Drama as Catholic Bishop Collapses at the Altar During Pope Francis’ Open Air Mass (Photos)

Bishop Claudio Stagni is assisted by his colleagues following his collapse at the end of the Mass

A revered Catholic Bishop has suffered a really embarrassing tumble in a public place during the Pope’s open air mass.

Bishop Claudio Stagni, a Bishop collapsed during a special Mass in a northern Italian region devastated by an earthquake in 2012.

According to Daily Mail UK, Bishop Claudio Stagni collapsed just yards from where Pope Francis was saying an open air Mass in Carpi, northern Italy

Thousands of people gathered on the streets of Carpi of has since been rebuilt in the five years since the magnitude 6.1 and 5.8 quakes.

Pope Francis said the massive rebuilding project could provide an inspiration for other regions in Italy hit by earthquakes last year.

Francis’ first stop in Emilia Romagna was the quake-damaged Duomo cathedral of Carpi, where he laid a bouquet of white flowers at the foot of a statue of the Madonna. After years of restoration, the cathedral reopened just last weekend.

‘There are those who remain buried in the rubble of life,’ the pope said in his homily before an estimated 20,000 gathered in the piazza outside the cathedral for an open-air Mass and another 50,000 who watched on large screens throughout the city. ‘And there are those, like you, who with the help of God rise from the rubble to rebuild.’

Thousands of people greeted Pope Francis, pictured, as he visited the Carpi region of northern Italy  to say an open-air Mass

He later visited the town of Mirandola, where the crowd including family members of people killed in a pair of 2012 earthquakes. Francis laid a bouquet of flowers at the altar of the cathedral, which is still under scaffolding five years after the quake and not functioning as a house of worship.

He thanked the people of Mirandola `’for the example you gave to all humanity, the example of courage to go ahead.’

The Emilia Romagna model of rebuilding from the magnitude-6.1 and magnitude-5.8 quakes that killed 28 people has often been cited as exemplary. It included bringing together politicians, entrepreneurs and bishops to decide common priorities.


The papal visit was meant to show gratitude for the region’s renewal, the bishop of Carpi, Monsignor Francesco Cavina, told the Italian Bishops’ Conference television TV2000. But Cavina said it also aimed to be ‘a sign of hope that rebuilding is possible for the people of central Italy, who unfortunately suffered what we did much more dramatically.

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