How Vatican’s secret spy service ‘The Entity’ trained priests in dark arts, infiltrated USSR & helped Pole become Pope
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WITH ruthless ambition, suspense and even spies, hit movie Conclave lays bare the fight to succeed as a new Pope. The thriller has not only won critical plaudits, yesterday it clinched a remarkable EIGHT Oscar nominations. Among them, Ralph Fiennes is up for Best Actor for his portrayal of Cardinal Lawrence who must oversee the conclave, where Catholic Church leaders are shut off from the outside world, to elect a new Pontiff.
![[Still from the film *Conclave 2024*, showing Ralph Fiennes as a cardinal.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/NINTCHDBPICT000959465667_d23436.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
The film is mired in double-dealing and dirty tricks by other senior clerics. But in reality, the Vatican has not only its own secret service but also a roster of “James Bonds in cassocks” trained to parachute behind enemy lines. New book Vatican Spies, by Yvonnick Denoel, reveals an extraordinary story of espionage that includes Queen Elizabeth I, the Cold War, Mafia, KGB, CIA and MI6, as well as incredible financial scandals and cold-blooded murder.
![[Pope John Paul II greets a Swiss Guard and a woman.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/pope-john-paul-ii-greets-1644526.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
The shadowy body first came into the light in the wake of a double murder in the Vatican — when Yvon Bertorello, a young priest, claimed there was a “state within a state . . . to destabilise communist regimes”. He said: “Diplomacy was often used as a cover. In reality, it was a net-work of intelligence agents.
![[Black and white photo of Benito Mussolini in uniform.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/eingeschr-nkte-rechte-f-r-966076648.jpg?strip=all&w=665)
“Some of them might have use for the cassock but they were nevertheless not in Holy Orders.”. This would become one of the Vatican’s most notorious scandals but, like the Devil himself, its secret intelligence arm has had many names over the years.
![[17th-century painting of Pope Pius V with a crucifix and a cherub.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/17th-century-painting-anonymous-author-966076785.jpg?strip=all&w=677)
