The CIA is represented in the U.S. Embassy to the Vatican and the Agency has been penetrating (or attempting to penetrate) the Vatican government and diplomatic corps for years. The NSA intercepts Vatican communications, working independently and through a joint NSA/CIA “Special Collection Service.”

The State Department, meanwhile, maintains a daily Vatican-centric news digest circulated to diplomats worldwide, according to another document I reviewed. The department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research has analysts dedicated to producing classified assessments on Vatican affairs — a function that, given the current climate, is unlikely to be winding down.

Even the U.S. military has a Vatican-specific language code on its books as a distinct linguistic capability. “QLE” designates Ecclesiastical Latin — the Vatican’s preferred liturgical register — as distinct from classical Latin (”LAT”), which is used primarily for historical and legal documents. It’s a small detail, but an illustrative one: the national security state is thorough, and it has been thorough about the Vatican for a long time.

Trump’s broadside against Pope Leo didn’t create this machinery for spying on the Vatican — it just pointed it in a new direction by labeling Pope Leo himself (a U.S. citizen, by the way) as a threat to America.