Published: 02 January, 2013, 00:31
A Swiss guard stands guards whille ecclesiasts pray during the celebration of Vespers on the feast of the Presentation of the Lord on January 2, 2012 at St Peter’s basilica at the Vatican.(AFP Photo / Vincenzo Pinto)
The Holy See is launching a swipe card system to get a better idea of what its employees are doing when they’re in the Vatican. But is it a measure to increase efficiency or a means to snoop on workers following the ‘Vatileaks’ scandal?
Microchips hidden in every card allow Vatican officials to track every person in their clerical and lay employment, this amounts to around 3,000 staff from the Apostolic Palace to the Secretariat of State.
Visitors are allowed in by invitation only and have to sign a register, but workers can be casually greeted by a nod of recognition from the guards in their colorful Renaissance uniforms. The system bears little resemblance to the up-to-date measures used in most governmental offices or private companies.
It also seems the Vatican has been quite lax about enforcing work hours, relying mainly on the staff’s sense of responsibility.
“When a journalist asked Pope John XXIII how many people work in the Vatican, he replied: ‘About half’,” writes Robert Mickens, a correspondent for The Tablet daily, who used to work at Vatican Radio.
“The Vatican has tried hard to check that people stick to their working hours for years,” Mickens said. “At Vatican Radio they introduced electronic badges years ago because people would go for their coffee break and return hours later. So I think that this is more of a case of the Vatican trying to check that its employees do their job than to prevent them from leaking information.”
Other reports suggest that the swipe card system has been mooted for years, but was only pushed through after the butler scandal.
Moreover, it is just one measure to beef up security in the Vatican City.
Pope Benedict XVI’s new butler is prohibited from carrying out any secretarial tasks, the Daily Telegraph reported. The new butler won’t even be sharing an office with the pope’s personal secretaries, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein and Monsignor Alfred Xuereb.
All this was never the case with former butler Paolo Gabriele, who was convicted of stealing the pontiff’s private documents and leaking them to Italian media sources. Gabriele was sentenced to 18 months in jail by a Vatican court, but was pardoned by the Pope this Christmas.
Another brick in the new security bastion is appointing anti-espionage expert Mitja Leskovar to oversee coded messages and photocopies, now anyone wishing to get a photocopy has to add their name and what they are copying, to a special register. The registers are then checked by Leskovar, who has been nicknamed ‘Monsignor 007′.
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HOLY COW IT’S THE “WIZARD OF OZ” IN OZONE LAND!! “I do believe in ghosts-I do believe in ghosts” or……whatever the evil-crazies believe in????????????
What struck me was the stunning lack of respect displayed by staff toward the church and institution – going out for coffee and coming back hours later? I am reminded of WWII anti fascist Gramsci’s prison letters on the subject of cultural “hegemony” & legitimacy as necessary means of capitalist control. And the Vatican is front and center a capitalist institution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Gramsci
We really are seeing the collapse of the Control System in real time when “news” in analyzed from a different perspective.
Well, Italians are known for their late afternoon siesta’s. Perhaps these people work late into the evenings?
Reblogged this on ΝΕΑ ΧΩΡΙΣ ΦΙΛΤΡΟ ΦΕΛΛΟΥ.
Holy crap Batman! Why don’t they use a chip on themselves instead of a swipe card? The number is 666 after all.. lol!
Oh to be a fly on the wall of that place. Then again, I’d probably blow a gasket if I did really know as much as a fly on the wall would know.
I’m with Wade on this one!
Also, maybe they are becoming uncomfortable, but looking at the Swiss Guard uniform is making me uncomfortable, lol. Oy. Craziness. The whole place is full of crazy!
I am with you on that Swiss outfit!! How can anyone take themselves seriously dressed like that? Unbelievably TACKY! lol
Just goes to show you they have something to hide. I would be the best thing that ever happened to the planet if the Vatican was disbanded and their wealth distributed to the poor.
1- They are like any other government and it’s employees—annual Peter’s Pence collections & more globally keeps ‘em fueled nicely–like our IRS does — and
2- “while ecclesiasts pray during the celebration of Vespers on the feast of the Presentation of the Lord” If you look at the pix for which this is a caption, it is amazing how these higher-up clergy look so darn bored…It’s supposed to be a celebration of the presentation of The Lord (is actually Circumcision but the Church Fathers were/are too prissy & after all isn’t that what Jews do??? LOL–& we know Jesus wasn’t one of those boys! SOOooooo screwed up–I opted out yrs. ago! Thank God & God thanks me! LOL