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| -Lurid Crime Tales- | |
| Italy: Hooded gang attacked monastery near Alps | |
| 2008-08-27 | |
| (ANSA) - Ivrea, August 27 - An Italian monk is fighting for his life in a Turin hospital after a brutal assault on a monastery in the foothills of the Alps. Father Sergio Baldini, 48, nightwatchman at the San Colombano Belmonte monastery, was reportedly dining with three elderly companions when they were set upon by three hooded men who gagged and bound them before punching, kicking and beating them with clubs for the small amounts of money they were carrying. ''They set on them with mindless violence,'' said Father Gabriele Trivellin, provincial head of the Franciscan order to which the friars belong. ''It was savage and gratuitous because they didn't try to resist''. He said his order was praying for Father Baldini, now in the critical ward at Turin's San Giovanni Bosco hospital where doctors say his condition is life-threatening. As well as severe head injuries, the monk reportedly also has blocked airways because of food he inhaled when he was was attacked. The other three monks received less serious injuries and are in a hospital not far from the monastery. Trivellin said he had spoken with the three: Father Salvatore Magliano, 86, Father Emanuele Battagliotti, 81, and Father Martino Giurini, 76. He said they were suffering from shock and blows to the head and face. Police said the gang of three targeted the monastery hoping to find valuable goods. But all that is missing is the money in the monks' pockets, they said.
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| Posted by:mrp |
| #3 Valuable goods and lots of money in a monastery? Sorry guys, the Vikings cleaned that stuff out back in the middle ages, you're a few hundred years too late. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-08-27 13:56 |
| #2 I doubt they are Catholics. IIRC, we get excommunicated for attacking priests or other religious. |
| Posted by: Rambler in California 2008-08-27 12:59 |
| #1 Now what sort of ethnic or religious group in Italy would attack Catholic Monks? Hmm, must be those damned Methodists! |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-08-27 11:27 |