Our Archive of the Week uncovers a Spy in the Sacristy during a critical period of the first Hunger Strike in 1980.
Archive of the Week: Spy in the Sacristy – the Pope’s Apostolic Delegate, Bruno Heim, was Britain’s spy who divulged significant information at a crucial juncture of the first Hunger Strike in 1980 – a secret message from the Pope to his Irish Bishops… /1 pic.twitter.com/1t1INJtFgK
— Paper Trail (@papertrailpro) January 26, 2018
During a private lunch with EAJ Fergusson, the Assistant Under Secretary of State of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Heim said “he was obviously precluded from disclosing” the secret Papal message *cough* but… /2
— Paper Trail (@papertrailpro) January 26, 2018
Heim offered his British contact an “anonymous piece of paper” which was, of course, the secret Papal message in full. It was a significant intervention by the Vatican advising the Catholic hierarchy to apply pressure on the Republican prisoners as well as BritGov. It reads… /3
— Paper Trail (@papertrailpro) January 26, 2018
“The Bishops are urged once more not only to insist with the British authorities but also to do everything possible in order to persuade the prisoners to adopt a more humane attitude, and, I repeat, one more in keeping with Christian moral principles”… /4 pic.twitter.com/bYGXJ0BxGG
— Paper Trail (@papertrailpro) January 26, 2018
Heim’s surreptitious disclosure came three weeks after the beginning of the first Hunger Strike and before Margaret Thatcher was due to speak with the Pope although there was to be “no question of the Prime Minister’s showing any knowledge of this” Vatican shift… /5
— Paper Trail (@papertrailpro) January 26, 2018
The first Hunger Strike ended just over four weeks later and prepared the way for the tumult of the second during which the influence of the Catholic Church became even more pronounced /ENDS
— Paper Trail (@papertrailpro) January 26, 2018
Further Information
Read Bruno Heim’s obituary in the Guardian where he is described as “famously indiscreet”. It could be, of course, that he was ordered to give this information to the British by his boss… the Pope.
