Padre Pio rose to the altars 25 years ago, having been blessed in 1999 and declared a saint in 2002. However, there are shelves of books where his image alternates with the accusations that have followed him throughout his life, particularly inside the Church. According to Gian Guido Vecchi of Corriere della Sera, Padre Pio was investigated five times by the Holy Office. He was searched, interrogated, wiretapped, and prohibited from celebrating Mass in public. Pius XI and John XXIII treated him with distrust, so to speak. In 1961, when Pope Roncalli dispatched the French Dominican Paul-Pierre Philippe, later a cardinal and bishop, to interrogate the seventy-four-year-old friar, he proclaimed, "A false mystic, a colossal fraud." He described the friar as "a wretched priest who exploits his saintly reputation to deceive his victims" and went so far as to write in his report to the Holy Office that it constituted the "most colossal fraud in the history of the Church." In an effort to record "the sound of kisses" and place microphones in the rooms where Padre Pio received visitors, the Vatican breached the walls and pierced the walls, accusing the old friar of "carnal acts" with the faithful. In defense of himself, the friar stated, "I have never in my life kissed a woman; in fact, I confess before the Lord that I never even kissed my mother".