A protective hand saved John Paul II and led to happy consequences

Summary:

On October 16, 1978, Polish Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła was elected Pope at the age of 58, succeeding John Paul I who had died in mysterious circumstances after only thirty-three days in office. This election came as a great surprise: he was the first Polish pope in history, and the first non-Italian pope in 456 years. What's more, this was the height of the Cold War, and Cardinal Wojtyła - Archbishop of Krakow - came from an Eastern Bloc country and was known for repeatedly denouncing the lies of communism and supporting persecuted Christians. He took the name John Paul II.

n May 13, 1981, he was riding in the back of an uncovered white Jeep in St. Peter's Square, among 20,000 faithful gathered for the Wednesday general audience. He blessed people, hugged them and took children in his arms. At 5.19pm, just as he had returned a little girl to her parents, three shots were fired at him. Two bullets perforated his abdomen and wounded his left hand and right arm. The Pope collapsed. Two foreign pilgrims were also seriously wounded. A nun grabbed the arm of one of the gunmen, who was tackled to the ground and immobilized by the police. The second attacker managed to escape. Pilgrims - and soon the whole world - were shocked. It became the No. 1 news story of the time, and was broadcast worldwide. Vatican Radio journalist Benedetto Nardacci commented live: "For the first time, we're talking about terrorism in the Vatican too. We're talking about terrorism in a city from which messages of love, concord and peace have always come."

Prayers for the Holy Father poured in and rose to heaven. The bodyguards rushed the Pope to the entrance of the medical center and laid him on the ground, waiting for an ambulance to transfer him to the Gemelli hospital. During this wait, John Paul II did not groan, but murmured a prayer in Polish: "My Madonna, help me, do not abandon me." The emergency blood bag reserved for him was the wrong one, and the siren on the ambulance transporting him (despite the fact that it was new) broke down. He passed out in the ambulance and his vital signs declined. A priest administered the last rites on him. An Italian radio station even announced his death.

But the surgeons managed to operate successfully at 8pm. Recovering his strength, four days later the Pope celebrated mass from his hospital bed and assured his forgiveness to his attacker, "the brother who hit me". His name was Mehmet Ali Ağca, a 23-year-old Turk belonging to the "Grey Wolves", an ultra-nationalist and mafia-like group. Ağca was also an important member of the Turkish "stay-behind" cell, part of the clandestine networks coordinated by NATO during the Cold War. He had arrived in Rome under a false name the day before the attack. But he did not act alone: he was accompanied by a childhood friend and accomplice, Oral Çelik, equipped with an offensive grenade (intended as a diversion) and a handgun. Ağca fired two bullets, Çelik fired one (which didn't hit anyone).

Ağca was no stranger to the police. Two years earlier, he had already killed - on Turkish soil - Abdi İpekçi, the managing editor of the newspaper Milliyet. Imprisoned for this crime, he managed to escape on November 25, 1979, with the help of undercover Grey Wolves, including Oral Çelik. He sent a letter stating that his sole motive for escaping was to kill the Pope if he visited Turkey as planned. The Pope's visit to Turkey went off without a hitch in December 1979. On the run, Ağca traveled through Iran, Bulgaria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Tunisia.

A Bulgarian connection, brought forward by the Communists, was suggested to explain the attack, notably by Ağca in a book, but this has never been confirmed. It must be noted that Ağca changed his version of the events several times. The Italian Mafia and Islamists were also suspected.

After his convalescence, John Paul II, true to his "Do not be afraid" motto, continued his work for peace. And God, who knows how to make a greater good out of evil, allowed this near tragedy to have many happy consequences.

Forgiveness and conversion

On December 27, 1983, John Paul II visited his assailant in Rome's Rebibbia prison, and forgave him once again. The Pope asked that he be pardoned and reported: "We met as men and as brothers, because we are all brothers, and all the events of our lives must confirm this brotherhood which comes from the fact that God is our Father." The Pope wished to save the life of someone who wanted to take it away from him. Until his death in 2005, he kept in touch with Ağca and his family (he met his mother and brother).

Mehmet Ali Ağca was released in 2000, but the Turkish authorities reincarcerated him until January 2010, for the murder of Abdi İpekçi. Ağca later declared that he had abjured the Muslim faith on May 13, 2007, and had become a Roman Catholic. He said that his meeting with the Pope inspired him to read the Gospels carefully. In 2014 - thirty-three years after the attack on St. Peter's Square - he came to place flowers at the tomb of the pope who had forgiven him.

An interesting note: the evening before carrying out his attack on the pope, Mehmet Ali Ağca went to a cinema in via Cicerone with a chambermaid he had met in his hotel, and together they chose to watch the film "Jesus of Nazareth", directed by Franco Zeffirelli in 1977.

As for Oral Çelik, he was arrested in France on November 14, 1986, for drug trafficking, under the false name of Bedri Ateş. He was reportedly acquitted for lack of evidence. He then moved into politics and business in Turkey, becoming president of the Malatyaspor soccer team.

The connection with Our Lady of Fatima

As we know, the Virgin Mary held a special place in the life of John Paul II, as recalled by his pontifical motto: Totus tuus ego sum, Maria ("I am all yours, Mary"). He had been wearing the brown scapular of Mount Carmel since the age of ten, seeing it as a garment that evokes "the Virgin Mary's continual protection in this life and in the passage to the fullness of eternal glory". He insisted that the surgeons leave it on him during his critical emergency operation.

The pope attributed his survival to the Virgin Mary, saying: "At the very moment I fell in St. Peter's Square, I had this vivid presentiment that I would be saved [...]; one hand fired and another guided the bullet." The surgeons who operated on the pope are adamant that the 9-millimeter bullet was mysteriously "deflected" in such a way that it only grazed the aorta by a few millimeters, but did not hit any vital organs.

Sixty-four years earlier, to the day, on May 13 1917, the Virgin Mary had appeared for the first time to three young Portuguese shepherds, Jacinta, Francisco and Lucia, at Fatima (Portugal). The Pope was well aware of this fact. As soon as he woke up in the hospital, he asked his private secretary, Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, to bring him the documents on these apparitions. Among other things, Our Lady's messages spoke of the need to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In fact, during the third apparition, on July 13, 1917, Our Lady made a request that Lucia recounted as follows: "When you see a night illuminated by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign that God is giving you, that He is going to punish the world for its crimes by means of war, hunger and persecution against the Church and the Holy Father. To prevent this war, I will come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and for reparatory communion on First Saturdays. If my requests are accepted, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions against the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be destroyed. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate to me Russia, which will be converted, and the world will be granted a certain period of peace". This request was repeated in another apparition to Lucia on June 13, 1929.

On October 7, 1981, John Paul II confided to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square: "How could I forget that the event took place on the day and at the hour when, for over sixty years, the first apparition of the Mother of Christ to the poor peasants in Fatima, Portugal, has been commemorated? For truly, on that day, I felt in everything that happened that extraordinary maternal protection that proved stronger than the projectile of death."

From the time of the attack until his death, John Paul II celebrated a Mass of thanksgiving to the Virgin Mary in his private chapel, every May 13 at 5pm. On May 13, 1982, in the presence of a million faithful, he went to Fatima to thank the Virgin for protecting him. He also expressed his intention to consecrate the world and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In 1981, 1982, and 1983, he renewed the first consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, made by Pope Pius XII in 1942. Then, on March 25 1984, the feast of the Annunciation, he renewed it, even more solemnly, in the presence of all the world's bishops gathered at the Vatican. The bullet that struck him is set in the crown of the original statue of Our Lady of Fatima, between the stem and the cross.

A few years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, John Paul II confided to the Cardinals on June 13, 1994: "Personally, I have been given a very special understanding of Our Lady of Fatima's message. On May 13, 1981, at the time of the attempt on the Pope's life, and again towards the end of the 1980s, when communism collapsed in the countries of the Soviet bloc."

As Mary had promised, in the end, her "Immaculate Heart will triumph".

Beyond reasons to believe:

Cases of miraculous protection from bullets are less rare than it may seem. For example, when convert Joseph Fadelle's family tried to assassinate him by shooting him repeatedly at point-blank range, for leaving Islam to become a Catholic, he emerged unharmed. Listen to his testimony here to find out how he was miraculously saved by the Virgin Mary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agWbuOdG6a4.

Going further:

https://fr.aleteia.org/2021/05/12/la-vierge-de-fatima-a-t-elle-sauve-la-vie-de-jean-paul-ii/

More information:

• A visual retrospective in Aleteia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_UVgx7SAT8.
• https://www.vaticannews.va/fr/vatican/news/2021-05/40-ans-attentat-jean-paul-ii-place-saint-pierre-13-mai-1981.html.
• https://www.vaticannews.va/fr/vatican/news/2021-05/video-attentat-jean-paul-2-13-mai-1981-40-ans-place-saint-pierre.html.
• Documentary on the assassination attempt on John Paul II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od3fXk_Au_s.