Man With Molotov Cocktails Seized in Brisbane, Says He Wanted to Kill Pope

Police today arrested a man carrying five Molotov cocktails who said he wanted to assassinate Pope John Paul II because “the Pope has too much money.”

The 24-year-old man was picked up at Brisbane City Hall this morning, apparently as he was casing the place looking for a high vantage point from which to fling the gasoline bombs at the Pope, who was scheduled to enter the building later in the day.

According to Assistant Police Commissioner Ron Redmont, police officers spotted the man when they made a security sweep of City Hall at 9 a.m. “He was acting suspiciously and carrying a cardboard box” which was found to contain the five homemade gasoline bombs made of soft drink bottles with cloth wicks, Redmont said.

Redmont said the man was recently released from a mental institution in Sydney and came to Brisbane three days ago “with the intention of assassinating the Pope.”

He said the man had stayed at Saint Vincent de Paul Hostel, a Catholic men’s dormitory in Brisbane, where he concocted the bombs.

Police refused to identify the man until they determine whether he is mentally unbalanced or until he is charged. Redmont said he will remain in custody for questioning.

He said that a second man was arrested in an unrelated security scare at Brisbane airport before the pontiff’s airplane landed there today, but that he was unarmed and appeared to be unbalanced because “he was ranting and raving.”

Speaking of the man with the gasoline bombs, Redmont said, “We are very happy that our police procedures were able to identify this potential threat before he was able to carry out his intentions.”

John Paul arrived in Brisbane following a warm and characteristically relaxed down-under welcome by the largest crowd he has drawn so far in Canberra, where he began his Australian pilgrimage Monday.

The pontiff flew to this semitropical east coast city today after ending the first week of his 14-day South Pacific-Indian Ocean trip with an open-air Mass for 90,000 people and a firm political message to the government in Canberra Monday night.

Speaking to Prime Minister Bob Hawke and government and social leaders at Canberra’s Parliament House, the Pope praised Australia’s cooperative approach to church-state relations, including government support of religious education, and warned the government not to change its policy.

Noting that “pluralism is not to be confused with neutrality on human values,” John Paul said, “I hope that all Catholics and all your fellow citizens will invite you by their voice and by their votes to ensure that nothing is done by the legislature to undermine these values.”

In an address to foreign diplomats accredited to the Canberra government, the Pope exhorted the envoys to “recognize the threats to peace wherever they may appear: in excessive and sterile self-interest; in exclusive blocs . . .; in the arms race, whether nuclear or not; . . . in the injustice that tramples on human rights; in the violence of hatred and terrorism; (and) in whole systems that prevent people from deciding their own future.”

In Brisbane, where he chuckled at a display of cuddly koalas, the pontiff met with the handicapped, disabled and sick. Then, in a special brief meeting with journalists and Australian media representatives, he spoke firmly of the moral responsibility of press and broadcasting.

“You have a central role in ensuring . . . that the communication of information conforms fully with moral principles, especially those of truth, charity and justice,” John Paul said.

If the powerful media lack concern for human rights and dignity, he said, “then this power can be used to deceive, to oppress and to divide.”

“Realize the responsibility you have not only to report on evil but to help eliminate it. Realize the responsibility you have not only to report on suffering, but to help alleviate it. Realize the challenge you have not only to report good deeds but to encourage them,” he exhorted the journalists.