An envelope with three bullets addressed to Pope Francis has been found at a post office in Milan, Italy, Il Messaggero has reported. According to the newspaper, it contained three 9-calibre Flobert-type pellets and was sent from France with no mention of the sender.
The envelope contained writing in pen that Il Messagero said was barely legible: "The Pope – Vatican City, Piazza S. Pietro in Rome". Local police have started an investigation.
The Pope's untraditional views have often irked theological conservatives. He has been criticised for his promotion of ecumenism, a movement calling for cooperation and unity among Christian denominations. In 2016, he released a controversial exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, in which the pontiff changed Catholic doctrine and allowed civilly divorced and remarried Catholics to take communion.