411:, the Pope's emissary to Mussolini, who often had "illicit" relations with young men and had been wounded in a lover's quarrel, which he tried to pass off as an anti-fascist assassination attempt. The Pope retained Venturi as his preferred liaison with Mussolini, despite this obvious fabrication. Another senior cleric blackmailed by the OVRA was Monsignor Enrico Pucci, the chief of the Vatican press department, who worked as an informer for the OVRA from October 1927 onward. Pucci as a rule did not see the Pope very often. However, he met on a daily basis with the Pope's advisers, to get directions for the editorial stance of the Vatican media. This provided the OVRA with much information. One of the most important informers in the Vatican remains anonymous. His OVRA file simply describes him as the "noted Vatican informer". Kertzer wrote that judging from the high-quality intelligence he provided, the "noted Vatican informer" must have been someone very senior, so that his name was never written down.
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492:, as a result of a new reorganization of the Police offices, with the task of taking over the management of the CPC and investigating politically motivated crimes and other felonies related to that particular time (such as black marketeering, etc.), and that many of the former officers of the OVRA were being reinstated as members of the new SIS. Even the person appointed as head of SIS was Inspector General Santoro, one of Leto's former deputies. Most of the laws and regulations of the old TULPS of 1931 were kept in force by the
25:
407:. He was known to sexually molest young boys, despite the Pope being aware of this, at least from 1926 on. Another homosexual cleric was Monsignor Ricardo Sanz de Samper, the Prefect of the Pope's Household and papal majordomo, whose fondness for sex with young boys became so open that even Pius was forced to dismiss him in 1928. Another long OVRA file was on the Jesuit Father
327:, TULPS) enacted in 1926 and revised in 1931, specified a "Department of Political Police" as a special division of the force with the aim of controlling and preventing political dissent. Later, this division came to be known as OVRA, although its existence remained secret until December 1930 when the official press agency
479:
After the war ended, the OVRA was officially disbanded. A decree issued on 26 April 1945 stated that the CPC should be maintained and "updated with all the information pertaining to anybody whose political activity is aimed at breaking the laws and regulations enacted by the democratic
Government
358:
met with
Bocchini repeatedly and modeled the organization of Nazi Germany's secret police on that of the OVRA. A secret protocol was signed on 2 April 1936 by the heads of the two police organizations to further cooperation and collaboration. One of the chief duties of the OVRA was to operate and
343:. The OVRA compiled files on around 130,000 potential subversives with the aid of a network of approximately 100,000 informants, and by 1930 they were organising around 20,000 raids each week. It is believed that about 6,000 of the people arrested by the OVRA, mainly communists and members of the
399:
described the OVRA's spy network within the
Vatican as "robust", comprising four highly placed clerics and a number of lay Vatican employees. Mussolini was fascinated by reports of homosexual activity among senior Catholic clerics and always had them sent to his office for him to read.
373:(CPC), a special archive where all personal information about known "subversives" was dutifully compiled to create a "personal profile" containing all data concerning the subject's education, culture, and habits, down to minute details about personal character and sexual orientation.
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were dissolved, and everybody who was proven to have "committed or expressed intention to commit actions directed to violently subvert the social, economic or national order or undermine national security or to oppose or obstruct the actions of the government" could be sent into
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against neo-Fascism, anarchists who are by definition against any law and government, and political activists whose moral depravity and contempt of law could prompt them to instigate unrest or commit acts of terrorism". Later, a division of the PS named
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291:, in Bologna on 31 October 1926, a swath of repressive legislation was swiftly enacted by the Italian government. All political parties, associations, and organizations opposed to
361:
496:, and Leto was later reinstated as a fully fledged national Police officer, and entrusted with the supervision and coordination of police academies in post-war Italy.
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and blackmail them into spying for the OVRA, which was therefore always very well informed about the affairs of the Holy See. The
American historian
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311:(Special Court) to try those who were accused of being "enemies of the state", and sentence them to harsh prison terms or even to death, as the
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regime never controlled, instead having a partnership with. It was a common practice of the OVRA to catch Roman
Catholic priests
432:
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activity or sentiment. Approximately 50,000 OVRA agents infiltrated most aspects of domestic life in Italy. The OVRA, headed by
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islands. The conditions in these places were extremely poor, so many anti-fascists simply left Italy for their own safety.
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had also been restored under the new law. Priority was given to the reorganization of the
National Police Force, known as
271:. The OVRA was the Italian precursor of Nazi Germany's secret police. Mussolini's secret police were assigned to stop any
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Wagner, Margaret E., Osbourne, Linda
Barrett, Reyburn, Susan, and the Staff of the Library of Congress (2007).
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The OVRA had a very long file on the Pope's Master of
Ceremonials, his close friend Monsignor
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Bocchini appointed inspector
Francesco Nudi as head of the OVRA. Nudi was later replaced by
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The Pope and
Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe
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released a statement quoting the OVRA as a "special section" of the police force.
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In the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Mussolini by the young
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partisans, as they were a symbol of the fascist government.
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Organizzazione di Vigilanza e Repressione dell'Antifascismo
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Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-Fascism
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Fascist secret police in the Kingdom of Italy (1927–1945)
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E. Rossi, La Pupilla del Duce: l'O.V.R.A., Guanda (1956)
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on 28 April 1945. OVRA agents were favourite targets of
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944:(1996).
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237:OVRA
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