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This man of Romanian origin who vandalised one of the greatest symbols of Catholicism on Friday, Feb. 7, in the morning. This is an episode of a person with serious mental disabilities, who was taken into custody by the Vatican Gendarmerie and handed over to the Italian authorities." This is what the director of the Vatican Press Office, Matteo Bruni, reports. The 40-year-old man was restrained by five members of the Vatican Gendarmerie dressed in black, who hid him from the view of those present - and from mobile phone cameras - before taking him to the police station. However, the officers' efforts did not prevent the video of what happened from going viral on social media. In the afternoon, after being identified, the man was charged with causing damage and later released, although the possibility of being banned from living in the municipality of Rome is not excluded . The alarm in the basilica, which is subject to strict security measures, which have been increased in recent weeks due to the Jubilee, was triggered when the man put his feet on the altar. The vandalised bronze candlesticks, one metre high, were recovered by those present and put back in their places after being checked. This is not the first time that the basilica has experienced such a situation. The basilica had a similar episode in 2019 : also under the canopy, a 50-year-old man was arrested after climbing onto the altar and throwing a candelabra to the ground.
Sources: https://www.abc.es/
www.ansa.it/sito/notizie/cronaca/2025/02/07/entra-a-san-pietro-e-danneggia-sei-candelabri-bloccato_681fec58-9d89-4d55-bb43-2aa0324e5da5.html
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