In the face of Nazi atrocities during World War II, the Vatican's role has been widely disputed. In Church of Spies: The Pope’s Secret War Against Hitler, Mark Riebling writes that the wartime pontiff Pius XII was not as neutral as he tried to appear. Riebling claims that Pope Pius XII skimmed from church charities to pay covert couriers, surreptitiously tape-recorded his meetings with top Nazis, and even secretly plotted to kill Hitler.