Vatican City - On Saturday 17 January 2025, inside St Peter’s Basilica, in the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, during the customary Eucharistic Adoration, yet another act of vandalism took place. An episode that fits into an increasingly recurrent pattern and once again raises serious questions about the management of security in the most sacred place in Christianity.
Several extremely serious incidents in a short period of time
Since Mauro Gambetti has been at the helm of the Vatican Basilica as Archpriest, episodes of violation and profanation have multiplied. These are neither isolated incidents nor marginal gestures: the chronology points to unauthorised access, violated altars, damaged sacred symbols, often in the presence of the faithful and without any timely intervention by the sampietrini or the Gendarmerie.
On 7 February 2025, a man of Romanian origin crossed the security cordons unchallenged, climbed onto the altar and hurled six candlesticks to the ground, seriously damaging them. He even had time to remove the altar cloth before anyone intervened. The Gendarmerie arrived only after several minutes, when the damage had already been done. Earlier still, on 1 June 2023, a thirty-year-old man, completely naked and bearing the slogan “Save children of Ukraina” on his back, climbed onto the high altar. The images quickly travelled around the world, leaving the faithful and observers stunned. In that case too, the act unfolded without preventive security measures managing to stop it in time.
The most recent episode, in chronological order, occurred on Friday 10 October 2025. While thousands of faithful were passing through the Holy Door, a man climbed onto the high altar and, before the astonished onlookers, stripped completely naked, exposing his genitals and shouting incoherent words. A scene of profound humiliation for the place and for those who were there to pray.
It required the direct intervention of Leo XIV for an immediate rite of reparation to be imposed on Cardinal Mauro Gambetti: without that instruction, the rite would not have been celebrated. When the reparation was eventually carried out, no communication came from the official information channels of the Holy See. The only certainty is that, even on that occasion, those present were instructed to maintain silence about what had happened.
One single order: “Silence!”
In those circumstances, however, it proved impossible to contain the news: the episode unfolded before the eyes of dozens of tourists, many of whom already had their mobile phones in hand and video recordings underway. Even in the face of attempts to stem the spread of the images – and explicit orders to “delete the videos from your phone” issued by the sampietrini and the Gendarmerie even to tourists – the leakage of the news was inevitable. This time, by contrast, the order of silence succeeded because everything took place in the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. The setting made a more discreet handling of the incident easier: it is an area less frequented than the Basilica’s main thoroughfares and, above all, one where the use of mobile phones is prohibited. A restriction that, in practice, reduced to a minimum the possibility of producing and circulating videos, allowing Gambetti to prevent images of the incident from becoming public.
And yet, some of those present recount a precise sequence of events: the perpetrator was allegedly an adult man with dark skin who hurled to the ground everything that was on the altar: candlesticks, the monstrance and altar cloths. An act which, given the place and the circumstances, is of unheard-of gravity. The Chapel was cleared and closed to the public to allow everything to be put back in order.
What makes the picture even more disturbing is the order of silence that, time and again, is imposed on canons, sampietrini and those present. It is a practice that Mauro Gambetti employs on multiple occasions: the same logic already applied to employees with regard to what takes place within the Fabbrica di San Pietro (Fabric of Saint Peter). In this way, personal freedom is curtailed, those who might wish to bring the truth to light are discouraged, and a climate of psychological pressure is fostered, carrying the unmistakable taste of fear and intimidation.
An issue that must be resolved as soon as possible
Taken together, these episodes paint an alarming picture: weakened surveillance, reduced staffing, delayed reactions. The consequence is a less effective safeguarding of a space which, for the Catholic Church, constitutes the heart of the faith. Here the issue goes beyond simple public order: it concerns respect for the sacred, the protection of the faithful, and institutional responsibility. When incidents recur and grow in severity, silence and inertia become culpable.
Just yesterday, addressing the Inspectorate of Public Security at the Vatican, Leo XIV recalled an essential principle: «A safe environment is indeed of great help to prayer, and very many visitors – some of whom have come to Rome after long journeys and at the cost of physical and financial sacrifice – have been able to experience this in recent months also thanks to you». If outside the Basilica the Italian State Police ensure a constant presence, inside, under the management of Mauro Gambetti, for many faithful the space of the Basilica has for years become increasingly difficult to experience as a place of prayer, while security no longer appears to be guaranteed according to the standards required by a site of such importance. All this occurs as a result of an incompetent and nepotistic management of resources: many sampietrini have been removed from the Basilica and reassigned to office roles within the Fabbrica di San Pietro (Fabric of Saint Peter).
In this context, Silere non possum has documented over the years abuses of power and internal dynamics that have affected staff and the historic structures of the Basilica. The scandals that have emerged have been numerous, and the material collected – documents, videos, photographs – has outlined the profile of a deeply troubling management, with repercussions both for the Fabbrica di San Pietro and for the Vatican Chapter, which today appears, in effect, profoundly hollowed out.
The point is now substantive: the Pope’s Basilica risks losing its primary function, that of prayer. In its place, space is growing for initiatives designed to attract funders and resources, ranging from exclusive events to aperitifs on the Dome terrace, digital mapping projects and guided tours tailored to a wealthy and influential audience. And while this “worldly” offering expands, what most clearly marks the rupture is the approach imposed by Mauro Gambetti: an increasing distance from the moments that should constitute the soul of the place – catechesis, Eucharistic adoration, rosaries – and celebrations treated as appointments to be kept to the bare minimum, handled in a formal and perfunctory manner, with participation at times reduced to a mere appearance, arriving at the last minute or even late.
fr. L.C.
Silere non possum