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The Jerusalem Post

Purification rite in St. Peter's after naked man desecrated pope's altar

 
 Pope Francis leads the Pentecost Mass at St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican May 28, 2023. (photo credit: Vatican Media/­Handout via REUTERS)
Pope Francis leads the Pentecost Mass at St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican May 28, 2023.
(photo credit: Vatican Media/­Handout via REUTERS)

Vatican guards handed him over to Italian police, who detained him and ordered him expelled from Italy.

A special purification rite was held at the main altar of St. Peter's Basilica on Saturday after it was desecrated by a man who stood on it naked to protest against the war in Ukraine.

The prayer service, known as a penitential rite and required by Canon law, was led by the basilica's archpriest, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti.

The Polish man stripped off his clothes and stood on the altar as the basilica was closing on Thursday. He had an inscription painted on his back reading: "Save children of Ukraine."

Vatican guards handed him over to Italian police, who detained him and ordered him expelled from Italy.

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At the service

At the prayer service, in which the altar used by Pope Francis was blessed with holy water, Gambetti said the man had committed a sinful and "inappropriate, truly regrettable gesture" to bring attention to the victims of war.

 A general view of St. Peter's Basilica on the day of the funeral of former Pope Benedict at the Vatican, January 5, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/GUGLIELMO MANGIAPANE)
A general view of St. Peter's Basilica on the day of the funeral of former Pope Benedict at the Vatican, January 5, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/GUGLIELMO MANGIAPANE)

A Vatican source said at the time of the incident that the man also had self-inflicted cuts on his body from his fingernails. He was not identified, but from pictures taken by tourists and posted on social media, he appeared to be in his late 20s or early 30s.

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