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# Mehmet Ali Agca's 1981 assassination attempt on John Paul II in Saint Peter's Square
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/13-maia-1981-goda-kogda-kortezh-papy-rimskogo-dvigalsia-po-ploshchadi-sviatogo-petra-a-ioann-pavel-ii-privetstvoval-palomnikov-razdalos-shest-vystrelov/
- Published: 2022-05-13T08:52:20.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:06:07.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Faith, The East, People, Rome

On 13 May 1981, as the Pope's motorcade moved across St Peter's Square and John Paul II greeted the pilgrims, six shots rang out. A Turkish extremist standing in one of the front rows wounded the Pope in the abdomen and the hand: by a miracle, the bullet spared the spine and the major arteries. The investigation established that Mehmet Ali Ağca, who had earlier escaped from a life sentence, was implicated in other crimes as well, and he received a second life sentence. Two years later the pontiff visited his would-be assassin and told him that he forgave him. Ağca was subsequently extradited to Turkey, where he was granted an amnesty in 2006.

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_6550@13-05-2022_11-52-20.jpg)

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_6551@13-05-2022_11-52-20.jpg)

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_6552@13-05-2022_11-52-20.jpg)