From ............... Wild Bill Donovan - The Last Hero

By Anthony C.Brown

Pub.by [NY] TIMES BOOKS ......... 1982

ISBN 0-8129-1021-4

page 683-4

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Donovan had long had important intelligence connections with the Roman Catholic Church. He was well known to its hierarchy in North America and had been received by Pope Pius XII in July 1944. For their part, the [Roman] Catholic hierarchs had entered into a friendly but unofficial liaison with Donovan and the OSS.

That liaison had begun as early as 1941, when a Father Morlion, founder of a European Catholic anti-Comintern [and then anti-Nazi] intelligence service known as Pro Deo, was evacuated by Donovan from Lisbon to New York after the Germans had overrun Western Europe.

Since that time Donovan had financed Morlion and the Pro Deo service, although Morlion's reports - known within the OSS as the Black Reports - were often little more than dissertations on Catholic dogma in a world at war.

Donovan's justification for the expenditure of special funds on such tracts was that they provided a valuable insight into the thinking of the Vatican, an institution of immense global political importance.

Also, when the Allies liberated Rome in June 1944 and the Vatican became open to the Western powers, Donovan went to considerable expense, time, and trouble to transport Morlion from New York and establish him at the Holy See.

These connections resulted in the Vatican's making available to the OSS the reports of the apostolic delegates in enemy territory, especially in Japan, where the nuncio provided much intelligence useful for the aerial bombardment of targets in the Japanese homeland. There was, therefore, a tendency at OSS SI headquarters to place trust and confidence in Vatican reportage.

[-----------------------] pg 703-704 [-----------------------------]

WJD was restored to grace, if he had ever departed it, by one final wartime service rendered to Pius XII. At the end of the war OSS Washington - presumably Donovan - ordered the new chief of OSS Switzerland, Robert Joyce, to the Holy See. He was "to see what, if anything, OSS could do for the Holy Father.''30

Joyce fell ill, could not undertake the mission, and gave the task to his twenty-eight-year-old chief of SI, Henry Hyde, who had distinguished himself with his intelligence operations during Dragoon. Hyde was granted two political audiences with Pius XII. In 1982 Hyde refused to state what was discussed, ......

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It was now that the OSS rendered its final service to Pius XII. Since the [Roman] Catholic stronghold in Germany was in the south Ñ Bavaria,

Wurttemberg, the Palatinate - and southern Germany was under American military occupation, could Hyde arrange for a papal envoy to tour that area and parts of Austria? Hyde agreed [he was and remains, by the way, a Protestant] ..........

........... to speak with the American authorities and managed to obtain permission for such a visit. Why the Pope had asked for such assistance then became clear, for the man he had in mind for the mission was a German civilian priest, who could not wander at will through a military zone without running the risk of being arrested. If that had occurred, the OSS and the Pope would be brought into the matter, to the certain embarrassment of the latter. That embarrassment would have been much the greater considering the identity of the man Hyde and his colleagues were to escort around southern Germany and western Austria.

Hyde named him as Father Ivo Zieger, a German Jesuit and a teacher of canon law at the Collegium Germanica, who was also the Pope's confessor, his assistant secretary, and head of the Vatican intelligence service. However, Angleton named the priest involved as the famous Father Lieber, one of Pius XII's closest confidants.

Hyde accompanied Zieger to Germany, dressed him in the uniform of a GI, procured false dog tags and papers for the "GI," and traveled with him during part of the pilgrimage in Germany. When Hyde was recalled to Switzerland, two other OSS men were given the task of escorting Zieger until he could return. During the pilgrimage Zieger saw a large number of Catholic eminences, including Cardinal Faulhaber of Munich and Cardinal Innitzer of Vienna.

The clear purpose of these meetings was to reestablish papal authority in southern Germany, as a bulwark against Communist and Soviet intelligence and political machinations in the region.

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Cardinal Innitzer mentioned above was a famous, and highly enthusiastic supporter of Adolf Hitler. Cardinal Faulhaber, in 1933, promised to support Hitler's work "by prayer and deed" [Lewy, pg 102].

Of course, in compliance with the concordat of 1933, all Roman Catholic clergy swore "oaths of fealty to Hitler and the Third Reich. It further ordered that prayers were to be said publicly for the Fuhrer and Germany by Catholic bishops and priests. The [Roman] Church, in effect, pledged never to oppose Hitler's dictatorship." [quote from "La Popessa", page 198]

Page 820 confirms Donovan's closeness to Cardinal Spellman [Cardinal Spellman was also close to Henry Luce of Time magazine] [Cardinal Spellman was also close to Somoza, of Nicaragua] [Cardinal Spellman handpicked picked Ngo Diem, who the USA installed as dictator of S.Vietnam in 1954]

Suggested reading- "Unholy Trinity", which documents the massive aid the Vatican gave thousands of war criminals fleeing Europe after WWII, with the blessing of men like "Wild Bill" Donovan. [Available from Barnes and Nobel]

"Wild Bill Donovan - The Last Hero"

By Anthony C.Brown

During and after WWII, Roman Catholic William ["Wild Bill"]

Donovan headed the OSS [forerunner of the American CIA].

Donovan was decorated in July 1944 by Pope Pius XII with the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Sylvester, "the Vatican's highest award, for a lifetime of public and secret service to the [Roman] Catholic Church".

[from picture caption in 'Wild Bill Donovan- The Last Hero By Anthony Cave Brown. Pub.by Times Books, and from pg 173 of American Democracy & the Vatican by Stephen D. Mumford. Pub. by Humanist Press]

[One Donovan OSS subordinate was Roman Catholic, "Knight of Malta" William Casey, who later became head of CIA under Reagan] William Casey was a mastermind of the USA's support of Cardinal Bravo's "Contras". The Contras fought the Left wing Roman Catholic "liberation theology" Jesuit blessed "Sandinistas".

Another Donovan OSS subordinate who later headed the CIA was Allen Dulles, whose brother was Sec of State John Foster Dulles. Mr. Dulles son is now a prominent Jesuit priest.

A couple of other Donovan OSS subordinates who later headed the CIA were Helms and Colby.