Crackdown on Jubilee counterfeiters

(ANSA) - Rome, December 15 - Both pilgrims and counterfeiters have geared up for the Jubilee. Not only are fake rosaries, images and key rings flooding the religious-items market, there are also counterfeit personalized apostolic blessings on pontifical parchment with Holy See seals and photos of Pope Francis. Italian finance police confiscated 3,500 on Monday, a day when Interior Minister Angelino Alfano and Finance Police Chief Saverio Capolupo presented the first results of the Jubilaeum action plan against fraud and counterfeiting during the Holy Year.
    "We knew that the Jubilee would have been hit by illicit business and fraudsters, and we thus prepared to fight against it," the minister said.
    "A million counterfeit products have been confiscated this first week. The Jubilaeum plan aims to help pilgrims, increase perceived security and the fight against illegal trade, accommodation and counterfeit products. Every day as many as 32 finance police patrols are carried out in Rome to step up surveillance.'' A shop near St Peter's Basilica has been found to have housed the illegal printing press for the fraudulent apostolic blessings offered to unwitting pilgrims.
    The parchments had already had Pope Francis's image and the papal and Vatican State emblems stamped on them. They also had - in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and English - the words 'blessing of the pilgrim' on them and were personalized with names provided by the buyers.
    The shopkeeper, who did not possess the necessary authorization from the Holy See, has been reported to the police for production and trade in counterfeit goods.
    The parchments confiscated are worth over 70,000 euros, and the amount taken over during the first few days on sale is being calculated. Alfano spoke about the lower number of visitors than expected during the beginning of this Holy Year, saying that it did not have to do with the concerns raised by the recent attack in Paris. He noted that ''the number of pilgrims for the Jubilee are those expected and do not directly depend in any way on post-Paris anxiety. "Pope Francis's strategy has been to open several Holy Doors and valorize other places of worship across the nation, such as Loreto and S.Giovanni Rotondo. "So it is not necessary to come to Rome to take part in the ceremony''.
    On the issue of security, the interior minister said that ''on (the opening day) December 8, some 200,000 people took part in events in Rome and there was only one person reported to the police, for possession of a knife. This is proof that the (security) plan worked''.