(Vatican Radio) Police on Friday said they recovered the relic of Blessed John Paul
II, a day after they found the stolen gold reliquary. The relic consists of a bloody
fragment from the cassock the late pontiff was wearing on May 13, 1981, when he was
shot in an assassination attempt in Saint Peter’s Square.
At a press conference,
police in Aquila, located east of Rome, said they found the cloth fragment in the
garage of two men who were detained for having stolen the reliquary last weekend from
San Pietro Della Ienca Church.
Bishop Giovanni D'Ercole, who joined the press
conference, said he had pieced together the reliquary and the cloth after police found
pieces of them on successive days. The recovered cloth was missing just a few filaments
and gold thread, he said.