They just were never invited to the parties, is all. So they never really knew about it.
> So they never really knew about it. <
The Vatican has a decent intelligence service. So I find that to be a bit hard to believe. The best I can guess is that John Paul II and Benedict both just decided to kick the can down the road to avoid embarrassing the church.
If that was the case, it was a pretty miserable decision.
Pope Benedict is the author of the book, exposing this stuff posthumously and trying to get the truth out there. Did you read the original article?