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ROME — The National Security Agency spied on the future Pope Francis before and during the Vatican conclave at which he was chosen to succeed Benedict XVI, an Italian news magazine reported Wednesday.

The U.S. spy agency monitored telephone calls made to and from the residence in Rome where the then-archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio stayed during the conclave, the secret election at which cardinals chose him as pontiff March 13.

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The claims were made by Panorama, which said the NSA eavesdropped on the calls of many bishops and cardinals at the Vatican in the lead-up to the conclave, held amid tight security in the Sistine Chapel.

The information gleaned was then reportedly divided into four categories — “leadership intentions,” “threats to financial system,” “foreign policy objectives” and “human rights.”

At the time, Benedict XVI was pope, suggesting the Vatican may also have been monitored during the last few weeks of his papacy.