A spy novel at the heart of the church. Freemason prelates, others complacent with communist ideology. Secret services both Russian and American, the satellite states of the USSR.
This book, written with four hands, unveils the behind-the-scenes of St. Peter’s Square. The popes, since Pius XII after the Second World War, have been of particular interest to the KGB. Religious orders often play an ambiguous role in their own way. What can be said about the Jesuits, whom John Paul I wanted to suppress, but we will never know, as he died 33 days after his election.
Vatican II, John XXIII then Paul VI, we are in the years 1950-1978, the Soviet empire must face uprisings in East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and then Poland. The authors reveal the intricacies of Vatican diplomacy with Eastern countries, then Italian politics gets involved with the mafia, finance. John Paul I died before he could act, John Paul II was the victim of an attack. Many questions arise.
This 2006 work revisits diplomatic history over half a century, which is both a lot and very little on the scale of history. Did the fall of the Berlin Wall also mean the end of the Russian secret services? The question is posed throughout this book. The authors raise another question: Globalization?
Certainly, the Catholic Church is universal, but is universality compatible with this globalization that seeks to erase the distinctive particularities of nations by denying their specificities, such as the Christian roots of Europe?
A work that poses many questions, a book to read to better understand the stakes and challenges of our Western civilization, of which the Vatican is both the capital, despite what some might think, and the custodian of its roots.
