If you attack, physically assault the Pope, are you by definition `mentally unstable'?

Chances are , yes.

But who knows, the Pope could have called her mom fat.

No.

Not that it’s likely, but there may be a sound reason for doing so.

jackm is right…He mighta been askin for it!

By definition? Of course not.

It could be a misguided terrorist from another religion who thought getting the present pope out of the way would harm Christianity. Or maybe just one who wanted some cause of another to get attention.

Why not? There could be plenty of reasons to attack a pope. Especially this fuckin’ Nazi Pope bastard.

Could it be that the Pope is deranged?

Maybe the lady really liked his hat and wanted to ask him where she could get one.

I think the person who really attacked was the security guard who smashed her to the ground as she was still holding the Pope, which seemed to really be the cause of the fall.

Mentally unstable, no. Out for blood, maybe.

To be determined by a clinical phycologist!

If she was mentally unsound – she may not have been attacking in the real sense of the word, perhaps in her mind she was just trying to talk to him, to touch him, something along those lines. I dont want to be flippant about it as theres a good chance we will never know exactly her state of mind….

He could be tethered to his bath & be forever known as Pope on a rope. That may constitute an attack. Police would probably wash their hands of this case anyway.

I think if you attack anybody you are mentally unstable. This is not the behaviour of somebody fully in control of themselves.

She obviously has her reasons and the fact that this is the second time she has attacked the pope tells me that she feels strongly about whatever her reasons are. Maybe she is just very anti-religion but the fact that she is using violence on someone who probably hasn’t personally provoked her makes me think that she may be mentally unstable.

@Leanne1986
“Maybe she is just very anti-religion”
Let’s keep it limited to “anti-Catholic”, shall we? Perhaps even “anti-Vatican” or “anti-Pope Benedict XVI”.

Yes, I have trouble with jumping to the conclusion that ideologically opposing this guy equals atheism. It’s hardly the only view he’s at odds with.

@Fyrius From an atheist who was going to point that out, thank you. Thank you very much.

@AustinusMaximus
At your service.

a thorough inquisition, should confirm our suspicions.

@mammal Nice choice of wording

not by my definition
I say, by all means

No. A rational person could easily attack the pope.

If he got anywhere near me I might try to kill the Nazi bastard.

@Fyrius The only reason I didn’t limit it to anything is because I don’t know why she did it and that is why I said maybe, to be honest it was just the first thing tht popped into my head when I saw it on the news. True, she may be anti catholic, anti vatican, anti the pope or she maybe an atheits who is so anti religion that she felt the need to deck the pope. She could be against a whole number of things that made her want to do it and I wasn’t going to try and think of and then list all the possible reasons. I certainly wasn’t saying that all atheists would do such a thing or that only an atheist would be capable of it and so I apoligise if that’s how it sounded.

No, they don’t have to be. the man who attacked John Paul II was hired to (if I have my facts straight.)
@mammal Come on now, that was over who knows how many years ago. All groups must go through that type of stage. Fact.
@pdworkin Why is he a Nazi bastard? If you were German, and you were his age, you either served in the military, or you were given some pretty bad “stuff.” Now, he was a soldier, not an SS officer. Two very different things. And if I’m correct, I don’t believe he was every in a battle.