Almost all Italian online media are in a frenzy about a letter to be revealed in one of Italy's largest national dailies, Il Fatto Quotidiano.The document, written in German, discloses a plan of attempting on Pope Benedict XVI’s life in the nearest future, according to Rorate Caeli blogspot.

The news would have been given in a letter handed by Cardinal Castrillon to Benedict XVI. Included in the note, a report of a conversation [in a trip to China in November 2011] of the Archbishop of Palermo, [Cardinal] Romeo, in which he affirms that the Holy Father is in great risk and that an attack is feared within 12 months. The document dates from December 30 2011, but it was given to the pope in January 2012. ... Romeo would have also spoken of the probable successor and indicated [Cardinal] Scola, Archbishop of Milan.. ... Soon afterwards, Vatican delivered a reply through Father Federico Lombardi, spokesman of the Holy See: "These are clearly ravings, which are not at all taken seriously. This is madness."