(First published in England by C.A. Watts & Co., Limited, London)

[The following book is a rare and out of print book that we felt would be very helpful to anyone studying the history, influence and political power of the Roman Catholic Church. It is quite an undertaking so please be patient as we try to get each chapter on the internet for you.]

 CONTENTS
Forward by Guy Emery Shipler pg. 7

Preface pg. 9

1. The Vatican in the Modern World pg. 13

2. The Vatican State pg. 21

3. The Vatican Power pg. 28

4. Spiritual Totalitarianism in the Vatican pg. 42

5. Religious Orders pg. 55

6. The Vatican on World Unrest pg. 65

7. Vatican Policy between the Two World Wars pg. 74

8. Spain, the Catholic Church and the Civil War pg. 84

9. Italy, the Vatican and Fascism pg. 107

10. Germany, the Vatican and Hitler pg. 138

11. The Vatican and World War II pg. 171

12. Austria and the Vatican pg. 224

13. Czechoslovakia and the Vatican pg. 251

14. Poland and the Vatican pg. 269

15. Belgium and the Vatican pg. 279

16. France and the Vatican pg. 292

17. Russia and the Vatican pg. 331

18. The Vatican and the United States pg. 362

19. The Vatican, Latin America, Japan, and China pg. 399

20. Conclusion pg. 416

INDEX pg. 423 (unavailable)

FOREWORD
The importance of this book cannot be exaggerated. Properly understood, it offers both a clue and a key to the painfully confused political situation that shrouds the world. No political event or circumstance can be evaluated without the knowledge of the Vatican's part in it. And no significant world political situation exists in which the Vatican does not play an important explicit or implicit part. As Glenn L. Archer, Executive Director of Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State, puts it, "this book comes to grips with the most vital social and political problems of our day. The author presents with singular clarity and without bias the conflicts between the Roman Church and the freedoms of democracy." This book is valuable also in that it brings to light historical facts hitherto kept secret, many of them published here for the first time. The author coped with great difficulties when he attempted to compress into the confines of a single volume the great mass of material available. For that reason he had to leave out many valuable discussions. And some were omitted because the cases dealt with remained still unresolved. That is the reason no mention is to be found of the case of Archbishop Stepinac of Yugoslavia, and there is only a brief mention of the case of Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary---cases which at the time this book was published were on the schedule of the United Nations for investigation. But sufficient evidence is presented in other cases to enable the reader to evaluate current events and similar situations. ---------Guy Emery Shipler June 199449

PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION
Within the last few decades, amid the rumblings and the ruins of two World Wars, the United States of America has emerged paramount and dynamic on the stage of global politics.

From across the great land mass of Eurasia, Russia---the bastion of Communism, equally dynamic in its struggle to build up new political structure---is challengingly waiting for the tumbling of the old pattern of society, confident that time is on her side.

At the same time, the Catholic Church, seemingly preoccupied only with its religious tasks, is feverishly engaged in a race for the ultimate spiritual conquest of the world.

But whereas the exertions of the U.S.A. and of the U.S.S.R., are followed with growing apprehension, those of the Vatican are seldom scrutinized. Yet not a single event of importance that has contributed to the present chaotic state of affairs has occurred without the Vatican taking an active part in it.

The Catholic population of the world----400 millions----is more numerous than that of the United States and Soviet Russia put together. When it is remembered that the concerted activities of this gigantic spiritual mass depend on the lips of a single man, the apathy of non-Catholic American should swiftly turn to keenest attention. His interest, furthermore, should increase when he is made aware that the United States is intimately involved in the attainment of both the immediate and the ultimate goals of the Vatican.

These goals are:

1. The annihilation of Communism and of Soviet Russia.

2. The spiritual conquest of the U.S.A.

3. The ultimate Catholicization of the world.

Do these goals seem fantastic?

Unfortunately they are neither speculation nor wild and idle dreams. They are as indisputable and as inextricably a part of contemporary history as the rise of Hitler, the defeat of Japan, the splitting of the atom, the existence of Communism. Indeed the inescapable alternative by which mankind today is confronted is not whether this will be the American or the Russian Century, but whether this might not after all become the Catholic Century.

Surely, then, the nature, aims and workings of the Catholic Church deserve some scrutiny. The American citizen, perturbed by the past, bewildered by the present and made increasingly anxious about the future, would do well to ponder the exertions of the Vatican in contemporary American and world politics. His destiny as well as the destiny of the United States, and indeed of mankind, has been and will continue to be profoundly affected by the activities of an institution which, although a church, is nonetheless as mighty a political power as the mightiest nation on the planet.

------------Avro Manhattan London, 1949