Word: giani
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...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...
Maiolo timed her lunge better this time, and managed to grab Benedict's vestments even as she was being tackled by Giani, bringing the 82-year-old Pope down with them in a heap to the marble floor of St. Peter's Basilica during the opening procession of the evening mass. (Benedict had moved what was long the Midnight mass up to 10 p.m.). Caught in the scrum was Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, 87, of France, who broke his hip, and will require surgery. Commentators in Italy have been asking if there is a general security problem, with the Pope incident...