Bogus priest caught at St Peter's
Security staff at the Vatican have caught a man in clerical garb attempting to pass himself of as a priest who wanted to hear confessions in St Peter's Basilica. Vatican City Judge Gianluigi Marrone told L'Osservatore Romano on Saturday the man was wearing clerical garb and carried documents claiming he was a priest. "He was caught by surprise in the basilica while he was trying to take his place in a confessional. He was wearing clerical garb, but the expert eye of our personnel didn't need much to sense something strange in his behaviour," the judge said. The man was stopped and his documents checked. Although they appeared to be legitimate and he had a Vatican pass, personnel were still suspicious, he said. When the documents were checked with the authorities, they were found to be false. Judge Marrone said the man had passed himself off before as a priest in Italy. The tribunal's verdict has not yet been announced.