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December 30 2009 to January 6 2010
Headlines
» Why SA priests are being murdered
» New SACBC vocations director in his vision
» Cardinal: Prayer prevents ‘spiritual illness’
» When to genuflect?
Where would Jesus stand?
The proposed law in Uganda that would mandate prison terms, or even the death penalty, for homosexuals should trouble all of Africa’s civil society, including the Catholic Church.
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Praying for Africa
“We meet together as an assembly and congregation so that, offering up prayer to God as with united force, we may wrestle with him in our supplications. This violence God delights in” (Tertullian Apol. 39).
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Vatican to decide fate of woman who knocked down pope
By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican will decide how to proceed with the young woman responsible for knocking down Pope Benedict XVI during Christmas Eve Mass only after it reviews medical and Vatican security reports, said Vatican spokesmen.
Critical to the prosecutor’s decision will be the doctors’ evaluation concerning the woman’s mental state and whether or not she was “of sound mind,” Father Ciro Benedettini, vice director of the Vatican press office, told Catholic News Service on December 28. The prosecutor will also take into consideration eyewitness accounts, he said.
Domenico Giani, the director of Vatican security services, walks beside the popemobile during a general audience with Pope Benedict XVI. Giani tackled the woman who attacked the pope during the entrance procession at Christmas Eve Mass. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
When the Vatican prosecutor has all the information, including a medical evaluation, he can recommend acquitting her of any crime, handing her over to Italian or Swiss authorities, or handing down a sentence, Father Benedettini said.
The prosecutor will send his recommendation to the Vatican tribunal, which will then make the final ruling, he said.
Susanna Maiolo, 25, jumped a security barrier at the start of the December 24 liturgy as Pope Benedict processed into St. Peter’s Basilica. As Vatican security guards tackled her to the ground, she was able to pull on the pope’s vestments, causing him to lose his balance and tumble to the marble floor.
The woman, who has Italian and Swiss citizenship, was taken away by papal guards. She was not armed but she showed signs of mental instability, according to a Vatican statement.
Immediately after the incident the pope was back on his feet and appeared unharmed. The Mass and other papal events took place as scheduled.
Maiolo was transferred on December 25 to a psychiatric hospital in Subiaco, about 45 miles outside of Rome, for what the Vatican called “mandatory clinical treatment.”
Maiolo “remains under compulsory clinical treatment and the case remains under the jurisdiction of the Vatican judiciary,” said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, in a written statement on December 26. Because the incident occurred on Vatican territory, it is up to the Vatican’s judicial system to determine whether or not to initiate legal proceedings. The Vatican can turn the case over to Italy for prosecution.
The Vatican statement said its prosecuting attorney “will have to take into consideration the reports from doctors and Vatican security personnel, and, in light of these, evaluate possible further steps to take.”
While the pope was unharmed by the attack, French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, 87, suffered a broken hip and spent Christmas in Rome’s Gemelli hospital. He underwent surgery and received a total hip replacement on December 27. The operation was successful and the cardinal’s condition was good, the Vatican said in a written statement later that day.
Vatican sources confirmed that Maiolo was the same person who attempted to rush the pope at midnight Mass in 2008, but had been tackled by guards before she could reach the pontiff.
When asked what kind of precautions the Vatican was going to take in order to prevent Maiolo from having an opportunity to repeat something similar at future papal events, Father Benedettini told CNS that for security reasons the Vatican would not reveal what strategies it intended to take.
Domenico Giani, director of Vatican security services, told the Italian daily Il Messaggero Dec. 27 that the number of people “that are stopped because they get too close to the Holy Father are many, even if we do not publicize it.” Giani was the guard that tackled Maiolo in 2008 and 2009.
Father Lombardi told reporters: “The pope cannot be shielded 100% unless a wall were created between the pope and the faithful, which is unthinkable.
“Security measures could be intensified, but this will be decided by the appropriate parties. However, it’s necessary to dispel the illusion that there is zero risk,” he said.
Because the pope wants to be close to the people, Vatican guards cannot always keep “similar episodes from happening” in the future, Father Lombardi added.
Pope Benedict’s Christmas 2009
By John Thavis
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Christmas with a call for unselfish charity and solidarity with the suffering, and underlined the message two days later by lunching with the poor at a Rome soup kitchen.
Year-end Round-up 2009
It was the year when three priests were murdered in South Africa and the country got a new president, while Pope Benedict visited the Holy Land, hosted the second Synod for Africa, closed the Year of St Paul and opened the Year for Priests, lifted the excommunication of four schismatic bishops and gave converting Anglicans a special dispensation. GÜNTHER SIMMERMACHER looks back at the year 2009.
Is Africa’s faith maturing?
By Evans Chama
Many African countries have celebrated a century or more of faith since the arrival of the first missionaries. That length of time cannot be divorced completely from a certain expectation of maturity. The growing number of Christians in general as well as the increase in the number African religious and priests are some of the positive signs.
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Blue-light convoys for all!
For the past decade or so, my new year resolution has been to curb my temper when I am being cut off by combi taxis and drivers in very expensive cars who labour under an evidently firm belief that ownership of the entire road system was part of the package when they bought their cars.
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When is a lie not a lie? Lessons in honesty
By Cian Molloy
When is a lie not a lie? In addition to exposing how child abuse was concealed and perpetuated in the Dublin archdiocese, a recent report raises questions about Catholic moral teaching on the Eighth Commandment and mental reservations.
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My two Christmas journeys
Ever noticed that travel is intimately tied to Christmas? Very many people in Nairobi and other Kenyan towns have now packed their bags and take off to Ocha — that is the new urban slang for rural home. They have gone to celebrate the birth of Jesus with their families and friends. Public transport operators are doing roaring business, sometimes doubling the fares.
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