On 13th May 1981, a man called Mehmet Ali Ağca attempted to assassinate Pope St John Paul II, shooting him as he travelled through the crowds of St Peter’s Square where 20,000 people had gathered to see the Pope.
The assailant, 23-year-old escaped Turkish murderer Mehmet Ali Agca, fired four shots, one of which hit the pontiff in the abdomen, narrowly missing vital organs, and another that hit the pope’s left hand.
A third bullet struck 60-year-old American Ann Odre in the chest, seriously wounding her, and the fourth hit 21-year-old Jamaican Rose Hill in the arm. Agca’s weapon was knocked out of his hand by bystanders, and he was detained until his arrest by police.
The pope was rushed by ambulance to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, where he underwent more than five hours of surgery and was listed in critical but stable condition.
As he was rushed to hospital, he muttered the words “Mary! My mother!” over and over.
It was a truly significant date: on 13th May 1917, Our Lady began appearing to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. John Paul II then requested to see the Third Secret of Fatima and promptly consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
The Pope would later say that “it was a mother’s hand that guided the bullet’s path and in his throes the Pope halted at the threshold of death”. One of the bullets from the attempt was later placed in the crown of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima.
The motives of Mehmet Ali Agca in attempting to kill the head of the Roman Catholic Church were enigmatic, and remain so today. In the 1970s, Agca joined a right-wing Turkish terrorist group known as the Gray Wolves. The group is held responsible for the assassination of hundreds of public officials, labor organizers, journalists, and left-wing activists as part of their mission to cleanse Turkey of leftist influence.
Ağca himself was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment, but at the request of the Pope, he was pardoned in June 2000. Pope John Paul also asked for prayers for “my brother” Ağca, whom he had “sincerely forgiven”, and the two struck up a friendship.
Via History Channel / EPA
