VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church has relied on the walls of the Sistine Chapel to continue to elect a new secret pope. But the Vatican must now turn to an electronic arsenal against the tweeting cardinals and a year of overwhelming leaks.
Security comes first when the red-hated princes meet in Rome to elect Pope Benedict’s successor, the first pontiff in centuries to resign after a reign marked by the Vatileaks scandal, when his butler photocopied and released documents secrets. corruption in the Holy See.
The word “conclave” means “with key” in Italian, and comes from a Latin term referring to a room that can be locked. But closed doors are no longer enough in the 21st century.
Workers prepare the Sistine Chapel, where the secret ballot is expected to take place next week, by laying a false floor on its ornate tiles and installing signal jammer to block all signals that escape from the 15th-century chapel, site by Michelangelo. fresco “The last judgment”.
Before the vote, Vatican officials will scan the chapel and the guest house that houses the cardinals with anti-bugging scanners to detect hidden microphones.
Vatican police used several phones in the city last year to investigate whether the initiates had helped butler Paolo Gabriele divulge documents to an Italian journalist in early 2012.