1981-05-13 · St. Peter's Square, Vatican City

Assassination Attempt on John Paul II

A Turkish gunman shot Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square, and the pope survived against the odds, later visiting his would-be assassin in prison to offer forgiveness in person.

On May 13, 1981, as John Paul II rode through St. Peter's Square in his open popemobile greeting a crowd of twenty thousand, a Turkish man named Mehmet Ali Agca fired four shots at close range. Two bullets hit the pope, one passing through his abdomen and narrowly missing his aorta and spinal cord. He lost three-quarters of his blood during the five-hour surgery that followed. Doctors said it was extraordinary that he survived. The date was not lost on the pope. May 13 is the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, and John Paul II became convinced that Mary had guided the bullet away from his vital organs. He later had one of the bullets set into the crown of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal. The motive behind the shooting has never been fully established. Agca gave contradictory accounts over the years, alternately claiming to have acted alone and implicating Bulgarian intelligence services, possibly acting on behalf of the Soviet Union. No definitive answer has emerged. What is clear is what the pope did afterward. In December 1983, he visited Agca in Rome's Rebibbia prison, sat in his cell, spoke with him privately for twenty minutes, and publicly forgave him. The photograph of the pope holding the hand of the man who tried to kill him became one of the most famous images of the twentieth century. It was not a political gesture. It was what the pope believed the Gospel demanded.

Why it matters

Demonstrated the personal courage and radical commitment to forgiveness of one of the most influential popes in modern history, and deepened John Paul II's Marian devotion that shaped the rest of his papacy.