Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 5:06am

PopeWatch: NSA

VATICAN-POPE-AUDIENCE

 

PopeWatch this morning is not about Pope Francis but rather about allegations that the NSA spied on the Vatican during the recent conclave:

An Italian magazine is reporting that the National Security Agency (NSA) spied on internal communications at the Vatican and phone calls at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the church residence where cardinals lived during the papal conclave and the pope’s current home. 

The weekly magazine, Panorama, reports in an issue that hits the streets on Thursday that the NSA labeled calls in and out of Vatican offices as “leadership intentions,” “threats to the financial system,” “foreign policy objectives,” and “human rights.” It says calls regarding this year’s election of the new president of the Vatican Bank, Ernst von Freyberg, were also intercepted.

The magazine does not cite a source for the wiretapping allegations, but it does refer to WikiLeaks to suggest that Francis was being watched as far back as 2005 when he was the Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi was quick to dismiss the charges on Wednesday.

“We don’t know anything about this, and in any case we don’t have any concerns about it,” he said in a statement.

Is the story true?  Unfortunately PopeWatch thinks it is probably true.  Recent revelations about the extent of NSA spying of foreign leaders, not to mention routine massive spying on American citizens, makes PopeWatch doubt that the Vatican, especially during the current administration, would be exempt from this process.

 

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Paul W Primavera
Paul W Primavera
Thursday, October 31, AD 2013 8:28am

So what exactly does the Regime of liberal progressive Democrats in control have to fear from Jesus Christ’s One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church that it has to resort to spying?

Two words: Judgment Day.

Thomas Collins
Thomas Collins
Thursday, October 31, AD 2013 9:43am

For some reason I’m not that upset.
Spying on foreign leaders whether hostile or friendly is to be expected. Getting caught is incompetence.
I’ll bet $20 that previous administrations have spied on the Holy See as well. They would have been foolish not to, especially after John Paul II showed the impact the Church can have.

trackback
Thursday, October 31, AD 2013 11:49am

[…] The Eponymous Flower Did N. S. A. Spy on the Vatican? Should We Be Concerned? – Phil Lawler PopeWatch: N. S. A. – Donald R. McClarey JD, The American Catholic N. S. A. Spying on Vatican, Vatican Says […]

Clinton
Clinton
Thursday, October 31, AD 2013 12:19pm

Thomas Collins, I don’t share your attitude. While this administration and the
Holy See don’t have anything like the cordial relationship that they had under
President Bush and Benedict XVI, we are (at least in theory) still allies. While I
can appreciate that all governments must gather intelligence, what the NSA is
doing these days will only alienate what few friends we still have out there.

Imagine you have a business associate, with whom you’ve had a long and very
cordial relationship. You’ve always assumed that his company kept tabs on what
yours was up to– who was retiring, how promptly invoices were paid, who your
purveyors were, etc. Then, you discover that not only was this associate keeping
an eye on those things you reasonably expected, but he was also having your
home and business phones tapped, was steaming open your personal letters,
and hiring people to dig through your trash and follow your wife and children.
With this discovery, I daresay your relationship with that associate would… change.

One other unrelated and slightly off-topic thing: with what we’ve come to find out
about the NSA’s new-ish ability to monitor all email and phone calls in the
name of national security, why haven’t we seen more concern about the government
snooping into domestic political campaigns? Couldn’t an amoral administration
use the NSA to undermine the political campaigns of those it did not like? They
could make Nixon look like a piker…

Steve Phoenix
Steve Phoenix
Friday, November 1, AD 2013 12:03pm

Perhaps the NSA, like Popewatch, is trying to figure out what the Hxxx this Pope is saying, too.

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