The Pope Survives: John Paul II Endures Assassination Attempt

Four bullets struck Pope John Paul II as he rode through a packed St. Peter's Square in his open-topped Popemobile on May 13, 1981. Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca, standing just fifteen feet away, fired a Browning 9mm pistol into the crowd, hitting the Pope in the abdomen, left hand, and right arm. The pontiff collapsed into the arms of his secretary, Stanislaw Dziwisz, as blood soaked his white cassock. He was rushed to Gemelli Hospital, where surgeons operated for five hours to save his life. Agca had escaped from a Turkish prison in 1979, where he had been serving time for murdering a newspaper editor. He traveled through Bulgaria and Italy using forged documents, a journey that later fueled theories of a broader conspiracy. Bulgarian intelligence, and by extension the Soviet KGB, were suspected of orchestrating the assassination attempt, though definitive proof never materialized despite years of investigation by Italian prosecutors. The Pope lost nearly three-quarters of his blood and received last rites before surgery. Doctors removed twenty-two inches of intestine and repaired multiple wounds. His recovery took months. When he returned to public audiences, he did so behind bulletproof glass, and the Vatican overhauled its security protocols permanently. The open, accessible papacy of John Paul II's early years gave way to a more protected existence. Two years after the shooting, John Paul II visited Agca in his prison cell at Rebibbia and forgave him publicly, an act captured in photographs that became iconic images of Catholic reconciliation. Agca served nearly two decades in Italian prisons before being extradited to Turkey. The Pope attributed his survival to the intercession of Our Lady of Fatima, whose feast day fell on May 13, deepening his already intense Marian devotion and influencing Catholic theology for a generation.