Home Page

Cool under pressure: Papal guards handle many pilgrims discreetly

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI’s security guards are known for composure under pressure, and they showed it when a deranged German tried to jump onto the pope’s jeep at a general audience. Within seconds, 11 Vatican plainclothes agents – Swiss Guards and policemen – subdued the 27-year-old man and pinned him to the ground. He was unarmed, and the pope was unharmed in the June 6 incident. The whole thing happened so quickly and quietly that it went unnoticed by most people in the square, including the pope. No guns were drawn and no alarms were sounded. The pope’s jeep never sped up, and most of the faithful, even those right in front of the scene, just kept snapping pictures of the pontiff.

U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services has new headquarters

WASHINGTON – When Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien approved plans in 2005 to move the military archdiocese’s headquarters from its location at The Catholic University of America’s Theological College, he and his staff hoped a new building would raise the profile of an archdiocese that serves one of the Catholic Church’s largest populations. The end result was moving in March to a renovated 30,000-square-foot building just blocks away from the Catholic University campus in Washington.

German man sent for treatment after jumping toward papal jeep

VATICAN CITY – A 27-year-old German man was forced to undergo immediate psychiatric treatment June 6 after he jumped over a barrier in St. Peter’s Square and reached the back of the open jeep in which Pope Benedict XVI was riding. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, refused to release the man’s name but said he was in a Rome psychiatric facility by 2:30 p.m., about four hours after being tackled to the ground by Vatican police. The man was first taken to the Vatican police station and questioned by Gianluigi Marrone, a Vatican judge, Father Lombardi said.

Parishioners serve “last supper” at old Our Daily Bread building

Immaculate Conception, Towson, parishioners have been serving the poor and homeless at Our Daily Bread on the first Sunday of each month since Baltimore’s largest soup kitchen opened more than a quarter century ago. Fittingly, church volunteers were also present June 3 as they served 678 meatloaf dinners during the last supper at the Cathedral Street facility. The parish has served Our Daily Bread longer than any other group in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and Catholic Charities officials were thrilled when the final day at the former location occurred on Immaculate Conception’s Sunday.

Top Vatican official: Documents show Pius XII worked to help Jews

ROME – Thousands of Vatican documents demonstrate that Pope Pius XII worked quietly but effectively to help Jews and others during World War II, a top Vatican official said. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, said June 5 that the documentation of papal charity is the most convincing response to the “black legend” that has depicted the late pope as indifferent toward the victims of Nazism.

Pope to proclaim year dedicated to St. Paul

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI plans to proclaim a year dedicated to St. Paul, in preparation for the 2,000th anniversary of the apostle’s birth, the Vatican said. The pope was scheduled to announce the commemorative year at a vespers service June 28 in the Basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls in Rome, on the eve of the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.

En español »