Camillo Cibin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Camillo Cibin, Papal bodyguard at the Vatican who retired in 2006 after 58 years of service.
At the urging of his parish priest, Cibin and four other young men from his hometown applied and were accepted into the Vatican security services in 1947.
He was appointed director more than 40 years ago and was in charge of Vatican security during the Second Vatican Council and the conclaves that elected Popes John Paul I, John Paul II and Benedict.
He is the only person to have been on all the papal flights for pastoral trips abroad, accompanying Pope Paul VI on nine trips, Pope John Paul on 104 trips and Pope Benedict to Germany in 2005 and Poland in 2006.
In what Vatican Radio described as "the day, hour and minute" of Cibin's worst nightmare, the commander also was alongside Pope John Paul's popemobile in St. Peter's Square May 13, 1981, when Mehmet Ali Agca shot the pope. While the director of the Italian police detail assigned to St. Peter's Square jumped into the popemobile, Cibin apprehended the Turkish gunman.
