http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratlines_(history)
Vatican and Ratlines!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratlines_(history)#The_San_Girolamo_ratlineThe San Girolamo ratline
According to Aarons and Loftus, Hudal's private operation was small scale compared to what came later. The major Roman ratline was operated by a small, but influential network of Croatian priests, members of the Franciscan order, led by Father Krunoslav Draganović. Draganović organized a highly sophisticated chain with headquarters at the San Girolamo degli Illirici Seminary College in Rome, but with links from Austria to the final embarcation point in the port of Genoa. The ratline initially focused on aiding members of the Croatian Ustashi fascist movement, most notably the Croat wartime dictator Ante Pavelic [8].
Priests active in the chain included: Fr. Vilim Cecelja, former Deputy Military Vicar to the Ustashi, based in Austria where many Ustashi and Nazi refugees remained in hiding; Fr. Dragutin Kamber, based at San Girolamo; Fr. Dominic Mandic, an official Vatican representative at San Girolamo and also "General Economist" or treasurer of the Franciscan order — who used this position to put the Franciscan press at the ratline's disposal; and Monsignor Karlo Petranovic, based in Genoa.
Cecelja would make contact with those in hiding in Austria and help them across the border to Italy; Kamber, Mandic and Draganović would find them lodgings, often in the monastery itself, while they arranged documentation; finally Draganović would phone Petranovic in Genoa with the number of required berths on ships leaving for South America. (See below for the operation of the South American end.)
The operation of the Draganović ratline was an open secret amongst the intelligence and diplomatic community in Rome. As early as August 1945, Allied commanders in Rome were asking questions about the use of San Girolamo as a "haven" for Ustashi [9]. A year later, a US State Department report of 12 July 1946 lists nine war criminals, including Albanians and Montenegrins as well as Croats, plus others "not actually sheltered in the COLLEGIUM ILLIRICUM [i.e., San Girolamo degli Illirici] but who otherwise enjoy Church support and protection." [10] The British government was annoyed by the Vatican's shelter of Ustashi-Fascist. The envoy to the Holy See, Francis Osborne, asked Domenico Tardini, a high ranking Vatican official, for a permission that would have allowed the British Military police to raid ex-territorial Vatican Institutions in Rome. Tardini granted no permission and denied that the church sheltered war criminals. In February 1947 CIC Special Agent Robert Clayton Mudd reported ten members of Pavelic's Ustashi cabinet living either in San Girolamo or in the Vatican itself. Mudd had infiltrated an agent into the monastery and confirmed that it was "honeycombed with cells of Ustashi operatives" guarded by "armed youths." Mudd also reported:
"It was further established that these Croats travel back and forth from the Vatican several times a week in a car with a chauffeur whose license plate bears the two initials CD, "Corpo Diplomatico". It issues forth from the Vatican and discharges its passengers inside the Monastery of San Geronimo . Subject to diplomatic immunity it is impossible to stop the car and discover who are its passengers."[11]
Mudd's conclusion was the following:
"DRAGANOVIC's sponsorship of these Croat Quislings definitely links him up with the plan of the Vatican to shield these ex-Ustashi nationalists until such time as they are able to procure for them the proper documents to enable them to go to South America. The Vatican, undoubtedly banking on the strong anti-Communist feelings of these men, is endeavoring to infiltrate them into South America in any way possible to counteract the spread of Red doctrine. It has been reliably reported, for example that Dr. VRANCIC has already gone to South America and that Ante PAVELIC and General KREN are scheduled for an early departure to South America through Spain. All these operations are said to have been negotiated by DRAGANOVIC because of his influence in the Vatican."
The existence of Draganović's ratline is admitted by the Vatican historian Fr. Robert Graham: "I've no doubt that Draganović was extremely active in syphoning off his Croatian Ustashi friends." However, Graham insisted that Draganović was not officially sanctioned in this by his superiors: "Just because he's a priest doesn't mean he represents the Vatican. It was his own operation." [12]
On four occasions the Vatican intervened on behalf of interned Ustashi prisoners. The Secretariat of State asked the U.K. and U.S. government to release Croatian POWs from British internment camps in Italy.
