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A hand holding a pistol, left, aims from the crowd at Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's
Square in Rome in this May 13, 1981 photo. Moments later, the pontiff was shot (AP).
Square in Rome in this May 13, 1981 photo. Moments later, the pontiff was shot (AP).
On this Day: Gunman Tries To Assassinate Pope
May 13, 2008 12:10 AM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
On May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter’s Square by Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Agca.
Email This30-Second Summary
At about 5:00 in the evening, Pope John Paul II was cruising slowly through St. Peter’s Square in an open-roofed vehicle, blessing children held up to his reach. Time magazine called the pope’s familiar ritual “a rite of sweet human communion.”
After one go-around of the square, gunshots were fired from the crowd. “The pope froze in shock for a second, and slumped into the seat of his jeep,” ABC News reported. Shot in the abdomen, the pope later recovered without lasting injury.
The gunman, Mehmet Ali Agca, ran but was quickly chased down by Vatican plainclothes security guards and members of the crowd. Police found a note in Agca’s pocket that said, “I am killing the Pope as a protest against the imperialism of the Soviet Union and the United States."
A member of the paramilitary wing of Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Action Party, Agca had shot and killed newspaper editor Abdi Ipekci in Istanbul in 1979. He had escaped from a maximum-security prison after threatening to kill John Paul II, whom he called “the masked leader of the Crusades,” Time reported.
Pope John Paul later forgave Agca, who served 20 years in an Italian prison.
Agca later returned to prison in Turkey, where he wrote Pope Benedict XVI, warning him not visit the country because “his life was in danger” and advising the pontiff to make “a grand gesture of honor and resign.”
After one go-around of the square, gunshots were fired from the crowd. “The pope froze in shock for a second, and slumped into the seat of his jeep,” ABC News reported. Shot in the abdomen, the pope later recovered without lasting injury.
The gunman, Mehmet Ali Agca, ran but was quickly chased down by Vatican plainclothes security guards and members of the crowd. Police found a note in Agca’s pocket that said, “I am killing the Pope as a protest against the imperialism of the Soviet Union and the United States."
A member of the paramilitary wing of Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Action Party, Agca had shot and killed newspaper editor Abdi Ipekci in Istanbul in 1979. He had escaped from a maximum-security prison after threatening to kill John Paul II, whom he called “the masked leader of the Crusades,” Time reported.
Pope John Paul later forgave Agca, who served 20 years in an Italian prison.
Agca later returned to prison in Turkey, where he wrote Pope Benedict XVI, warning him not visit the country because “his life was in danger” and advising the pontiff to make “a grand gesture of honor and resign.”
Headline Link: ‘Hand of Terrorism’
During the 20-minute drive to Gemelli, a Catholic hospital in Rome reputed to be the best in Italy, Pope John Paul II was “softly murmuring ‘Madonna, Madonna’” in his native Polish. Time magazine provides detailed coverage of the assassination attempt, the Pope’s reaction and the gunman’s past.
Source: Time
Video: ‘Pope Assassination Attempt’
The May 13, 1981 edition of ABC evening news program “World News Tonight” begins with head anchor Frank Reynolds pointing out, “less than seven weeks after the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan,” Pope John Paul II was shot at. “After four hours and 20 minutes of surgery … the pope is not in serious condition.”
Source: YouTube
Key Players: Pope John Paul II, Mehmet Ali Agca
Pope John Paul II (1920–2005)
Karol Józef Wojtyła was born on June 20, 1920 in Wadowice, Poland, a small town outside of Krakow. He enrolled at Jagiellonian University in 1938, but had to put his studies aside a year later when Nazi forces closed the institution. He decided to join the priesthood in 1942 and entered a clandestine seminary, continuing his studies after World War II. After being ordained in 1946, he graduated with his doctorate in 1948 in France. He was elected pope on Oct. 16, 1978. His 27 years as spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church were marked by his outreach to young people and calls for dialogue with other major religions. He died on April 2, 2005. He is already on the church’s list for beatification and canonization.
Source: Official Web site of the Holy See
Mehmet Ali Agca (1958–)
Mehmet Ali Agca was born in Yesiltepe, part of Malatya, Turkey, in 1958. He murdered Turkish journalist Abdi Ipekci but escaped from prison in late 1979 before making an assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in 1981. Italian President Carlo Ciampi pardoned him from his attempted murder charge in 2000, after which he was extradited to Turkey.
Source: Notable Names Database
Further Developments: Mehmet Ali Agca’s release from, return to prison
Agca served nearly 20 years in Italy for his attempted papal assassination, then was granted clemency in 2000. Italy then extradited him to Turkey, where he was sent to do time for his 1979 murder of Turkish journalist Abdi Ipekci.
Source: CBC
In September 2006, two months before Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Turkey to meet with Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew, Agca sent the current pontiff a letter from prison saying that “his life was in danger” if he came to Turkey. “For your own welfare you must make a grand gesture of honor and resign. Then you must return to your native land. … Then the Vatican should become a centre of peace and fraternity. The world has a need of this it does not need hatred and vendetta.” Agca was freed from prison briefly in 2006 but, after public outcry, he was jailed again. He is due to remain in prison on Istanbul’s Asian side until 2012.
Source: ThisisLondon.co.uk
Related Topic: ‘Turkey Narrows Scope of Lese-Majesty Law’
Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code was amended on April 30, making insulting “Turkishness” no longer a crime. Kemal Kerincsiz, an ultranationalist lawyer who prosecuted several cases using this law, was implicated in the so-called Ergenekon scandal, which revealed a network of former politicians and businessmen suspected of planning several assassinations, including the murders of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and Christian missionaries working in Agca’s hometown of Malatya.
Source: findingDulcinea
© 2008 Dulcinea Media, Inc.
