Man hangs up twice on Pope, thought phone calls were pranks

Michael — Mon, 04 May 2015 19:09:40 +0000

An Italian man hung up on phone calls from Pope Francis twice, thinking they were pranks.

The Pope called Franco Rabuffi, who was sick, to comfort him.

As he usually does when calling people who are suffering, the Pope opened by saying "Hello, I'm Pope Francis".

On the third papal phone call, Mr Rabuffi was speechless after he realised it really was the Pope.

Pope Francis reportedly told Mr Rabuffi he was amused.

Mr Rabuffi and his wife were invited to the Pope's public audience on Wednesday in St Peter's Square.

There, Francis hugged them and assured them he really did call the man's phone.

Man hangs up twice on Pope, thought phone calls were pranks

Magazine says US monitored Vatican phone calls

admin — Thu, 31 Oct 2013 18:25:55 +0000

The Vatican has said it is not concerned about a report that a United States spy agency intercepted its internal communications — including phone calls by cardinals during the conclave that elected Pope Francis.

The report was denied by the National Security Agency, which said: "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 allegations by Panorama follow a report on Cryptome, a website that gathers intelligence on surveillance and national security, which claimed the US intercepted 46 million telephone calls in Italy between December 10, 2012, and January 8, 2013.

"It is feared that the great American ear tapped prelates' conversations right up to the conclave," Panorama said.

The magazine said that intercepted calls from the Vatican were classified into four categories, including "leadership intentions, threats to financial systems, foreign policy objectives, and human rights".

Panorama also claimed that incoming and outgoing calls from the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where Pope Francis lives, had been tapped.

It said that Wikileaks files revealed that Pope Francis was being watched by American spy agencies as far back as 2005 when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

The article said the National Security Agency may have monitored calls relating to the appointment of Ernst Von Freyburg as president of the Vatican Bank.

Responding to reporters' questions, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said: "My response regarding the article on Panorama on the alleged wiretapping is that we don't know anything about this matter and in any case, we have no worries about it."

Several European countries have expressed grave concerns after former NSA agent Edward Snowden revealed that US intelligence agencies had intercepted millions of phone calls, including those of several heads of state.

Sources:

Zenit

Religion News Service

The Telegraph

Image: Patheos

Magazine says US monitored Vatican phone calls

phone calls - CathNews New Zealand

Man hangs up twice on Pope, thought phone calls were pranks

Magazine says US monitored Vatican phone calls