SPY CHARGES BY CZECHS

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28314, 27 June 1957, Page 16

SPY CHARGES BY CZECHS

Alleged Use Of Convent (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) PRAGUE, June 25. A group of Czech priests and nUns -are under arrest after the discovery of what the authorities call a Vatican spy centre in a convent’ at Liptal, in Moravia, it was reported today. “Rude Pravo,” the Communist Party newspaper, stated the centre was run for nearly five years by Vaclav Filipec, a priest of the Society of Saint Francis de Sales, on orders of the Vatican and United States Espionage Service. Filipec was arrested in February while trying to cross into East Germany illegally. The party organ did not state how many others were also waiting trial.

“Rude Pravo” claimed that the convent became a transit station for refugees on their way to the West and “numerous gangs were hidden behind its thick walls.” The convent also produced slanderous leaflets and ran secret 14day anti-State ideological courses for Salesian Fathers, the newspaper said. “Rude Pravo” stated that the Salesian Order, which had its headquarters at Thuringen, had been active in Czechoslovakia for a number of years, developing

“anti-State and treasonable activities under cover of religious ceremonies and meetings.” The spy centre was permanently staffed by 30 nuns who looked after 100 mentally deficient children as a “cover job,” the paper stated. “Rude Pravo” stated that the spy centre was directed by Rome through a religious institution in Turin.

The newspaper named another Salesian, Father Chudarek, who posed as a “fervent philatelist since he received his spy instruction in coded messages concealed under stamps sent to him from Italy.”

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