Police spokesman Robert Gibbs says a man in his 20s jumped over several pews at St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church around noon Sunday and walked up to the choir area where he began his attack.
The injuries to the four church-goers weren't life-threatening. All four were being treated at hospitals.
Numerous parishioners subdued the attacker and held him down until police arrived.
After a musically proficient and polyglot Pope Benedict XVI, it came as a surprise to many that Pope Francis doesn't sing or chant at Mass or speak foreign languages in public.
From his first Mass as pope -- his liturgy with the College of Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel March 14 -- the pope has not chanted or sung during the usual moments of the liturgy, such as before the eucharistic prayer.
His ditching any musical pitch was even more evident during the "Regina Coeli" April 1, when he spoke, rather than intoned, the Marian prayer.The article goes on to say it could be because of Francis' "husky" voice, or the Jesuit maxim of "nec rubricat, nec cantat," or sloughing off the rubrics and the chant.
