Susanna Maiolo is a woman with Italian and Swiss citizenship who rushed towards Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI

Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...

 twice, most recently at Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...

 Midnight Mass

Midnight Mass

Midnight Mass is a Christmas Eve liturgical tradition in the Roman Catholic church.Midnight Mass may also refer to:* Midnight, Mass., a Vertigo comics series* Midnight Mass, a 2004 novel by F...

, 24 December 2009, inside St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's Basilica

The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...

 in the Vatican

Vatican City

Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...

. She knocked the Pope and French cardinal Roger Etchegaray to the ground, and broke the cardinal's leg and hip. Maiolo's previous attack in December 2008 was intercepted successfully by the Pope's bodyguards.

Maiolo was born in Frauenfeld

Frauenfeld

Frauenfeld is the capital of the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland.-Early history:The earliest trace of human settlement are several La Tène era graves to the east of Langdorf. The Roman road from Oberwinterthur to Pfyn ran through what is now the Allmend in Frauenfeld. Two Roman villas were...

, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

. Authorities said that Maiolo is mentally unwell and she was held for a week's evaluation at a psychiatric hostel in Subiaco

Subiaco, Italy

Subiaco is a town and comune in the Province of Rome, in Lazio, Italy, from Tivoli alongside the river Aniene. It is mainly renowned as a tourist and religious resort for its sacred grotto , in the St. Benedict's Abbey, and the other Abbey of St. Scholastica...

 near Rome. It was reported that she did not want to injure the Pope, and the Pope has forgiven her.

Reactions

Susanna Maiolo told the Subiaco clinic staff that she did not want to injure the Pope but wanted to ask him to help the poorest people in the world. The Pope's personal secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, visited her at the clinic on 1 January 2010. He expressed the Pope's concern for her and said the Pope believed in her good intentions and had pardoned her. The Vatican public prosecutor Nicola Picardi and spokesman Federico Lombardi

Federico Lombardi

Federico Lombardi, SJ is an Italian Roman Catholic priest and the current director of the Holy See Press Office.-Early life and ordination:...

 said that she would probably be released.

Maiolo and two of her family had a brief private audience with Pope Benedict after the morning general audience on 13 January 2010 in a room adjoining the Paul VI Audience Hall

Paul VI Audience Hall

The Paul VI Audience Hall is a building in Rome, mostly in Italy but partially in Vatican City, but the Italian part of the building is an exterritorial area of the Holy See used by the Pope as an alternative to Saint Peter's Square for conducting his Wednesday morning General Audience...

. Maiolo told the Pope she regretted the incident. He forgave her and expressed his best wishes for her and her health. This mirrored the action of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II

Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...

, who forgave the Turkish Grey Wolves member, Mehmet Ali Agca

Mehmet Ali Agca

Mehmet Ali Ağca is a Turkish assassin who murdered left-wing journalist Abdi İpekçi on February 1, 1979 and later shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981, after escaping from a Turkish prison. After serving 19 years of imprisonment in Italy, he was deported to Turkey, where he served a...

, in a Roman prison in 1983. Agca had tried to kill John Paul in May 1981.