MORE EVIDENCE OF THE COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
29/08/09 16:43
A new book entitled Spies in the Vatican by author John Koehler, documents the infiltration of the Catholic Church by Soviet Communists. Of course Satan's greatest desire is to destroy the Catholic Church but he will never accomplish his mission. He may enjoy temporary victories, including mass apostasy and the disillusionment of many but the Bride of Christ will endure even through its inevitable and glorious passion.
From American Thinker: "Soviet leaders enjoyed regular access to the inner deliberations of Vatican leaders for years, secured by the work of several spy networks.
Access to internal Vatican politics was only one of the benefits derived from infiltration. The Vatican's role as a forum for policy discussions granted Communist intelligence chiefs' victory after victory as American and European leaders bared sensitive diplomatic strategies before the Holy See. When Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge visited Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Jean Villot in 1970 to discuss the President Nixon's intentions regarding Southeast Asia, Middle East tensions and SALT negotiations, the KGB was present. The word for word account of the meeting was soon placed on the desk of Leonid Brezhnev.
The book's simple title, however, somewhat belies the fact that although Communist intelligence services worked tirelessly to embed sources within the Vatican leadership in Rome, their greatest successes were enjoyed home. The KGB, the East German Stasi, the Polish SB and other Eastern Bloc services collaborated to infiltrate bishoprics and dioceses throughout Eastern Europe and ran hundreds of church--affiliated sources. The campaign escalated in 1978 with the elevation of the energetic Polish cardinal Karol Wojtyła. Already concerned over political tumult in Poland, Soviet leaders authorized the KGB to:
"Use all possibilities available to the Soviet Union to prevent the new course of policies initiated by the Polish pope; if necessary with additional measures beyond disinformation and discreditation."
Was this a tacit go-ahead for an assassination attempt? Koehler argues as much, although he admits the mystery of the failed 1981 assassination attempt will likely never be fully resolved. What is certain is that many of the Pope's movements and statements were subsequently betrayed by an army of informants. The inspiring story of John Paul II's 1979 trip to a seething Warsaw takes on a more sinister air as Koehler weaves together the hundreds of informant reports that kept Soviet leaders informed of the Pope's every utterance.
Who were these informants? Koehler does not expend many words detailing their motivations, but we do learn they were a diverse lot including a Polish Bishop codenamed IGNACY, a German monsignor (PAUL), and a monk from Aachen (LICHTBLICK). Others included local priests and Catholic journalists. Most of the former informants suffered little more than stunted careers following communism's collapse in return for their perfidy, generous fates for men who had sold their coreligionists to the wolves. Koehler personally confronts several of them; the aged traitors usually excuse their interactions with secret policemen as involuntary, although records of lavish lunches and generous cash allowances granted to such men by their handlers cast doubt on their alibis.
Despite the extent of their infiltration, Communist intelligence services were ill-equipped to interpret the data flow. Monumental errors, such as one Stasi report that credits "Zionists" with considerable influence over the Church in Poland testify to the level of Eastern Bloc misconceptions. Koehler suspects a secret Vatican disinformation campaign threw off Moscow's analysts, but ideological rigidity and groupthink appear to be the more likely culprits. Indeed, the inability of Kremlin leaders to understand the incoming information bolsters a core theme of the book: regardless of how extensive Communist penetration was, the grey men in the Kremlin were powerless to respond in a coherent manner. "
Hmmmmm???????
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