US 'Spied on Future Pope Francis during Vatican Conclave'

By Nick Squires
The Sydney Morning Herald
October 30, 2013

http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-spied-on-future-pope-francis-during-vatican-conclave-20131031-2whvf.html

Before being elected as Pope Francis ... the NSA monitored calls to and from the Rome residence where the then Archbishop Bergoglio stayed, according to Italian news magazine Panorama.

The American spy agency monitored telephone calls made to and from the clerical residence in Rome where then Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio stayed during this year's conclave, the secret election at which cardinals chose him as pontiff.

The claims were made by Panorama, an Italian weekly news magazine, which said the National Security Agency monitored the telephone calls of many bishops and cardinals at the Vatican in the lead-up to the conclave, held in the Sistine Chapel.

It is feared that the great American ear continued to tap prelates' conversations

The information gleaned was then reportedly divided into four categories – “leadership intentions”, “threats to financial system”, “foreign policy objectives” and “human rights”.

The allegations follow a report on surveillance website Cryptome that said the United States intercepted 46 million telephone calls in Italy between December 10, 2012 and January 8, 2013.

At the time, Benedict XVI was Pope, suggesting that the Vatican may also have been monitored during the last few weeks of his papacy, which came to an end when he announced his historic resignation from the Seat of St Peter.

"It is feared that the great American ear continued to tap prelates' conversations up to the eve of the conclave on March 12, 2013," the weekly magazine said, adding that there were "suspicions that the conversations of the future Pope may have been monitored".

Archbishop Bergoglio "had been a person of interest to the American secret services since 2005, according to WikiLeaks", it said.

The US agency also spied on telephone calls among senior Vatican figures relating to the selection of a new head of the scandal-ridden Vatican bank, Panorama said.

Federico Lombardi, the Vatican’s spokesman, said "we have heard nothing of this and are not worried about it".