Mehmet Ali Agca's 1981 assassination attempt on John Paul II in Saint Peter's Square

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.

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

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Mehmet Ali Agca's 1981 assassination attempt on John Paul II in Saint Peter's Square

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

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