Today, because the papacy maintains diplomatic relations with 183 countries, the Catholic Church is still an influential power in international affairs. And as international threats have become more sophisticated, so too have the Vatican’s methods for protecting itself. The Soviet security services devoted substantial resources to penetrating and undermining the Catholic Church for the entirety of the Cold War. The extensive presence of the Holy See’s diplomats combined with their neutrality provides them access to unique information in the far corners of the globe.įormerly top-secret KGB (Soviet security service) documents declassified after the end of the Cold War reveal the Kremlin’s obsession with containing the papacy’s influence. The Holy See has played an important but understudied role in intelligence and diplomacy through its diplomatic service, which is one of the oldest in the world. While Stalin’s dismissive statement suggested that the Catholic Church was an insignificant power in international affairs, he could not have been farther from the truth. “How many divisions does the pope have?” This was Stalin’s sarcastic response to Churchill’s request not to let internal developments in Poland upset relations with the pope.
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