smallest 君主 明言する／公表する in the world, 全住民 764, should have become such a player in 全世界の スパイ. But, as one

former American 知能 operative explains: ‘A 広大な／多数の／重要な 力／強力にする can send 10, 20 or even 50 秘かに調査するs into a given country, 反して the Church has hundreds of priests, at least, in the smallest of 明言する／公表するs.’?

What’s more, those priests have a perfect cover story as they bustle from 大使館 歓迎会s to drunken wakes by way of a polite tea party. They have the ear of noblemen and 小作農民s, and everyone else in between. Used to 審理，公聴会 自白s, they know how to ask questions without 誘発するing 疑惑.

力／強力にする of the Papacy: Ralph Fiennes 星／主役にするs as 枢機けい／主要な Lawrence in Conclave, 2024

Above all, priests are supposed to be able to keep secrets, although I lost count of the number of times in Vatican 秘かに調査するs when a man of God got chatty after a bit too much vino.?

In 1981 a drunken Vatican mole passed on （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） to the 国家保安委員会 about what John Paul II planned to do if the USSR made ‘a 軍の 介入’ in Eastern Europe, which at the time seemed like a 際立った 可能性.?

明らかに, the ローマ法王 would use his 外交の パスポート to 逃げる to his native Poland, その結果 he would encourage the country to rise up against the USSR, which would すぐに be followed by the US 申し込む／申し出ing 十分な support by land and sea.?

The mole helpfully 追加するd tha t the higher echelons of the Vatican ‘…に反対するd the ローマ法王’s extreme activities on に代わって of Poland’ but were ‘権力のない’ to do anything about it.

Denoel’s account 新たな展開s and turns so はっきりと that I was left uncertain whether the thirsty Vatican mole was playing a 二塁打 game.?Whose 味方する was he supposed to be on? Either way, Denoel thinks that this 知能, whether 正確な or not, helped dissuade the ロシアのs from kick-starting World War III.

One thing that this 調書をとる／予約する is 水晶 （疑いを）晴らす on, though, is the way that the Vatican is adept at 秘かに調査するing on its own people.?

When, in 2006, ローマ法王 Benedict 任命するd the 比較して junior Tarcisio Bertone as his 長官 of 明言する／公表する, the 年輩の 枢機けい／主要な whom he 追い出すd was furious. On moving into his new office, Bertone discovered that all the phone lines had been tapped and there were microphones everywhere, 儀礼 of his distinctly miffed 前任者.

Bertone’s drivers had also been 簡潔な／要約するd to 報告（する）／憶測 支援する on his daily movements. In a classic bit of tit-for-tat, the new 長官 of 明言する／公表する became so paranoid himself that he was （刑事）被告 of operating a one-man ‘支店 of the 国家保安委員会’, 秘かに調査するing on everyone in the 宗教上の City. In the hope of finding ゆすり，恐喝 構成要素 on his enemies, he made a particular point of 盗聴 the Vatican’s bedrooms.

Home of secrets:?the Vatican is adept at 秘かに調査するing on its own people 同様に as others

Vatican 秘かに調査するs is packed with brilliant anecdotes like this, yet やめる how they hang together isn’t always （疑いを）晴らす. Technically, too, some of them 伴う／関わる ‘秘かに調査するing’ in only the loosest sense of the word ? it might be more 正確な to call them ‘スキャンダルs’.?

Nor is this fuzziness helped by a clumsy translation from the French. And the biggest mystery of all is that, while Yvonnick Denoel’s publishers （人命などを）奪う，主張する that he is using sources from recently opened 古記録s, nowhere is it explicit about what these sensational 発覚s 現実に are. Instead, he seems to be mostly building on 構成要素 long in the public domain.

Even so, such vagueness does 追加する to the atmosphere of menace hanging over these pages. No one is やめる who he seems ? and it is always a ‘he’, since the 修道女s are just there to do the cooking.?

If you were gripped by the 最近の Conclave film, which 明らかにする／漏らすd backstage 計画／陰謀ing in the 宗教上の City, you’ll find Vatican 秘かに調査するs utterly 吸収するing.