Croocked cross of John Paul II killed Marco Gusmini, 21
A young pilgrim has been crushed to death by a giant crucifix dedicated to Pope John Paul II.
The 100ft curved wooden cross collapsed during a ceremony in northern Italy days before the former Pope’s canonisation.
Marco Gusmini, 21, on a visit with other young Catholics to the Alpine village of Cevo, was killed instantly.
Mayor Silvio Citroni said the accident was ‘an unexplainable tragedy’. ‘A young life, so many hopes destroyed,’ he added.
‘The young people were making a snack for lunch and when they heard the crunching noises coming from the cross they fled in all directions. Unfortunately Marco ran in the wrong direction.
‘This is a place for pilgrimages and family visits. We never imagined that something like this could happen.’ Mr Citroni said maintenance work had been carried out on the crucifix last summer.
How can you be a person of faith and explain this away as a random act of chance?
The current pope is making all the right noises, and I have some hope that honesty may return at the top of the Vatican.
But Popes that oversaw and hid the systematic abuse of children being canonised as Saints?
How can the faithful not see this as an omen?