On May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II survived a near-fatal assassination attempt in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City. The event shocked the world and became one of the defining moments of his papacy.
As the Pope was circling the square in his open-air Popemobile, greeting the approximately 20,000 faithful gathered for his weekly general audience, Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Ağca fired four shots at the pontiff from close range. Two bullets struck the Pope in the abdomen, while others injured two American tourists.
The Pope was rushed to Gemelli Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery lasting over five hours. The bullets had perforated his intestines and caused severe blood loss, but narrowly missed vital arteries. Doctors later stated that had the bullets struck just millimeters in different directions, the wounds would have been fatal.
During his recovery, John Paul II publicly forgave his would-be assassin, even visiting Ağca in prison in 1983. He attributed his survival to divine intervention, specifically to the intercession of Our Lady of Fátima. The Pope noted that the assassination attempt occurred on the feast day of Our Lady of Fátima, and later donated one of the bullets extracted from his body to the shrine at Fátima, Portugal, where it was placed in the crown of the statue of the Virgin Mary.
The motive behind the assassination attempt remained shrouded in mystery for years. While Ağca initially claimed to have acted alone, later investigations explored possible connections to Bulgaria’s secret service and, by extension, the Soviet KGB, though conclusive evidence of a conspiracy was never established.
Pope John Paul II continued his papacy for another 24 years after the assassination attempt, though his health was permanently affected. The event strengthened his resolve and contributed to his influential role in world affairs, including his opposition to communism in Eastern Europe.Retry
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