By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The head of Vatican security said Islamic State militants have threatened the Vatican, but there are no indications of any planned attack.

The Vatican gendarmes, Swiss Guards and the Italian state police that patrol the perimeter of Vatican City State are always on high alert, said Domenico Giani, the commander of the gendarme and the pope’s chief bodyguard.

“There are not only the threats of the Islamic State, but also the risk of action by individuals, which is more dangerous because it is unpredictable,” he said in an interview for the March edition of Polizia Moderna, the monthly magazine of the Italian state police.

For months, there have been rumors of threats against the Vatican or Pope Francis by the Islamic State militants who are attacking Christians, other religious minorities and Muslims they do not agree with in Syria and Iraq. Concern heightened in February when militants claiming to be allied with the Islamic State group murdered 21 Christians in Libya, which is less than 300 miles from the Italian mainland.

“The threat exists,” Giani said. “That is what has emerged in meetings with my Italian and foreign colleagues. But the existence of a threat is one thing and planning an attack is another. At this time, we have not been informed of any plans to attack the Vatican or the Holy Father.”

Giani, who worked in the Italian secret service before moving to the Vatican, said he is in frequent contact with Italian and other government intelligence services, including some from predominantly Muslim countries. “I can say that today the pontiff is seen and respected by Muslims as the most influential moral authority in the world – and that is on the part of both religious and civil leaders.”