American embassy officials in 2008 asked the US State Department to consider helping the Vatican deal with terrorist threats, considering "the known al-Qaeda antipathy to the Pope," the Catholic News Agency reports from a cable published on Wikileaks.
The December 19, 2008 cable, reportedly from the US Embassy in Rome, documented a request from the US Vatican Embassy to plan and fund a "crisis management tabletop exercise" with Vatican security services.
The stated purpose of this effort was to enhance the Vatican's crisis response abilities and to "foster a dialogue with the Vatican on counter-terrorism."
"Al-Qaeda has publicly identified the Pope and the Catholic Church as an enemy ('Crusaders'), and Vatican City attracts hundreds of thousands of American citizen visitors each year, both tourists and pilgrims," the cable continued.
According to the cable, the head of the Vatican Gendarme Corps Domenico Giani had sought specific security training from the FBI, including explosives ordinance training for Vatican Gendarmerie members at the Quantico Marine Corps base in Virginia. However, the cable reported, Giani has been "reluctant to engage in a comprehensive dialogue with the United States about Vatican capabilities and preparedness to respond to a terrorist attack."
During a November 2008 conversation about al-Qaida's threat to the Vatican, US Vatican Embassy official Julieta Valls Noyes proposed to Giani a joint tabletop exercise on crisis management, to which he reportedly responded "positively."
The Rome Embassy cable noted the Holy See's sensitivity about appearing to be too close to any one state, which the embassy described as a challenge to fostering dialogue about security. Another challenge was "the Vatican's conviction that its facilities must be easily accessible to all Catholics."
FULL STORY
Al-Qaida hatred for Pope caused US worries about Vatican security (Catholic News Agency)
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