What is the largest, most efficient, and longest-reaching intelligence organization in the world?
Perhaps you might guess the CIA or FBI of the United States, the KGB of the Soviet Union, or even Mossad of Israel, or the intelligence agencies of China, the UK, or France.
But in reality, to become the world's largest intelligence organization, four conditions are essential:
Firstly, it needs an organization whose scope of activities can penetrate into the streets and rural homes.
Secondly, it must have a legitimate facade.
Then, it needs trusted individuals in various sectors.
Lastly, it must have a global, top-down organizational structure.
You might be wondering, who fits this description?
Yes, it's the Vatican.
Despite being a "micro-state" within Italy, the Vatican's organization spans borders and reaches all corners of the world.
Cardinals, bishops, and priests are all engaged in this secret work for "God."
Of course, God hasn't instructed them to do so.
The clergy at the grassroots level regularly report to the higher dioceses about what's happening in their area, encompassing everything from military movements to marital disputes, all compiled into an information database.
The Vatican has branches in most countries, and some people even consider their religious affiliation higher than their citizenship.
This information-gathering activity has been ongoing for centuries, making the Vatican adaptable and resilient.
The tradition of religious espionage continues to this day. The Vatican's intelligence system has a sophisticated information collection and assessment system, which other countries find difficult to replicate.
After World War II, the unharmed Roman Curia collaborated with the West. Many clergy in socialist countries were portrayed as victims of persecution, encouraged by the Vatican to participate in the process of dismantling their own national social systems.
The first large-scale religious espionage case was in Czechoslovakia.
Documents such as the nationalization plan, the draft of the "New Education Law," and trial regulations for land reform, all unpublished, were known to the Vatican.
On February 9, 1948, the Prague church publicly announced that it would not accept government management and incited the congregation to riot.
The Vatican threatened to revoke the membership of Czechoslovak believers.
With Soviet support, the Prague government arrested nine people, including Cardinal Suhard, Abbot Palecek, and Bishop Chigak.
All the defendants confessed to accepting foreign funds, perjury, subversion, and even plotting to seize local political power.
After a fierce confrontation with the socialist camp, the Vatican calmed down in Eastern Europe for a while.
But by the late 1970s, this force reemerged in Eastern Europe.
The iconic event occurred in 1978 when the Polish Karol Wojtyła was elected pope, becoming Pope John Paul II.
In 1979, he proposed to visit his homeland Poland in June, but Moscow demanded Warsaw to refuse the visit.
However, the Solidarity movement in Poland protested, arguing that religion and politics were unrelated, and the visit eventually took place as scheduled, greatly impacting Polish believers.
Richard Matthews, the Vatican's representative in Jerusalem, recalled: "We had a great influence on Catholics in the Soviet bloc, although they lived on the edge, the vanguard was in Poland."
In 1981, due to the "Solidarity Union" creating nationwide chaos, Jaruzelski, the First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party, declared martial law on December 13, and the country entered a state of war.
After martial law was imposed, contacts between the "Solidarity Union" and Western intelligence agencies were all cut off. Lech Walesa, the chairman of "Solidarity," was arrested.
Reagan instructed all US intelligence agencies to continue providing intelligence related to Poland, but the CIA was at a loss.
Meanwhile, Reagan was eager to convey White House directives to Poland, but this was also impossible.
Secretary of State Haig suggested Reagan personally contact the Pope because Pope John Paul II had a radio station to communicate with Cardinal Glemp in Poland.
Haig said: "From any angle, the information the Vatican gets is definitely more accurate and faster than ours..."
Reagan called the Pope, who agreed to send a special envoy from the US to the Vatican for talks.
Subsequently, Reagan sent his confidant, William Casey, former Deputy Director of the CIA, to Rome for a meeting.
Casey met with the Pope and held talks with Cardinal Casaroli, where both sides agreed that intervening in Polish affairs was in the interests of both the US and the Vatican.
Although the US had always refused to establish diplomatic relations with the Vatican, the legality of intelligence cooperation became problematic.
But the US urgently needed the Vatican's intelligence network, so Reagan compromised, deciding to recognize the Vatican as a sovereign state.
To gain the Pope's trust, Reagan authorized CIA Director Casey to inform the Vatican of two undercover agents: one was the Deputy Minister of Defense of Poland, and the other was Colonel Kuklinski of the Polish General Staff.
The intelligence from these two agents could be shared with the Vatican.
Once trust was established, Casey and National Security Advisor Clark began visiting France, Germany, and Italy (but actually went to the Vatican) for constant consultations.
Through their reports, Reagan discovered that the Vatican's intelligence capabilities were even stronger than he had imagined. Even on issues such as Lebanon, Nicaragua, and Angola, the Vatican could be of assistance.
In 1982, Reagan signed a secret directive (NSDD32), deciding to ally with the Vatican, the so-called "Holy Alliance."
On June 7, 1982, Reagan actively went to the Vatican to meet with the Pope in the Vatican Library.
The two talked for nearly an hour and even discussed surviving their assassination attempts in 1981.
Meanwhile, in another suite in the library building, Cardinal Casaroli and Archbishop Silvestrini were in tense discussions with Haig and Clark.
Haig's feedback to the Vatican was: Israeli Prime Minister Begin has assured the US that the Israeli army will not advance more than 40 kilometers into Lebanese territory.
During this meeting, Reagan and the Pope agreed to jointly conduct a large-scale secret operation targeting Poland.
The Vatican allowed the CIA to use its underground transportation network and intelligence network to provide all assistance to the "opposition" in Poland.
This included secretly transporting tons of printing equipment, fax machines, telegraph machines, telephones, shortwave transmitters, VCRs, photocopiers, etc., to the underground "Solidarity Union" with the help of clergy.
The necessary funds were directly allocated from the CIA, the National Endowment for Democracy, and secret deposits of the Vatican.
Public social activities were handled by the Vatican, such as providing food, charitable funds, medicines, church doctors, meeting places, and visiting prisons.
The CIA was responsible for weapons, with the Vatican not participating.
The Pope dispatched Archbishop Lessi to reside in the United States. If Lessi had important intelligence, he could visit the White House to meet with the President, but he only entered through the southwest gate to avoid journalists.
Some bishops expressed concern about the intelligence cooperation between the Vatican and the United States.
Lessi told them: Listen to the Holy Father. We have two thousand years of experience in these matters.
Polish presidential adviser Brzezinski was very satisfied with Reagan's decision, saying, "This won't cost much. Just provide information and support, provide books, equipment, ink, and printing presses."
When the Vatican's intelligence network and transportation network came into play, theCIA paled in comparison.
Goods were shipped to Poland via the Vatican's transportation network, arriving at ports in Gdansk or other ports in Poland after being shipped from Denmark or Sweden.
The dockworkers who unloaded the goods were devout Catholics. The unloaded goods were then transported to various destinations by trucks or private cars.
Transport personnel usually used the names of churches or priests and finally delivered the goods to the recipients at the rendezvous point.
All of this smooth operation was something the CIA couldn't achieve, even if they tried.
In January 1984, amid opposition from non-Catholic forces in the United States, the United States officially established diplomatic relations with the Vatican.
The scope of intelligence cooperation between the two parties expanded from Poland to the Soviet Union and the Eastern European socialist camp, with Poland being the heart of the matter.
For nearly a decade, Poland and other Eastern European countries had no way to deal with the church network's activities, partly due to external infiltration and partly because the state had no secrets to hide.
In December 1990, Walesa was elected president of Poland, making Poland the first "domino" to fall in the collapse of the Soviet bloc, and the "Holy Alliance" was a resounding success.
Clark later declared, "This is the largest secret alliance in history."
Of course, none of this would have been possible without Gorbachev's efforts. His "new thinking" and "openness" demolished the ideological foundations of the socialist countries in Eastern Europe.
The Vatican's intelligence network has existed in Europe, as well as in Latin America and Africa, for hundreds of years. It's not inherently frightening. Didn't Stalin say, "How many divisions does the Pope have?"
But what's frightening is that it can provide intelligence services to the United States through the "Holy Alliance."
So, we must be vigilant against those who wear the cloak of sanctity but engage in dirty tricks.
Today, the "Holy Alliance" between the US and the Vatican may not exist anymore, as the US has been thoroughly infiltrated and even manipulated by Jewish groups.
The story of the Gospel could face "illegal" charges in the US, so the cornerstone of Christianity will also be shaken.
In this way, the Vatican's livelihood is not guaranteed. Will they resign themselves to it? The Vatican urgently needs a major power to support it.
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