By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
A parish priest in Rome was seriously injured after being stabbed by a man who admitted to having watched the movie, The Da Vinci Code, the night before.
Witnesses say 25 year-old Mario Luzi approached the rectory of the church of Santa Marcella on the Avantine hill on Sept. 24 and asked to see a parish priest, Father Canio Canistri, 68. According to the Times Online, Luzi then attacked the priest with a knife he had hidden in a cloth, stabbing him in the neck and stomach.
A retired police officer, Antonio Farrace, 78, who was a parishioner at the parish, came to the priest’s rescue and was also wounded in the attack. He is reportedly in serious condition at a local hospital.
After attacking Farrace, Luzi fled through a nearby park where witnesses say he stabbed a Peruvian nanny in the shoulder as she tried to protect the child in her charge.
Luzi was then chased by two policemen on motorcycles who dismounted and tackled him. “We couldn’t fire our weapons, there were too many bystanders” said Luca Gori, 41, one of the police officers, who was lightly wounded in the stomach during the struggle.
Luzi, a former medical student with a history of psychiatric problems, admitted to watching The Da Vinci Code the night before the attack. He told police he was the antichrist, claiming he had heard voices telling him to attack the priest.
“I have carried out my mission,” he said.
Police found a rosary in his pocket along with a note reading “This is just the beginning: 666.”
At Luzi’s apartment, which he shared with his mother, investigators found material on the Apocalypse and the antichrist, in addition to the phone number of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.
His apartment also contained a large copy of Leonardo’s painting The Last Supper, which is featured in the Dan Brown book on which the movie is based.
A note on the painting pointed to one of the disciples and said “This is the hand in which a knife is hidden.”
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