(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 06.01.2023).- Exactly two weeks after a man forced his way in a car into Vatican City, on the afternoon of June 1, shortly before Saint Peter’s Basilica was to be closed, a naked man went up to the main altar of the most famous Catholic church in the world.
Before the astonished look of hundreds of pilgrims and tourists, the Guards intervened when dozens of people had already taken photos of the incident.
The man, who presumably suffers from depression, said he did what he did to protest against the war in Ukraine, especially the suffering of Ukrainian children. The Police detained the delinquent and, as of now, there is no public report on the vandal’s legal future.
This second incident poses questions about Vatican City’s levels of security. That an individual had the time to take off his clothes, go up the steps of the main altar and then climb onto the altar, where the Holy Father celebrated Mass four days ago, makes it reasonable and legitimate to doubt the capacity to react to such an event, given the large number of security guards inside Saint Peter’s Basilica.
