Man burns Bible to disrupt mass [View All]

[rug]

2011-10-23 17:17

Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI named three new saints for the Catholic Church during a mass on Sunday in St Peter's Square that was disrupted by a man who climbed out onto the upper colonnade of the square and burned a bible.

Vatican gendarmes, a bishop and the pope's own bodyguard talked the man back from the edge of the colonnade after he shouted, "Pope, where is Christ?" in English and threw the burned bible to the crowd below.

Benedict and the thousands in the square appeared unfazed by the incident and carried on with the mass.

The disruption came toward the end of the two-hour service on Sunday to canonise three 19th-century founders of religious orders: Italian bishop and missionary Monsignor Guido Maria Conforti, Spanish nun Sister Bonifacia Rodriguez de Castro and an Italian priest who worked with the poor, the Reverend Luigi Guanella.

http://www.news24.com/World/News/Pope-names-3-saints-man-disrupts-Mass-20111023