While the Pope named new saints, a man burned the Bible and shouted "Where is Christ"

The ceremony during which Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed three new saints today in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican was briefly interrupted when a man climbed on top of the statue and set fire to the Bible in front of the crowd, reports the AP agency.

Vatican gendarmes, the bishop and the pope's bodyguard spoke to the man and persuaded him to move from the edge of the statue after he shouted "Pope, where is Christ?", after which he threw a burning Bible at the crowd gathered below him.

The Pope and the thousands gathered in the Square were not overly disturbed by the incident and the mass continued.

This indecent disruption occurred before the end of a two-hour mass at which the beatification of three founders of religious orders from the 19th century was announced.

It is about the Italian bishop and missionary Monsignor Guido Maria Confroti, the Spanish nun Bonifacia Rodriguez de Castro and the Italian priest who worked for the poor, Venerable Luigi Guanelli.

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