Word: benedict
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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After the dramatic Christmas Eve mass knockdown of Pope Benedict XVI, authorities are reporting that the 25-year-old woman who jumped a St. Peter's Basilica security barrier meant the pontiff no harm. That Benedict was indeed unscathed, and delivered the traditional "Urbi et Orbi" message "to the city and the world" from the loggia overlooking Saint Peter's Square, was the good news for Christmas Day. But even if Susanna Maiolo, a Swiss-Italian national with a history of psychological problems, only wanted to share her holiday wishes with the Pope, tough questions remain for those responsible...
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said Benedict cannot carry out his mission if he is shielded from his faithful in a "zero risk" protection scheme. Still, even in praising the quick reaction of the pontiff's personal security detail, Lombardi told The Associated Press officials will nonetheless review the episode and "try to learn from experience...
...same Christmas Eve service in 2008, Maiolo made a similar dash toward Benedict, stopped short that time by Domenico Giani, who heads the Vatican gendarmes, a private police force responsible for protecting the Pope. Giani, who is always within arm's length of the Pope, also helped wrestle away a mentally disturbed German man in 2007 who'd jumped on the Pope's open jeep he uses to circle St. Peter's Square before and after his weekly Wednesday General Audience...
...White House briefing whether the First Family is still searching for a local church to join, press secretary Robert Gibbs responded: "The President has attended fairly regularly up at Camp David a church that he's comfortable in and has enjoyed attending." (See pictures of Obama meeting Pope Benedict...
There are still plans to open the relevant archives in 2014. But unless some shocking proof emerges that shows Pius didn't care about the Jews' fate, Benedict's declaring him venerable will stand as the Catholic Church's definitive absolution of historical guilt, of both Pius and the Church itself...