More on the attack of a woman on Pope at midnight mass - watch video

Tuesday 30 December

A psychiatric patient intended to bite Pope Benedict in the neck during a foiled attack at the Midnight Mass at St Peter’s over Christmas.

Erwin Niederberger, the press officer for the Swiss Guards, told the Swiss online magazine20 Minuten that the hooded figure tackled to the ground by the Pope’s security people (see below) on Christmas eve was a mentally disturbed Italian woman. Neither Benedict XVI nor the rest of the congregation seemed fazed by the incident.

Fr Federico Lombardi, who heads the Vatican’s press office told the Associated Press on December 25 that he thought that the attacker wanted to greet the Pope.

“The woman wanted to bite the Pope in the neck,” said Niederberger.

According to Niederberger the woman is a Italian residing in Switzerland where she is in psychiatric care. The Swiss news agency claims that the woman was motivated by the reports in which the Pope’s Christmas message had been interpreted as a direct attack on homosexuals and transsexuals. She is now in police custody. It is unclear whether she will be returned to Switzerland.

Read more here and here.