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Man attacks high altar of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican
Catholic News Agency ^ | 7th February 2025 | https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/262109/man-attacks-high-altar-of-st-peters-basilica-at-the-v

Posted on 02/10/2025 12:22:07 AM PST by Cronos

A man desecrated the main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican by climbing on top of it and throwing six candelabras that were on the altar to the ground, according to the Italian news agency ANSA.

He’s seen pulling off the altar cloth before being stopped by security in front of stunned tourists.

The altar is located just under the basilica’s famous stone canopy, designed by Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini, which was recently restored.

After throwing the candelabras, the man began to remove the altar cloth, as can be seen in a video posted on social media. The subject was then quickly detained by security agents.

According to ANSA, the suspect, of Romanian origin, was detained by the Vatican Police, after which he was identified and charged by agents of the Vatican Inspectorate.

“This is an episode of a person with a serious mental disability, who has been detained by the Vatican Police and then placed at the disposal of the Italian authorities,” the director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, told ANSA.

According to the Spanish newspaper ABC, the man was arrested because the basilica’s alarm was activated when he stood on the altar.

In 2023 a similar incident was recorded when a man climbed the high altar and undressed, after which he was also arrested.

The Code of Canon Law, the law that regulates the Catholic Church, establishes in canon 1210 that “in a sacred place” such as St. Peter’s Basilica, “only those things which serve the exercise or promotion of worship, piety, or religion are permitted in a sacred place; anything not consonant with the holiness of the place is forbidden.”


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; General Discusssion
KEYWORDS:
This is why we can't have nice things to see -- I remember they closed off stonehenge as people were doing daft things.

And now with all the "stop oil" protesters attacking works of art, those are going to be kept behind glass, ruining the experience for the rest of us

1 posted on 02/10/2025 12:22:07 AM PST by Cronos
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To: Cronos

Bring back locked residential mental facilities to forever hold the insane loons.


2 posted on 02/10/2025 12:27:07 AM PST by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
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To: Cronos

Well, we haven’t had a good burning at the stake in quite a while.


3 posted on 02/10/2025 12:31:01 AM PST by ALPAPilot
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To: Cronos

Did all of the sacred things push this man’s demons to act?

CC


4 posted on 02/10/2025 12:31:09 AM PST by Celtic Conservative (My cats are more amusing than 200 channels worth of TV.)
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To: Cronos

The joke that’s going around is “Hey, leave wrecking of the altars to the experts...” i.e., the “Spirit of Vatican 2” bishops


5 posted on 02/10/2025 12:31:39 AM PST by irishjuggler
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To: Cronos

Is the perpetrator a Moslem, or a liberal?


6 posted on 02/10/2025 12:42:22 AM PST by Berosus (I wish I had as much faith in God as liberals have in government.)
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To: Berosus

Seems like neither


7 posted on 02/10/2025 12:45:30 AM PST by Cronos
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To: Berosus

Seems like neither


8 posted on 02/10/2025 12:45:30 AM PST by Cronos
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To: Cronos

Is “Allahu Akhbar!” A mental disability?


9 posted on 02/10/2025 2:51:28 AM PST by Uncle Miltie (Nitzy: New and Improved! Now with only 66% anti-semitic posts!)
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To: Cronos

He’s a bit late on desecrating the altar. Francis did that when he worshipped an Amazon idol called pachamama on that same high altar. And can we call the canceling of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the fake COVID debacle the abomination of desolation? Arise o Lord and let thy enemies be scattered and let them that hate Thee flee before Thy Holy Face. Amen.


10 posted on 02/10/2025 4:34:10 AM PST by KierkegaardMAN (I never engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed man.)
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To: Cronos

He’s a bit late on desecrating the altar. Francis did that when he worshipped an Amazon idol called pachamama on that same high altar. And can we call the canceling of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the fake COVID debacle the abomination of desolation? Arise o Lord and let thy enemies be scattered and let them that hate Thee flee before Thy Holy Face. Amen.


11 posted on 02/10/2025 4:34:10 AM PST by KierkegaardMAN (I never engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed man.)
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To: KierkegaardMAN

Hope he got it out of his system. Jesus suffered for that.


12 posted on 02/10/2025 4:39:46 AM PST by If You Want It Fixed - Fix It
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To: If You Want It Fixed - Fix It

His persecution of the usus antiquor and the traditional Catholics that attend is diabolical.


13 posted on 02/10/2025 5:15:22 AM PST by KierkegaardMAN (I never engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed man.)
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To: Cronos

I still remember the nut who attacked Michelangelo’s Pieta with a hammer and another who threw a bottle of India Ink at the Mona Lisa. He missed. Again proof we need to reopen the mental hospitals.


14 posted on 02/10/2025 6:41:52 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

I recall the Pieta being attacked by a man wielding a hammer. I wonder who he was and where he is today.


15 posted on 02/10/2025 6:55:28 AM PST by healy61
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To: hal ogen
Bring back locked residential mental facilities to forever hold the insane loons.

Ditto that.

16 posted on 02/10/2025 7:19:35 AM PST by Ditto
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