THE VATICAN AND WORLD WAR ONE

Found this fascinating article on The Vatican and World War One: World War I and Vatican Espionage

Basically:
1. The Vatican encouraged Austria-Hungary to start war on Serbia (because Serbia was Orthodox Christian);
2. Then The Vatican accepted bribes from Kaiser Wilhelm not to side with the Entente powers and not support Italy joining the war against the Central powers (because the war had diminished The Vatican's income streams and was close to bankruptcy (though it still had all that gold in their churches, didn't it?));
3. funds were raised in Germany for these bribes by telling ordinary Germans that any money raised was being used for military hospitals etc when it was actually going straight into The Vatican's bank accounts in Switzerland;
4. The Vatican did try to keep Italy out of the war but, despite a lot of propaganda in favour of neutrality, was unable to dissuade Italy from siding with the Entente powers;
5. Apparently without the knowledge of The Vatican, a German spy then used the unused money in The Vatican's Swiss bank accounts to raise an army of Irish Catholic rebels to cause a rebellion in Ireland to occupy British troops rather than those British troops fight Germany (this was the failed Easter Uprising 1916), but this failed after someone gave the British the codes;
6. the treaty that brought Italy into the war contained a secret clause that would forbid The Vatican from being involved in any peace talks after the war.

Fascinating stuff!