Interesting item - regardless this ROMAN not Italian Catholic Pope was
one of the greatest Popes in the History of the Church......so sit back
and watch the show now, and see if these bastards think they will
destroy the Church economically, politically, and socially for you know
it is the gold they are after.....but now at least the Church can flush
out the homosexuals who broke their vows - kind of like that crooked cop
- the one rotten apple in the barrel who would destroy the rest, unless
weeded out.......for the enemy operates from within and without.....
Saba
world > europe myCNN | Video | Audio | Headline
News Brief | Free E-mail | Feedback
Search
WORLD
TOP STORIES
Thousands dead in India; quake toll rapidly rising
Israelis, Palestinians make final push before Israeli election
Gates pledges $100 million for AIDS
Davos protesters face tear gas
(MORE)
TOP STORIES
Thousands dead in India; quake toll rapidly rising
Israelis, Palestinians make final push before Israeli election
Davos protesters face tear gas
(MORE)
BUSINESS
Nasdaq: good day, tough quarter
Andersen adopts Volcker reforms
Hewlett claims HP fixed Compaq vote
(MORE)
MARKETS
4:30pm ET, 3/28
DJIA
23.00
10403.90
NAS
18.60
1845.35
S&P
2.81
1147.39
SPORTS
The coach's take on the Final Four
Red Wings clinch Presidents' Trophy with 3-3 tie
Garnett gets stitches, leads T'wolves past Mavs
(MORE)
All Scoreboards
WEATHER
All cities
U.S.
Bush: No help from Washington for California power crunch
POLITICS
Bush signs order opening 'faith-based' charity office for business
LAW
Prosecutor says witnesses saw rap star shoot gun in club
TECHNOLOGY
Napster to launch fee-based service
ENTERTAINMENT
Can the second 'Survivor' live up to the first?
HEALTH
Heart doctors debate ethics of testing super-aspirin
TRAVEL
Nurses to aid ailing airline passengers
FOOD
Texas cattle quarantined after violation of mad-cow feed ban
ARTS & STYLE
Ceramist Adler adds furniture to his creations
(MORE HEADLINES)
MAINPAGE
WORLD
africa
americas
asia pacific
europe
middle east
U.S.
WEATHER
BUSINESS
SPORTS
TECHNOLOGY
SPACE
HEALTH
ENTERTAINMENT
POLITICS
LAW
CAREER
TRAVEL
FOOD
ARTS & STYLE
BOOKS
NATURE
IN-DEPTH
ANALYSIS
LOCAL
EDITIONS:
CNN.com Europe
change default edition
MULTIMEDIA:
video
video archive
audio
multimedia showcase
more services
E-MAIL:
Subscribe to one of our news e-mail lists.
Enter your address:
DISCUSSION:
message boards
chat
feedback
CNN WEB SITES:
CNNfyi.com
CNN.com Europe
AsiaNow
Spanish
Portuguese
German
Italian
Danish
Japanese
Chinese Headlines
Korean Headlines
TIME INC. SITES:
CNN NETWORKS:
CNN anchors
transcripts
Turner distribution
SITE INFO:
help
contents
search
ad info
jobs
WEB SERVICES:
Main | Biography | Successors | Selection Process | Photo Essay
Quiz | Video Gallery | Pictorial Biography | Legacy
Man who shot pope pardoned in Italy
Mehmet Ali Agca shot Pope John Paul II at St. Peter's Square on May
13, 1981
June 13, 2000
Web posted at: 1:52 p.m. EDT (1752 GMT)
In this story:
Pope credits miraculous recovery
No proof of conspiracy
RELATED STORIES, SITES
ROME -- Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul
II in 1981, will be extradited to Turkey after Italy's president issued
a pardon on Tuesday for the papal shooting.
Agca will serve the remainder of a 10-year sentence in Turkey for the
murder of newspaper editor Abdi Ipekci. He shot the pope after escaping
from jail while being held on charges of murdering Ipekci and was later
sentenced to death in absentia by his native country.
A 1991 amnesty reduced the Turkish death sentence to 10 years in prison.
VIDEO
Clip of the attempted assasination of Pope John Paul II
MESSAGE BOARD
Tell us your views on the pardon
"This morning the president of the republic signed the clemency decree
for Mehmet Ali Agca, and simultaneously the Justice Minister signed an
extradition decree which will send him back to Turkey," a spokesman for
Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi said on Tuesday.
The pope, who met Agca in prison, publicly forgave him three days after
the May 13, 1981, shooting, which occurred as the pope rode in an open
car across St. Peter's Square. Agca, now 43 years old, shot the pope
point-blank and was captured immediately.
Chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said John Paul was
satisfied with Ciampi's action.
"As you know, John Paul II immediately pardoned his attacker and for
some time now the pope had told Italian authorities that he was in favor
of an act of clemency if Italian law permitted it," Navarro-Valls said.
"He has been insisting on this for some time. We are not surprised. We
are very happy."
Agca's attorneys reported that their client thanked the pope and the
Vatican when told the news.
"This is a dream. I cannot believe it," news reports quoted the gunman
as saying in comments relayed by his lawyer.
Pope credits miraculous recovery
Hit in the abdomen, left hand and right arm, the pontiff was critically
wounded in the 1981 assassination attempt. Doctors were able to save the
pope's life largely because Agca's bullets missed any vital organs.
The pope credits his survival to the intervention of the Virgin Mary of
Fatima, Portugal.
John Paul visited Fatima last month, revealing that the attempt on his
life was the last of three secrets revealed to three Portuguese shepherd
children who saw the Virgin's apparition in 1917. The other two secrets
had been long since revealed, but the Vatican had held tightly to the
third.
The shooting occurred less than three years after John Paul ascended the
papal throne.
Agca has served more than 19 years of a life sentence.
No proof of conspiracy
Agca, a member of the militant right-wing Grey Wolves group in Turkey,
gave several conflicting reasons through the years for his attack on the
pope, but prosecutors were never able to prove that he had not acted
alone.
At a second trial after Agca's original conviction, prosecutors tried to
link the attack to the growing democracy movement -- very much alive in
Pope John Paul's native Poland at the time -- that would eventually lead
to the downfall of communism.
The pontiff was a staunch supporter of Poland's Solidarity union and is
believed to have been instrumental in the chain of events that led to
the Eastern Bloc's first freely elected government.
The theory speculated that Bulgarian secret service agents had hired
Agca on behalf of the Soviet Union.
Prosecutor Rosario Priore, who investigated the alleged conspiracy, said
that while he's convinced the whole truth has never come out, the pardon
was "a wise decision."
"It's the only possible act to take," he said. "You can't keep people in
prison just to make them talk."
But another prosecutor, Antonio Marini, said that Agca's extradition to
Turkey "extinguishes the last hope of reaching the truth."
(Saba Note: Pope already knows the truth and forgave his would be
killer.....so keep in mind the Borgias in the Vatican as well as in the
White House)
saba
Man who shot pope pardoned in Italy
Mehmet Ali Agca shot Pope John Paul II at St. Peter's Square on May 13,
1981
June 13, 2000
Web posted at: 1:52 p.m. EDT (1752 GMT)
In this story:
Pope credits miraculous recovery
No proof of conspiracy
RELATED STORIES, SITES
ROME -- Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul
II in 1981, will be extradited to Turkey after Italy's president issued
a pardon on Tuesday for the papal shooting.
Agca will serve the remainder of a 10-year sentence in Turkey for the
murder of newspaper editor Abdi Ipekci. He shot the pope after escaping
from jail while being held on charges of murdering Ipekci and was later
sentenced to death in absentia by his native country.
A 1991 amnesty reduced the Turkish death sentence to 10 years in prison.
"This morning the president of the republic signed the clemency decree
for Mehmet Ali Agca, and simultaneously the Justice Minister signed an
extradition decree which will send him back to Turkey," a spokesman for
Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi said on Tuesday.
The pope, who met Agca in prison, publicly forgave him three days after
the May 13, 1981, shooting, which occurred as the pope rode in an open
car across St. Peter's Square. Agca, now 43 years old, shot the pope
point-blank and was captured immediately.
Chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said John Paul was
satisfied with Ciampi's action.
"As you know, John Paul II immediately pardoned his attacker and for
some time now the pope had told Italian authorities that he was in favor
of an act of clemency if Italian law permitted it," Navarro-Valls said.
"He has been insisting on this for some time. We are not surprised. We
are very happy."
Agca's attorneys reported that their client thanked the pope and the
Vatican when told the news.
"This is a dream. I cannot believe it," news reports quoted the gunman
as saying in comments relayed by his lawyer.
Pope credits miraculous recovery
Hit in the abdomen, left hand and right arm, the pontiff was critically
wounded in the 1981 assassination attempt. Doctors were able to save the
pope's life largely because Agca's bullets missed any vital organs.
The pope credits his survival to the intervention of the Virgin Mary of
Fatima, Portugal.
John Paul visited Fatima last month, revealing that the attempt on his
life was the last of three secrets revealed to three Portuguese shepherd
children who saw the Virgin's apparition in 1917. The other two secrets
had been long since revealed, but the Vatican had held tightly to the
third.
The shooting occurred less than three years after John Paul ascended the
papal throne.
Agca has served more than 19 years of a life sentence.
No proof of conspiracy
Agca, a member of the militant right-wing Grey Wolves group in Turkey,
gave several conflicting reasons through the years for his attack on the
pope, but prosecutors were never able to prove that he had not acted
alone.
At a second trial after Agca's original conviction, prosecutors tried to
link the attack to the growing democracy movement -- very much alive in
Pope John Paul's native Poland at the time -- that would eventually lead
to the downfall of communism.
The pontiff was a staunch supporter of
Poland's Solidarity union and is believed to have been instrumental in
the chain of events that led to the Eastern Bloc's first freely elected
government.
The theory speculated that Bulgarian secret service agents had hired
Agca on behalf of the Soviet Union.
Prosecutor Rosario Priore, who investigated the alleged conspiracy, said
that while he's convinced the whole truth has never come out, the pardon
was "a wise decision."
"It's the only possible act to take," he said.
"You can't keep people in prison just to make them talk."
But another prosecutor, Antonio Marini, said that Agca's extradition to
Turkey "extinguishes the last hope of reaching the truth."
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
RELATED STORIES:
World wishes Pope John Paul II a happy 80th birthday
May 18, 2000
Pope beatifies shepherd children in Fatima
May 13, 2000
RELATED SITES:
Vatican-related sites:
Vatican: the Holy See
• Cor Unum
• L'Osservatore Romano
• Jubilee celebration
• XV World Youth Day, 2000
Chiesa Cattolica Italiana
Diocese of Rome
Papal-related sites:
Pope John Paul
PBS Frontline: John Paul II - The Millennial Pope
The Pope Page
Successors of St. Peter
Visited countries:
Poland Home Page
The Government of the Russian Federation
The Israeli Government's Official Website
Palestinian National Authority Home Page
Catholic media sites:
Catholic News Service
• Happy birthday: As he turns 80, pope has one of his busiest
years
Catholic Online
Catholic Communication Network
Eternal World Television Network
• Papal Visit to the Holy Land
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.
Search
Back to the top © 2001 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.
--- Begin Message ---
http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe/06/13/pope.gunman.03/
--- End Message ---
