German newspaper says Pope Benedict was spied on when he was cardinal

Published: 2005-10-07

OXFORD, England (CNS) -- A German newspaper has published details of how East Germany's communist secret police, or Stasi, spied on Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger three decades before he became Pope Benedict XVI. "Long before his nomination as prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, state security ministry agents kept watch on him," the Bild am Sonntag weekly reported Oct. 2. The newspaper also noted that one agent "wrote with concern that, as congregation prefect, he would have an influence on the growth of anti-communist attitudes in the Catholic Church, especially in Latin America." The tabloid, which was given exclusive access to archives covering two decades, said a Stasi agent codenamed "Birke" (Birch) had begun regular surveillance of the future pontiff when, as a priest and professor at the University of Regensburg, he visited East Germany in April 1974 to lecture on "problems of modern theology" at the University of Erfurt.

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