Vatican spy story takes center stage as fraud trial resumes

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican’s big fraud and extortion trial is exposing some unseemly realities of how the Holy See operates. A new spy story is taking center stage that is more befitting of a 007 thriller than the inner workings of a papacy. According to testimony obtained Thursday, one of Pope Francis’ top advisers brought in members of the Italian secret service to sweep his office for bugs and commissioned intelligence reports from them. The work completely bypassed the Vatican’s own police force in the process. The reported actions of Archbishop Edgar Pena Para, the No. 2 in the Vatican secretariat of state, raise some fundamental questions about the security and sovereignty of the Vatican City State. The trial resumes Friday.