Source: CatholicIreland.net
January 9th, 2010
Following the security lapse in which a woman knocked over the Pope at Christmas Eve mass, changes have been made at St. Peter's Basilica.
While it was stated that the Pope would continue as usual to be among his flock there were discussions between security and the Pope’s staff and one of the changes is that the aisles at St Peter’s are to be made wider.
Previously the barriers separated Pope Benedict from the congregation by only a few steps, but they are now to be widened by a metre or two on either side, giving guards extra room to manoeuvre. At the Midnight Mass, when the mentally unstable woman dashed towards the Pope, security staff moved to protect him and in the rush, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray was bumped to the ground and suffered a broken femur.
The new arrangement is intended to prevent such problems again. The Pope will still be free to approach those in the basilica celebrations for blessings and greetings, and the number of guards will remain the same.
Over the Christmas holidays, Benedict XVI sent his personal secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, to the woman who attacked him. Holy See Press Office Director Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J. stated, “Msgr. Georg Gaenswein, personal secretary of the Pope, made a private visit to Susanna Maiolo. As for the investigations launched by the magistrates of Vatican City State, they will follow their course to their conclusion.”
Italian newspapers have reported that Mgr Gaenswein offered Maiolo a rosary beads and that Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, the elderly French cardinal who sustained a broken femur in the incident, had forgiven Maiolo.
The Prefecture of the Pontifical House has just released statistics that show two and a quarter million people attended public events at Pope Benedict XVI's living quarters at the Vatican and Castel Gandolfo in 2009.
Almost half of that total was at the Sunday Angelus a weekly event in which the Pope appears in the window of the Vatican Palace to recite the Angelus and greet the crowds that gather in St. Peter's Square. The busiest months for the Pope were January and December.
by Ann Marie Foley
