German Benedictine spied at Vatican, Stasi chief says

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 23, 1998

The head of the former East German intelligence agency said a German Benedictine spied for him inside the Vatican.

Markus Wolf, the ex-chief of the Stasi secret police, said the spy was named "Brammer" or "Brammert" and worked in a "scientific" office at the Vatican.

Wolf, who for years said he had a spy at the Vatican but couldn't recall his name, spoke Oct. 13 during an Italian television program marking the 20th anniversary of the election of Pope John Paul II.

German Catholics in Rome said it is widely accepted that Wolf was referring to Benedictine Fr. Eugen Brammertz, who worked with the German edition of the Vatican newspaper until his death in 1987 at the age of 71.

"I heard rumors that he was a Stasi informant, but I never checked into the story" because the information came out only after German unification and the priest had been dead for several years, said Benedictine Fr. Pius Englebert, procurator general of the Beuron Benedictine Congregation. Englebert, who has lived at the Benedictine headquarters in Rome since 1981, said Brammertz also lived there. Englebert said he did not know Brammertz well.

The Vatican had no comment on the allegation.

Wolf, interviewed live from Bead on the, television program, said the Benedictine did not have a high-level position in the Vatican but did report on the activities of Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, the former Vatican secretary of state who died in June.