Report Of Plot To Kill Pope Benedict XVI Is Untrue, Vatican Says

Media accounts that Pope Benedict the XVI would be assassinated within the next 12 months are unfounded, the Vatican says.

Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano ran a report Friday, Feb. 10, containing excerpts from a confidential document outlining comments made by Cardinal Paolo Romeo, the archbishop of Palermo in Sicily, that the Pope would die within the next year, the Telegraph reports.

The comments were spoken during the Pope's visit to China in November, and officials allegedly thought Romeo was talking about a plot to kill the Pope.

The report also stated Romero indicated Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan, would become the next Pope, the Guardian reports.

The document, dated Dec. 30, 2011, was allegedly delivered to the Vatican in January to warn the Pope about what had been overheard.

The report appeared on the front page of the Italian newspaper with the headline "Plot against the Pope -- he will die within 12 months," and the story was subsequently picked up by other media outlets.

But Vatican spokesperson Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi stated the report was untrue.

"It is so beyond reality that it shouldn't be given any consideration," Lombardi told the ANSA news agency.

But the newspaper maintains the letter is authentic, according to the National Catholic Reporter. Archbishop Scola's office declined to comment on the report.

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Comments

[KenInd]

07:18 AM on 02/17/2012

Tempus fugit........

[sobaytransplant]

04:45 AM on 02/14/2012

I wish the pope all safety and health. I disagree with the man, the church and everything it teaches... however, many people draw comfort from their faith and therefore, I wish them all well.

As an American however, I INSIST the church keep their Bishops and Catholicism out of my government and respect the separation of church and state in this country that prevents any law from being dictated by religion.

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

06:37 AM on 02/13/2012

Interesting if true. Of course it hardly seems unlikely that someone who is 84 years old might pass at any time. He's not in that great a shape.

[Maria Rosal]

08:16 PM on 02/12/2012

Please pray with me...."St. Michael the Archangel defend us (him) in battle...be our (his) protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; May GOD rebuke him, we humbly pray; And do you, O Prince of the heavenly host, By the power of God , thrust into hell Satan and ALL evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruins of souls. Amen.

After you pray it please click "LIKE" and pass it along to your friends. As Jesus institute it when he said "YOU ARE PETER ..which means rock and over this rock I will built MY CHURCH." Pope is the PRESIDENT- Highest Attorney of the Church and DEFENDER of our faith.

[Joel Mendez]

09:50 PM on 02/12/2012

he should give up the pope-mobile and entrust to god. since you're praying and all.

[unamia]

01:26 AM on 02/13/2012

BRAVO!!!! JOEL...GOOD POINT !!

[DeuxExMachina]

07:42 PM on 02/12/2012

There is several things wrong with this HuffPo article and it may be owing to mistranslation from the Italian. First of all Pope Benedict did not visit China in Nov 2011, he visited Benin. If anyone knew anything about Sino-Vatican relations a visit to China would have to discussed in detail and planned accordingly. China has set up the officially Chinese Catholic Church while the Vatican does not recognize it as it does not get to appoint those archbishops and bishops and it considers Chinese appointments as political interference in the workings of the Catholic Church.
Secondly, from the article:
"The report also stated Romero indicated Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan, would become the next Pope, the Guardian reports. "

There is no guarantee of that as it is the College of Cardinals who will vote in the new Pope on the death of Pope Benedict XVI. Changes that Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II have made to the College of Cardinals and the voting system have made it more difficult for a clique or outside forces to get their candidate selected.

[iLdoRight]

05:54 PM on 02/12/2012

Don't look at me ! I don't even think he is a "Pope", though I know many do and I think he is already "spiritually not very alive" and "near a natural death" and I want him to live long enough to know just how wrong he is.

[unamia]

03:33 PM on 02/12/2012

we watch beautiful children suffer and die everyday in Cancer Wards..losing this hypocrite parasite..will not be anything to cry about..unless you truly believe this idiot is a saint.

[JJ Bustamante]

10:47 AM on 02/11/2012

Huffington Post, sloppy reporting. The Pope never visited China where Catholicism isn't even legal.

[DeuxExMachina]

07:30 PM on 02/12/2012

Agreed. He was in Benin and NOT Beijing

[Christian2012]

08:22 AM on 02/11/2012

As the comments show, protestants can be such total fools when it comes to Christ's Church(e.g., "kill the position of pope"). The Bible , which they claim to follow, shows that Jesus founded His Church in the First Century AD. Yet, they belong to churches that were NOT founded until the 16th to 21st Centuries. DUH, they clearly can't even read the clear teaching of the Bible on which church is Christ's Church.

[zappbrannigan420]

02:56 PM on 02/11/2012

You do know the catholic church wasn't started into the fourth century, when the bishop of Rome declared himself pope. Lrn2history

[Christian2012]

09:45 PM on 02/11/2012

WRONG. You actually need to learn some real history. Read Eusebius's History of the Church which gives the list of popes from the First Century to the Fourth. Read Irenaeus's Adversus Haereses 3:3:2 (written @180 AD), which notes that the way to know what the Catholic Church teaches is to follow what he bishop of Rome teaches. Read Ignatius of Antioch's epistles (written @110 AD) which refers to the Church as the Catholic Church 200 years before you claim it was founded.

[unamia]

03:35 PM on 02/12/2012

ZAPP>>>BRAVO!!!....you know your history well...there are so few of your kind..that is why we are in such a horrible mess ...Thank you!

[KenInd]

07:23 AM on 02/17/2012

You leave out the two Orthodox Churches - Greek and Eastern -- as significant splits as Protestantism. Do some homework.

[Christian2012]

08:19 AM on 02/17/2012

I am very well aware of the history of the Orthodox churches (although your dichotomy "Greek and Eastern" hardly captures that history). How is the existence of the Eastern Orthodox Churches relevant to the fact that protestants belong to churches that cannot be Christ's church? It isn't, of course.

Now, there is unquestionably an issue of the destruction of Christian unity caused by the Eastern Orthodox Church, which broke off from Catholicism a few times but came back until some time after 1453 when the Turkish Sultan captured Constantinople and broke up that last Reunion which had beeen achieved at the Council of Florence-Ferrara in 1439. [Now, I believe what really happened was that once the Orthodox came under the control of the Muslim Sultan he wanted at all cost to break up Christian Unity, but some exploration of that would be useful].

[abeyasha]

07:17 AM on 02/11/2012

Another "Leaven" of the media in its "Sorcery".

[AnotherTexan]

07:10 AM on 02/11/2012

We need to kill the worthless position, not the man that presently holds it.

[f4180]

08:30 AM on 02/11/2012

you mean vice president right ?

[Joel Mendez]

09:55 PM on 02/12/2012

at the very least, the VP is good comedy relief.

[irish8663]

05:50 AM on 02/11/2012

Nobody lives forever , Not Me.. Not you.. Not the Pope...

[telvis55]

07:31 AM on 02/11/2012

John 3:16 now you can.

[KenInd]

07:23 AM on 02/17/2012

So.....Elvis IS alive???

[virpilosus]

05:07 AM on 02/11/2012

Aside from any other really significant issues relative to the Pope, in the foto with this article, the sheer amount of bejeweled ornamentation of the Pope's miter and stole alone lessen his credibility as a voice for the poor and oppressed...jeez, get a clue Benedict, and try some moderation in your personal style. Just put all that finery in a cool museum, and return to the style of "the Fisherman."

[Admiral Farragut]

07:16 AM on 02/11/2012

Are you a cradle Catholic or a convert?

[virpilosus]

01:52 PM on 02/11/2012

Both...

[Joel Mendez]

09:58 PM on 02/12/2012

both as an atheist and as a fmr. catholic, my greatest problem with the church is that. imagine the children that could eat, were they to auction off the cheapest pieces of artwork that they own. if they did that, and reform their procedures for reporting child abuse, i could forgive them everything else. i still wouldn't return to the church, but you can't have everything.

[eyeforeye42]

04:18 AM on 02/11/2012

I wouldn't be surprised if there were a plot to kill all non believers.

[Admiral Farragut]

07:19 AM on 02/11/2012

There is. It's the recent contraception/abortion/RU 486 mandates by Obama. He didn't stop with non-believers though.

[Grada3784]

11:17 AM on 02/11/2012

I haven't heard of anyone getting the pills forced down their throats lately. Nor any plans to do so. Or are you just bearing false witness against your neighbor?

[Joel Mendez]

09:59 PM on 02/12/2012

seriously? really? what a joke. wait. you're not joking, are you? sigh...then how pathetic.

[qsfoxx]

07:36 AM on 02/11/2012

Actually, there was. During the 1600's the Catholic French monarchy persecuted the Protestant French Hugonauts - killing many of them with the tacit approval of the Vatican. Had my ancestors not escaped to England I would not be here.

[zappbrannigan420]

02:58 PM on 02/11/2012

Except being prostestant they weren't "non-believers" - they were protestant.

[tkernhickory]

02:33 AM on 02/11/2012

I am not Catholic but Obama has done all the damage this week beat him up and give the church a break.........

[Joel Mendez]

10:01 PM on 02/12/2012

yes. the world must take its collective boot off the neck of the most numerous gang of thugs in the world.