Last Sunday, Pope Francis calmly reminded the
world that he would soon be in Brazil for the World Youth Day. Hundreds of thousands of the 2 million young people expected in Rio are already there waiting for him.
Any security measures taken to ensure the Pope’s safety among the masses will probably be useless.
Today more than ever, security is a big, unresolved problem, particularly given the choices made by the new Pope.
History testifies to the fact that for two long centuries, the only security Peter’s Successors have enjoyed was martyrdom, followed by centuries and centuries of dramatic and sometimes dreadful incidents.
There are cases of Popes being put in prison, exiled, poisoned and overthrown by force. In the 5th century for example, Pope Vigilius was notoriously imprisoned in Rome, taken to Civitavecchia by force and then put on a ship to Constantinople, where he remained behind bars for almost 15 years.
He died on the return trip, after the death of Theodora, the Empress who had wanted to keep him as far as possible, to defend the independence – doctrinal as well – of Constantinople’s archbishop.
Going back 1400 years, we have the cases of Popes Pius VI and Pius VII who were imprisoned by Napoleon and deported to France. Others were killed and their bodies tossed from the top of Castel S. Angelo. This is what happened to John VIII, the first Pope to die a violent death and not a martyr, in 882.
In terms security, the case of Pius IX comes to mind. He presided the Breach of Porta Pia and died in 1878. When his body was taken to St. Lawrence Outside the Walls for burial, there some staunch anti-papists attempted to throw his coffin over Sant’Angelo Bridge, into the Tiber.
But the problem of security has become even more serious in recent years. Threats have been made in the form of full on attacks and the number of these cases is on the rise.
They do not have to be on the scale of the September 11 attacks to count as terrorist attacks.
On an apostolic visit to the Philippines n November 1970, Paul VI suffered a light wound to the hand, after a deranged Colombian man tried to throw a dagger at him. He was saved thanks to the speedy intervention of his personal secretary Mgr. Pasquale Macchi and Mgr. Paul Marcinkus who had been appointed as the new president of the Vatican bank and was therefore involved in the events going on at the time.
Then came the most notorious and dramatic attempt on a Pope’s life ever: Turkish professional killer Ali Agca’s attempt to shoot John Paul II on 13 May 1981. At the time, Agca was a member of the Turkish terrorist organisation “Grey Wolves”.
Wojtyla’s life was spared tank to a nun who got hold of the assassin’s hand and – according to John Paul II himself – Our Lady of Fatima, whose feast day was celebrated on that very day.
John Paul II survived after a very risky five hour operation and eventually recovered. He continued his travels despite the risk.
A year later, in 1982 Spanish “priest” Juan Maria Fernandez y Kron approached the Pope and threatened him with a bayonet: the priest, who called himself a supporter of the violent, traditionalist, pro-Nazi Lefebvrian circles, saw Karol Wojtyla as a Moscow agent who was ruining the Church by moving it further and further away from Catholic doctrine.
The Italian Parliament addressed the issue of papal security abroad in 1992 but failed to find any concrete solutions.
On John Paul II’s trip to Sarajevo in April 1997, 24 anti-tank bombs were discovered underground at the last minute.
They could all be activated from a distance and set off via an electronic signal.
The September 11 attacks undoubtedly had an enormous effect on security measures worldwide, including papal security.