Bystander Helps Arrest Radical Feminist Who Stripped Naked at Vatican

Protesters from the radical feminist group FEMEN stripped naked at Saint Peter’s Square outside the Vatican this morning in what is described on their website as a protest of Pope Francis’ visit to the European Union Parliament later this month.

The women reportedly held crosses and performed vulgar gestures with them in order to convey that religion should be put in a “private place.”

One bystander, a Ghanaian, who goes by the name of Caramba, saw the women undressing and stepped in to cover them up. Aleteia caught up with him in this exclusive interview:

What can you tell us about what happened?

These girls come here, meanwhile there are good people here, there are families from all over the world. The children obviously shouldn’t see these girls.

The problem is that they enter the square dressed, looking nice, and so you don’t see anything. And one doesn’t expect something like this to happen. Then, once they see that the police aren’t looking at them and are standing far away, they undress. They undress in the Vatican, to show that the Vatican no longer has value and that the Church no longer has value, and this is really unacceptable.

Why did you do it?

For the mother who has her children with her, because when she sees a nude woman here, she doesn’t intend ever to return. This is why I tried to save the situation, and the girl from FEMEN. I took off my jumper to cover her, but she was very aggressive and didn’t want to be covered. Then I got hold of her. They do it to cause trouble, knowing that many people will take photos, and so I immediately took hold of her by force and we put her in the police car.

What is your job?

I didn’t do this as part of my job, but as a volunteer. The Church is very dear to me, and it’s not possible that people come here, that the Church welcomes them, and that they have no respect either for the Church or for the people, especially the children. I did it with my whole heart, I didn’t even think about it. I don’t work for the police, I work for a tourism agency, but I love the Church and Jesus.

Was she alone?

She wasn’t alone. There were two of them, but the other escaped. As soon as I saw that she had undressed I caught her, as the other escaped. Last year it happened in the same way, but the police were much faster and they took them away. There were a lot of them, and the people managed to take photos. Today we managed to get her out and put her immediately in the car to avoid more people and more children seeing her.