Stranger Than Fiction? Scary!

Sometimes life is as strange (and disturbing) as fiction. This, from the website TodaysZaman.com reads almost like a scene from Hitchcock.

Vatican consul to İstanbul falls in front of train
Georges Marovitch, the Vatican’s representative in İstanbul, was involved in a strange train accident in Rome on Tuesday.

While waiting for his train on the platform, Marovitch apparently fell onto the tracks moments before the train pulled into the station, hitting the pope’s representative and leaving him seriously injured. The reason for his sudden fall remains unknown. It was learnt that Marovitch was on his way to visit the previous home of Pope John XXIII, who died in 1963 and was also a Vatican envoy to Turkey in his lifetime.

According to information from Marovitch’s family, he suffered heavy internal bleeding and a broken rib due to the unexplained accident. He is currently in intensive care at Gemelli Hospital, where Pope John II was also a patient shortly before his death.

According to the latest reports from the Vatican, the internal bleeding has stopped and his condition has improved, although Marovitch still remains in the intensive care unit. Marovitch is widely known for his support of interfaith dialogue initiatives. The 75-year-old representative, who is also the spokesman for the Turkish Catholic Communities Spiritual Council, was in Rome on vacation. The Italian police have launched an investigation into the mysterious accident.

27.07.2007 Cenap Aydın Rome