A threatening letter containing three bullets addressed to Pope Francis has been seized by Italian police at a postal service outside Milan. The death threat comes weeks after the Pope underwent intestinal surgery.
Threatening letter to the Pope containing three bullets seized by police
Italian police are investigating a death threat against Pope Francis after letter carriers at a sorting facility outside Milan found three bullets hidden in an envelope addressed to the pontiff.
Postal workers called police after finding the bullets overnight at their facility in the small town of Peschiera Borromeo outside Milan.
The envelope, sent from France, was addressed to “The Pope, Vatican City, St. Peter’s Square,” police said. Included in the letter was a note “alluding to financial operations in the Vatican.”
Italian Carabinieri police confirmed that the bullets had been intercepted.
“We can confirm that during the night, in a sorting office in Peschiera Borromeo, Milan, the Carabinieri seized an envelope, with French postage, containing three bullets and addressed to the Pope – ‘Il Papa – Citta del Vaticano, Piazza S. Pietro in Rome ‘,” the statement said.
The head of the Catholic Church who leaves Rome’s Fiumicino International Airport on an official visit to Bucharest on Thursday will be heavily guarded by the Vatican’s elite Swiss Guard.
The death threat comes weeks after Pope Francis, 84, underwent intestinal surgery at a Rome hospital.
Although the pontiff has had no formal appearances, he has still been in the news following a scandal involving the embezzlement of Vatican funds.
A total of 10 people, including a high-ranking cardinal, are on trial over allegations of corruption in the Church related to a real estate deal in London.
