The US National Security Agency issued a statement late Wednesday saying that a report in an Italian news magazine that the agency has targeted the Vatican is false.
"The National Security Agency
does not target the Vatican. Assertions that NSA has targeted the Vatican,
published in Italy's Panorama magazine, are not true," the NSA Public
Affairs Office said in an e-mailed statement.
According to Religion News Service, Panorama
reported that the NSA surveilled cardinals right up until they met to choose a
new pope and that the eavesdropping may have included the new pope himself,
then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio.
Panorama reported that the Santa
Marta guesthouse in the Vatican, which housed Bergoglio and the rest of the
College of Cardinals, had its phones tapped and that "recorded
communications from the Vatican were categorized in one of four sections:
leadership, financial system threats, foreign policy objectives, and human
rights issues."
Religion News Service reported that
a Vatican representative told the outlet, "We have heard nothing of this
and are not worried," and it suggested that, in any case, the Vatican had
novel means of foiling any high-tech surveillance:
The Vatican remains a highly
secretive institution, with many operations conducted through time-honored
means that would make spying difficult -- communicating with instructions
written on paper, often in Latin.
The vote to select the new pope was
conducted on paper ballots that were burned after each round of voting, and for
the last two conclaves the Sistine Chapel was swept for listening devices and
cardinals were required to leave electronic devices outside.
