Spies in the Vatican: The Soviet Union’s War Against the Catholic Church by John Kohler?
I take conspiracy books with large blocks of salt.
However, there were some summers in Rome when my resisdence was closed for a while and I had to find a temporary billet. Two of the places I went were the Czech College and a Ukrainian monastery on the Aventine. In both cases it was before the fall of the Soviet Union.
In both places, people were very suspicious and reserved until they got to know me. At the Czech College listening bugs had been found in the walls after some repairs. The older Ukranian priests, from Ukraine, had horror stories, as did the Czechs.
There is little doubt in my mind that there was a plan to infiltrate the Church with sleeper agents, hoping they would rise to power. Communists were not the only ones to do this.
However, people can get a little unhinged about these tales.
If anyone has read this book and has an opinion, I would welcome insights.
Looks interesting and I heard similar stories myself while in Rome. But talking in public about books like this or AA-1025 by Marie Carre will earn you nothing but derision from the likes of fellow bloggers such as Mark Shea or Sandra Miesel.
Seems some people can’t see how the supernatural dimension of the Church would draw attacks from evil.
I have not read the book, but I was once told that the KGB had had a mole at the Russicum. Priests were being ordained, then sent to Russia under cover, but their throats were then slit.
And then there is the well known case of the German Benedictine and STASI.
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/?c=ireland&jp=cwcwmhgbgbmh
Father, it is all too plausible. Why would one be surprised that the Soviet-directed Communists would attempt to infiltrate and destroy the Church from within? That was their favored tactic with all institutions.
I have a 1954 memoir by Bella Dodd, a prominent US Communist Party member in the 1930s and 1940s who later converted to the Church, in which she testified to the shocking attempts of the Communists to penetrate the Church from within, including in her seminaries.
We must not also forget the slander of Pope Pius XII, originated by the Communists.
The Soviets tried to infiltrate every other major institution in the world; it’d be crazy to think they didn’t try it with the Church. And if they could get people as far up in US government as Alger Hiss, it’d probably be naive to think they didn’t get some into the Church hierarchy.
I haven’t read this book yet (it’s been recommended by some friends, though), but I did recently read one called Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century. I was struck by how, every time a socialist revolution rose up in a nation (which happened a lot more often than I learned in school), one of the first things they did was to start persecuting the Church. In some cases, like in the USSR or Nazi Germany, that meant sending priests to concentration camps or firing squads. In others, like Mexico, it meant banning Mass and kicking priests out of the country. But in every case, socialists recognized that the Church was a major obstacle to their goals that had to be countered somehow.
I have not read this book, but I remember the testimony of Dr. Bella Dodd in the 1950’s, after she left the Communist Party USA. She did testify to having helped Communists enter Catholic seminaries for the purpose of becoming ordained and serving as “moles” within the Church.
One wonders where they are now?
Her book “School of Darkness” is long out of print but is a well-written description of Communist tactics in the United States.
Bella Dodd was brought into the church by Arhbishop Fulton Sheen in April, 1952. You can read her memoir of her days as a Communist agent in the United States, “School of Darkness” here:
http://genus.cogia.net/
Her Wikipedia entry is somewhat interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bella_Dodd
But what really is interesting is that you can look at the History tab and see that lots of interesting points of information about her life, including the fact of her conversion to the Catholic faith, have been scrubbed. Here is a good pre-scrubbed version:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bella_Dodd&oldid=130839719
Another interesting story, which seems to confirm the international nature of the effort to infiltrate the Church, is found in a book “AA-1025 – The Memoirs of an Anti-Apostle” published by TAN Books.
Chapter 8 of the book is excerpted here:
http://www.tanbooks.com/doct/communist_spy.htm
Here’s a salient excerpt:
[…]
of course the reds infiltrated to destroy the Faith, do you think the French Church went to hell by random chance?
I haven’t read this book, but I’ve heard good things about it. And, I know John Kohler writes well researched books. He’s not known for drastically over-sensationalizing.
Fr. – Could you please tell me where I might find your comments about Malachi Martin’s book, Windswept House ? I’ve looked in vain, but I remember you talked about it.
On Windswept House? Here.
There is the true report of the French spy colonel Arnould whom the Pope Pius XII hired in the fifties. This man was given by a Lutheran bishop of Sweden the proof that Mgr Montini had regular secret talks with the Soviets although the Pope strictly had forbidden this. One month later, Montini was dismissed from his Secretariat of State post in Vatican and nominated archbishop of Milano. In doing so, the Pope hindered him to be ever promoted as cardinal. Fortunately for Montini the new Pope John XXIII thought such an act of disobedience to his predecessor wasn’t serious matter and bestowed him the cardinal’s hat thus opening him the way to papacy.
Much more serious was the fact that in the wake of Montini was an infiltrated communist agent, Fr Alighiero Tondi S.J. who later defrocked and married. This man contacted the soviets every time any priest was sent beyond the Iron Curtain. All these poor men were arrested, tortured, and executed or sent to the Gulag.
I was always stunned by the fact that during the council VATII any talk about Communism wasn’t allowed by the Pope John XXIII, although this council was called, among other issues, to speak about the challenges the Church actually was facing, and of course communism was one!
The Ostpolitik doesn’t explain all. There was an incomprehensible complacency for the Communism from both Popes and upon all from Paul VI. I recommend to read Fr Villa’s book “Paul VI beatified?”
I am about a quarter of the way through this book. So far, it seems reasonable and well researched. I see no evidence of conspiracy paranoia yet.
Fr. Erik: I put it on the wish list. It might be useful.
A Seminarian from St. Gregory the Great Seminary in Lincoln is discussing this sort of
intrigue on The Right Perspective now. http://www.therightperspective.org
“AA-1025 – The Memoirs of an Anti-Apostle”
I have read this book. It is excellent. It is almost a play by play of how and what happened to the church. It is a VERY interesting read and will stay with you for a LONG time. I read it over 10 years ago and many parts are still very vivid in my mind. You will definitly see how the soviets were able to twist church teaching to destroy it. There are MANY parallels in todays modern world. The book can really open your eyes. You will begin to see similar things still happening today.