mr_wiggles
06-07-07, 12:16 PM
Like you wouldn't of thought about doing it.....
'Deranged' man lunges at pope
BY IAN FISHER, The New York Times
ROME - A man the Vatican described as "clearly deranged" sprang over a barricade Wednesday and landed a yard or so behind a waving Pope Benedict XVI as he rode in an uncovered popemobile through crowds at St. Peter's Square.
The 80-year-old pope did not seem to notice as his security guards quickly subdued the man, a 27-year-old German who appeared to hold briefly onto the rear of the white vehicle. The Rev. Federico Lombardi, the pope's spokesman, said the man, wearing shorts, sunglasses and a baseball cap, was not armed.
"He was clearly deranged but did not want to kill or harm the pope," Lombardi told reporters. "He only wanted to draw attention to himself."
The man, who was not identified, was questioned by Vatican police and taken to a psychiatric institution for evaluation, Lombardi said.
It was the first security incident involving Benedict, who was elected two years ago, and it happened in the same square where Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded in 1981 by a Turkish gunman, Mehmet Ali Agca.
Security for Benedict was tightened after a flood of death threats following a speech he gave in Germany last year that many Muslims said had insulted Islam.
Still,
the pope regularly makes a tour of St. Peter's Square in his car when he holds his weekly public audience outside. On trips outside the Vatican, he normally travels behind bulletproof glass.
On Wednesday the square held at least 30,000 people
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_6078662
http://www.randomchaos.com/images/scrapbook/pope.jpg
'Deranged' man lunges at pope
BY IAN FISHER, The New York Times
ROME - A man the Vatican described as "clearly deranged" sprang over a barricade Wednesday and landed a yard or so behind a waving Pope Benedict XVI as he rode in an uncovered popemobile through crowds at St. Peter's Square.
The 80-year-old pope did not seem to notice as his security guards quickly subdued the man, a 27-year-old German who appeared to hold briefly onto the rear of the white vehicle. The Rev. Federico Lombardi, the pope's spokesman, said the man, wearing shorts, sunglasses and a baseball cap, was not armed.
"He was clearly deranged but did not want to kill or harm the pope," Lombardi told reporters. "He only wanted to draw attention to himself."
The man, who was not identified, was questioned by Vatican police and taken to a psychiatric institution for evaluation, Lombardi said.
It was the first security incident involving Benedict, who was elected two years ago, and it happened in the same square where Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded in 1981 by a Turkish gunman, Mehmet Ali Agca.
Security for Benedict was tightened after a flood of death threats following a speech he gave in Germany last year that many Muslims said had insulted Islam.
Still,
the pope regularly makes a tour of St. Peter's Square in his car when he holds his weekly public audience outside. On trips outside the Vatican, he normally travels behind bulletproof glass.
On Wednesday the square held at least 30,000 people
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_6078662
http://www.randomchaos.com/images/scrapbook/pope.jpg