Pope Meets, Forgives, Christmas Eve Attacker

As a lapsed Catholic, I certainly have my issues with the church. However, I gotta give credit where credit is due, so hats (mitres?) off to Pope Benedict XVI for truly demonstrating a longstanding Christian virtue this week: forgiveness.

On Wednesday, the Vatican's head honcho met with the young woman who purposefully knocked him down at the beginning of Christmas Eve Mass at St. Peter's Basilica, inquiring about her well-being and basically telling her 'no hard feelings.'

"(He) wanted to demonstrate his forgiveness," Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi told The Associated Press.

The perp played nice as well, as the AP says Susanna Maiolo, a 25-year-old Swiss-Italian national with a history of psychiatric problems, issued her own meal culpa to the pope as her family stood by her.

The face-to-face-meeting came less that three weeks after Maiolo briefly shocked the world when she jumped a security barricade and tackled the pope as he was processing in for Mass. Although the pope was unhurt, and she was pulled off immediately as a security guard wrestled her to the ground, a retired Vatican diplomat, French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, broke his hip in the fracas and had to undergo surgery. Despite the meeting, an investigation into the incident continues.

The AP reports that the Christmas Eve drama wasn't the first time Maiolo targeted the pontiff. She tried to pull a similar stunt during the 2008 Midnight Mass at the Vatican, but didn't manage to get to the pontiff. However, the incident prompted her to receive treatment at a clinic outside Rome, and even then the Vatican reached out to the troubled young woman. While there, she received a visit from Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, Benedict's personal secretary, who shared the pope's concern for her well-being.

So yes, the Catholic Church has been much maligned in recent years — often for valid reasons — but we gotta give props to the pope for his goodwill gesture, and for setting an example to the world that forgiveness, even when it's hard to do, trumps bitterness and anger every time.

Photo courtesy of Rvin88 via Wikimedia Commons