Archbishop Romeo: The Pope will be assassinated within the next 12 months

Vatican Archbishop Paolo Romeo of Sicily claims that Pope Benedict XVI will die within the next 12 months and will most likely be assassinated.

A senior Vatican official repeated his claims about the Pope's death several times during his visit to China.

The Vatican launched an investigation into the archbishop's claims, and a report written in German about death threats against Pope Benedict XVI was discovered.

The Italian newspaper "Il Fatto Quotidiano" published the first page of the controversial report.

The Italian newspaper "Il Fatto Quotidiano" published the first page of the controversial report

"During his visit to China, Cardinal Romeo predicted the death of Pope Benedict, and his statements sounded so precise and worrisome that the people who were in his company understood it as if an assassination attempt on the pope was being prepared," the Italian newspaper reported.

The Vatican spokesman, Federico Lombardi, said that the report was far from reality and that he did not even want to comment on it.

Cardinal Romeo also predicted that the next pope would be the Archbishop of Milan, Angelo Scola.

The last attempt to kill the Pope was in 1981, when the Turkish Mehmet Ali Agdza shot John Paul II in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican.

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