Report: US 'eavesdropped on Vatican'
Italian report reveals 'National Security Agency wiretapped pope.' News comes week after reports that NSA tapped Merkel's phone as well as millions of calls from Italy, Spain
"The National Security Agency wiretapped the pope," the magazine said, accusing the United States of listening in to telephone calls to and from the Vatican, including the accommodation housing cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio before he was elected Pope Francis.
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This Monday, American sources admitted for the first time that the NSA used to tap German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone, as well as the private communications of a row of other world leaders.
Pope with Germany's Merkel (Photo: AFP)
At the same time, it was reported that the NSA tracked more than 60 million phone calls in Spain – all of them in one month. The current allegations follow a report on surveillance website Cryptome which said the United States intercepted 46 million telephone calls in Italy in December 2012 and early January 2013.
Among those, "there are apparently also calls from and to the Vatican," Panorama said.
"It is feared that the great American ear continued to tap prelates' conversations up to the eve of the conclave," it said, adding that there were "suspicions that the conversations of the future pope may have been monitored".
Bergoglio "had been a person of interest to the American secret services since 2005, according to Wikileaks," it said.
The bugged conversations were divided into four categories: "leadership intentions", "threats to financial systems", "foreign policy objectives" and "human rights," it claimed.
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said "we have heard nothing of this and are not worried about it."
If true, the US spying would be an embarrassing blow to an institution famous for its secrecy.
The goings-on of the conclave are particularly clock-and-dagger, with a system installed in the Sistine Chapel where the cardinals meet in order to scramble any mobile phone communications and excommunication for those who spill the beans.
The National Security Agency, responsible for US electronic eavesdropping, said on Wednesday that it does not target the Vatican and called an Italian media report that it had done so "not true."
"The National Security Agency does not target the Vatican Assertions that NSA has targeted the Vetican, published in Italy's Panorama magazine, are not true," agency spokeswoman Vanee Vines said in a statement.
Panorama magazine said on Wednesday that the NSA had eavesdropped on Vatican phone calls, possibly including when former Pope Benedict's successor was under discussion. The Holy See said it had no knowledge of any such activity.
Reuters contributed to this article
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