 Pope John Paul II was shot as he travelled through St Peter's Square |
31 March 2005Jan Repa
On 13 May, 1981, a Turkish gunman, Ali Agca, fired at the Pope in Rome's St Peter's Square, hitting him in the abdomen and the hand. The critically wounded Pope underwent emergency surgery - and, on his own account, only just survived.
Agca - a known criminal with links to Turkish far-right paramilitaries - spent 19 years in an Italian prison. He is currently serving a prison term in Turkey, unconnected with the papal shooting, and is expected to regain his freedom in a couple of years' time.
Soon after the shooting, suspicion fell on the Bulgarian Communist intelligence service. Agca and other Turkish gangsters were known to have stayed in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, several times.
However, an Italian court acquitted three Bulgarians for lack of evidence. Agca, who was called as a witness, appeared to feign madness - declaring he had acted on God's instructions.
He has subsequently claimed to be the new Messiah and to have conspired with Vatican prelates, who recognised his true identity.
He also says he is writing a book which will reveal all. Again, there are suspicions that Agca may have been advised to play the fool as a way of concealing the trail and securing his own personal safety.
Bulgarian files
The commonly held theory is that the decision to kill the Pope was taken by the Soviet leadership - which was alarmed that the Polish-born head of the Catholic Church was undermining Soviet influence in Central Europe.
 The Pope met his would-be assassin Ali Agca in his jail cell |
The following year, Solidarity was established as a mass movement for political change.
The claim that documents exist finally proving a link between the Soviet Union, the former Bulgarian and East German intelligence services, and the shooting of the Pope, appears to come from Ferdinando Imposimato - a prosecutor at the abortive trial of the three Bulgarians.
The Italian parliament has recently begun its own investigation into the past activity of Soviet bloc intelligence services on Italian soil. Again, there may be a possibility that this week's press publicity could be aimed at pressuring the Bulgarians into releasing any relevant documents they may have acquired.
The Pope himself may or may not be privy to new information. Three years ago, just before a visit to Bulgaria, he declared that he loved the Bulgarians too much to suspect them of complicity in his shooting.
However, in a new book, published earlier this year, the Pope states that Ali Agca was a professional hit man, who had been commissioned by others to do the shooting.
