Pope John Paul II in conversation with Ali Agca, who tried to kill him, in a cell in the “Rebibbia” prison, where he serves his sentence. Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo / Alamy Stock Photo

On the Attempted Assassination of Pope John Paul II

A look back at the events of May 13, 1981, and how they shaped the future of papal security

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Forty years ago, on May 13, 1981, the programming at media outlets around the world — television, radio, newspaper services — was interrupted with a news flash announcing that Pope John Paul II (r. 1978-2005) had been shot. An attempt on the pope’s life had occurred during his Wednesday weekly audience. As these reports stunned the world, the pope was being rushed to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. People everywhere asked: “Who would want to kill the pope?” Catholics and non-Catholics alike prayed and waited anxiously.

The Attempt

Pope John Paul II is assisted by aides moments after he was shot while riding in his open car in St. Peter’s Square May 13, 1981. GlobePhotos/ZumaPress/Bridgeman Images

The horrendous act took place at 5:17 p.m. Rome time as the pope was going among and greeting the thousands of well-wishers in St. Peter’s Square. Pope John Paul was standing in the rear of his white jeep (best known today as the popemobile) and had just completed lifting and blessing a small child when four shots were heard. Two of the four bullets lodged in the pope’s abdomen. Two other bullets hit his left index finger and right arm and also struck two bystanders but not critically.

The shot to the abdomen was most severe, just missing an artery. Immediately, his aides surrounded him and quickly moved him to a standby ambulance. During afternoon rush-hour traffic in Rome, the four-mile trip from the Vatican to the Gemelli Hospital is at least 25 minutes. The ambulance made it in eight minutes. At the hospital, a five-hour-plus emergency surgery was performed and the bullet removed. The surgery was a success and four days into his recovery John Paul forgave the one who had attempted to take his life. The pope would have a three-week stay in the hospital where he continued the work of the Church and concelebrated Mass using a bedside table.

There is a story that very often his doctors would gather nearby to discuss the pope’s condition. John Paul could see but not hear the doctors, and he soon began to refer to them as the Sanhedrin.

The popular, charismatic John Paul traveled more than any other pope in history and the attempt on his life only slightly slowed him down. The year after he was shot, he went on seven international trips, and such trips would continue throughout his reign. The possibility that someone or some group wanted to kill him was never a deterrent to his vocation as the successor to St. Peter. He lived the motto he coined early in his papacy, one that every Catholic of his era knew: “Be not afraid.”

Intercession of the Blessed Mother

Pope John Paul credited the Blessed Virgin Mary with protecting him. He recognized that the assassination attempt took place on the feast of Our Lady of Fátima, a feast recalling when three children, in 1917, at Fátima, Portugal, saw a vision of the Virgin Mary. At the first general audience following his recuperation, he said: “Could I forget that the event in St. Peter’s Square [attempted assassination] took place on the day and hour in which for more than sixty years the first apparition of the Mother of Christ to the poor peasants has been remembered in Fátima in Portugal? For, in everything that happened to me on that very day, I felt that extraordinary maternal protection and care, which proved stronger than the deadly bullet” (Oct. 7, 1981, Wednesday audience).

The pope gave one of the bullets to the bishop of Fátima, who placed it in the crown of the statue of Our Lady of Fátima. In 1982, John Paul visited the Fátima shrine, where he prayed and offered his thanksgiving to the Blessed Mother. According to biographer George Weigel in “A Witness to Hope” (HarperCollins, $35), John Paul explained what happened: “‘One hand fired, and another guided the bullet.’ It was a confession of miraculous intervention that the most secular soul might have been tempted to concede.”

The Villain

A 23-year-old Turkish citizen and trained terrorist named Mehmet Ali Agca was the shooter. He was an escaped, wanted prisoner from a Turkish military prison to which he had been incarcerated for his role in the 1979 murder of a Turkish newspaper editor. He was such a threat that the Turkish police, in their search for him, were ready to shoot on sight. While an escapee, he threatened to kill Pope John Paul II who was scheduled to visit Turkey in November 1979. Agca wrote to an Istanbul newspaper demanding the visit be canceled or “I will without a doubt kill the pope-chief.” He made no such attempt.

Using an assumed name in May 1981 the terrorist found his way to Rome, and during the Wednesday weekly audience got close to the pope — just behind the first rows of pilgrims — and opened fire. His weapon was a 9mm, Browning, semi-automatic pistol, a choice weapon of many terrorists. Agca was quickly subdued by others in the crowd, taken into custody and soon confessed to being the shooter.

Many sources refer to a note he had previously written: “I am killing the pope as a protest against the imperialism of the Soviet Union and the United States and against the genocide that is being carried out in Salvador and Afghanistan.”

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THIRD SECRET

“Most intriguing, however, was the mysterious ‘Third Secret’ of Fátima featuring a vision of a pope killed alongside other martyrs. John Paul II came to see this vision as pointing to himself when on May 13, 1981, he was shot in St. Peter’s Square in an assassination attempt that nearly took his life. … Reflecting on the vision of the Third Secret, John Paul II knew it was Our Lady of Fátima who was protecting him. He later said that while the assassin’s hand fired the shot ‘… it was a mother’s hand that guided the bullet’s paths and in his throes the Pope halted at the threshold of death.’”

— Edward Sri, “A Bullet, A Pope & Our Lady of Fátima for Today,” To Keep and To Ponder blog post

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Initially, he claimed to have acted alone and was sentenced to life in Rome’s Rebibbia Prison. In 1985, he said he had accomplices and named them; around that same time, he said he was the reincarnation of Jesus. He also claimed that he had been tortured by Roman authorities, and that the Italian court could not try him because the crime took place on Vatican soil. Those identified as accomplices were apprehended, but their participation could not be established.

In December 1983, Pope John Paul visited Agca in prison and told him that he had forgiven him. For Agca’s part, he never expressed serious remorse over the shooting; he couldn’t understand how the pope survived.

According to John Paul, Agca told him he feared punishment from Our Lady of Fátima who he believed had saved the pope. At Pope John Paul’s request, Agca was granted clemency by the Italian president in the year 2000 because that was a dedicated jubilee year in the Church. Agca was extradited to Turkey where he served another eight years for his earlier crimes. He is now free and reported to be living in Turkey.

Security for the Pope

Security experts universally agree that the pope is one of the most difficult of all high-profile people to protect. Every pope wants to be among and greet those who come into his presence; to touch, to bless, to kiss babies, to show his love up close. He is a pastor, a shepherd who insists on getting near his flock. This fact and the possibility that the pope may go off script or suddenly do something that is not on the itinerary is a challenge for any security detail. There are several layers of security for the pope: the Swiss Guard and the Gendarmerie Corps of Vatican City State, made up of some 200-plus highly skilled individuals, provide papal and Vatican security, while the Italian police are immediately available to assist. Some of these people are often in plainclothes alongside the popemobile, much in the manner of the U.S. Secret Service guarding the president.

For over 500 years, the Swiss Guard has been protecting the pope. These are a highly trained group of young men dedicated and completely loyal to the pope. They all receive basic military training with the Swiss army and, when assigned to the Vatican, not only receive specialized training but vow to give their life, if necessary, for the pope. Often participating in various ceremonies wearing their distinctive garb, they are, in fact, professional soldiers making up what has been called the smallest army in the world. While seen carrying pikes or halberds, the guards are skilled with automatic weapons that are likely close by.

That the security protection for Pope John Paul II failed on that May afternoon, that an armed person got close to the pope and fired near point-blank, was a blow to the Vatican security apparatus. Among the resulting changes to protective measures was the designing and building of a new popemobile (more than one) with increased physical protective layers — namely, bulletproof-type glass.

WIth the changes, while the Swiss Guard continued their traditional ceremonial role, increased emphasis was placed on the physical security of the pope, especially during public events. That is not to say there was not prior emphasis on security, only that the focus, reported widely, shifted to refining programs such as hand-to-hand combat and small arms training, use of technology, and other covert and overt improvements including event-screening procedures that have grown to resemble those found at airports. When traveling outside Rome, the pope is accompanied by members of Vatican security who interface and work closely with the hosting nation’s security forces. The attack on John Paul caused security agencies around the world to evaluate their programs and assess the possible need for improvement.

Organizations like the Vatican security offices never divulge their techniques and methods but certainly the attempt on John Paul caused a complete review of what went wrong and what changes were necessary. But no matter the changes, if the pope chooses not to use the bullet-proof popemobile, declines wearing a protective vest or suddenly goes off script and starts walking into a crowded group, then his earthly security force will be increasingly challenged. A challenge for which they are constantly preparing. One Vatican official said, “You can keep the people away from the pope, but you can’t keep the pope away from the people.”

D.D. EMMONS writes from Pennsylvania.

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Conspiracy or a Single Culprit

Whether or not Mehmet Ali Agca acted alone or as part of some conspiracy has never been resolved. One theory widely promoted is that the attempt to murder Pope John Paul II was directed by the Russians, who during that era were trying to strengthen their foothold in Poland. Pope John Paul II was the first-ever Polish pope (at the time, he was the first non-Italian pope in over 455 years). The pope was a staunch advocate of the groups in Poland who defied communist control. The Polish Solidarity labor movement was a huge threat to the communist regime and in a 1979 visit to his homeland, John Paul spoke in favor of Solidarity. The theory is that the Russians believed that without John Paul’s support the labor movement would crumble. Most law enforcement agencies familiar with Agca conclude that he did not act out of some religious motivation. The truth about the attempt to murder the Holy Father is not resolved.

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