Pope carries on after attack, but security 'under review'
Sunday December 27 2009
POPE Benedict XVI appeared in good shape yesterday as he addressed the faithful two days after a woman knocked him down at the start of Christmas Eve Mass.
He spoke about the plight of persecuted Christians around the world and did not mention the incident in his message to a crowd gathered in a rainy St Peter's Square.
On the day Christians commemorate St Stephen, the church's first martyr, the pope remembered those who "undergo trials and suffering because of their faith" and called for prayers for them.
The 82-year-old pontiff was processing through St Peter's Basilica on Thursday when a woman described by officials as mentally unstable jumped the barricades and pulled him to the ground as she was taken down by guards.
The Pope quickly got up and, though slightly rattled, continued with the Mass. The morning after he delivered his Christmas Day message.
While Benedict was unhurt in the tumble, a retired Vatican diplomat, French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, fell and fractured his hip.
The Vatican's spokesman, the Rev Federico Lombardi, said that the 87-year-old prelate would probably undergo surgery today.
"Visitors report that the cardinal is serene and in high spirits and that he offers his prayers for the pope and awaits with optimism the surgery," Fr Lombardi said in a statement yesterday.
The Vatican identified the woman involved in the incident as 25-year-old Susanna Maiolo, a Swiss-Italian with psychiatric problems.
She remains in a clinic for treatment and Fr Lombardi said she was still under Vatican jurisdiction.
The city-state's judiciary would decide in the coming days whether to take further steps against her based on the reports from Vatican police and doctors, he said.
The incident raised fresh questions about security for the pontiff, especially after officials said Ms Maiolo was the same person who had jumped the barriers at the 2008 Christmas Eve Mass in a failed bid to get to the Pope. She even wore the same red sweatshirt.
The Vatican said it would review security procedures, while warning there would always be risks since the Pope is regularly surrounded by tens of thousands of people for his weekly audiences, Masses and other events.
Virtually anyone can get into a papal Mass. Tickets are required but are easy to get if requested in advance.
Identification cards are not necessary to gain entrance, although visitors must pass through a metal detector.
Fr Lombardi said it was unrealistic to think the Vatican could ensure 100 per cent security for the Pope.
There have been other security breaches at the Vatican. In 2007, during an open-air audience in St Peter's Square, a mentally unstable German man jumped a barrier and grabbed the back of the Pope's car before being swarmed by security guards.
Then there was the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in 1981. John Paul suffered a severe abdominal wound as he rode in an open vehicle at the start of his weekly audience in the Vatican.
The Pope is protected by a combination of Swiss Guards and Vatican and Italian police.
When he moves around St Peter's Square during his weekly Wednesday audience, he does so in an uncovered white Jeep; when he travels overseas or outside the Vatican, he usually uses one with bulletproof glass.
- ARIEL DAVID in Rome
Sunday Independent
