Pope Benedict XVI has become the first Pope to be recorded during a corruption investigation by Italian police, it emerged yesterday.
The leader of the world's two billion Roman Catholics was unwittingly recorded by officers who were listening in on a suspect's mobile phone conversations.
The Pontiff made four telephone calls to Italy's civil protection chief Guido Bertolaso following last year's devastating earthquake in the centre of the country which left 300 people dead.
Bertolaso is at the centre of a corruption probe involving sexual favours and back handers for reconstruction projects in the L'Aquila region which was hit by the earthquake 14 months ago.
Pope Benedict is not suspected of any wrong doing - although Vatican officials are said to be furious that he was secretly taped - while it has also emerged that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was also recorded speaking to Bertolaso.
Both had called Bertolaso to offer support and thanks for the efforts of his civil protection team who were providing rapid reaction relief in the devastated area.
Officers monitoring Bertolaso's mobile telephone were stunned when they heard the Pope's private secretary Georg Ganswein call and say: 'Hello. I have His Holiness the Pope on the line for you.'
The details of Pope Benedict's intercepted calls emerged in several Italian newspapers today/yesterday but the content was not reported although it is believed to have been fairly mundane and complimentary.
Italians have got use to reading wiretaps during police investigations and they have caught out several big names including controversial Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
It is estimated that during the last ten years 30 million telephone calls have been secretly recorded by police and intelligence agencies across the country as part of various investigations.
Three years ago Berlusconi was famously recorded calling a TV chief and asking him to give parts to his favourite actresses who he described as 'my little butterflies'.
Yesterday the Italian Senate (Upper House) passed a confidence vote on the telephone interception bill by 164 to 25 and it will now go to the Lower House for final approval.
Berlusconi's centre right majority won handsomely after the centre left opposition walked out in protest as they were called to vote describing the the bill as a 'gagging law'.
The bill which would drastically reduce the justification for wire taps and also make publishing their contents in newspapers a crime.
Opposition MPs and newspapers have criticised the bill which they say is merely an attempt by Berlusconi to protect himself from future investigations - he is currently facing two corruption probes.
If passed the law will mean that special permission is needed to tap a member of the clergy or MP.
Today/yesterday no-on from the American Embassy in Rome was immediately available to comment on Mrs Clinton's intercepted telephone call while a Vatican spokesman declined to comment officially.
However a Vatican insider said: 'To think that someone recorded Pope Benedict without him knowing is outrageous even if it is part of a police investigation.'
A police source said: 'The tapes containing the recordings of Pope Benedict and Mrs Clinton have been destroyed as they had no significance in the investigation of Bertolaso.'
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