People watch Pope John Paul II on a video screen during a Mass in Dubrovnik's port of Gruz, on Friday. Pope John Paul II, the most travelled pope in history, is paying a five-day visit to Croatia.
OSIJEK, Croatia, June 7 — The Vatican played down on Saturday the importance of an e-mail message which threatened an attack on the Pope during his current visit to Croatia.
THE E-MAIL, sent to two Croatian news agencies, purported to come from a group called the “Islamic Front el Mujahadeen” and threatened to kill the Pope during his 100th foreign trip.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said it was fairly common for the church to receive information about possible threats to the Pontiff.
“Naturally the credibility of this information is very doubtful and on past occasions has proven to be clearly false,” he told reporters on a flight between the cities of Rijeka and Osijek, where the Pope was to hold a mass later on Saturday.
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