Shots fired at Polish-born Pope John Paul II 36 yrs ago
May 13 marks 36 years since Turkish hitman Ali Agca fired shots at Polish-born Pope John Paul II in an assassination attempt on St. Peter's Square in Rome.
On May 13, 1981 at around 5 p.m., Pope John Paul II was being driven around St. Peter's Square in an open vehicle and was greeting the faithful gathered in the square. At 5:17 p.m. a Turkish man named Mehmet Ali Agca pulled out a Browning pistol and shot at the pope.
Agca was nabbed immediately after the attack, and was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment by an Italian court.
John Paul II was heavily wounded and reached the hospital in almost critical condition. After major surgery and a few blood transfusions, the pope's convalescence lasted several months.
It has proved impossible to confirm who the masterminds behind the assassination attempt were, though there has been suspicion that Bulgarian security services hired Agca at the request of the Soviet KGB. Agca has offered multiple versions and is considered to be completely unreliable.
After having recovered The Pope visited Agca in prison and forgave him for the assassination attempt.
According to a historian Prof. Antoni Dudek, in the context of the assassination attempt it is difficult to fully assess the Soviet authorities' attitude towards the Pope, since the Soviet archives are closed.
"My experience with the special services files tells me that even if the KGB leadership had ordered John Paul II's assassination, whose contractor was Ali Agca, there would be not be a single document left on it now", Prof. Dudek said.
The historian suspects that the documents may at most contain hints of the Soviet authorities' having inspired the attempt.
After serving 19 years of his life sentence, Agca was pardoned by an Italian president at the pope's request and was deported to Turkey in 2000.
In 2014, Agca visited the Vatican and laid flowers on the late pontiff's tomb.
Pope John Paul II, now declared a saint, died on April 2, 2005. (PAP)
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