Pope John Paul II waves to the Mexican faithful outside the Basilica of Guadalupe after the Mass for Saint Juan Diego, July 31, 2002 in Mexico City, Mexico.
On May 13, 1981, five days before his 61st birthday, Mehmet Ali Agca shot John Paul II twice as the Pope blessed devotees in St Peter's Square. The Pontiff was seriously wounded, and images of him grimacing in pain shook the world, coming as it did less than six weeks after President Ronald Reagan was shot in Washington, DC.
There has been suspicion -- never proven, of course -- that the KGB or one of its subsidiaries ordered the hit to halt the anti-Communist Pope in his tracks. Agca first told the interrogators he was acting on behalf of Bulgarian intelligence, which Western intelligence saw as part of the KGB's dirty games orbit. But the Turk recanted later.
On January 9, 1984, the Pope visited Agca in prison and forgave him. 'What we talked about will have to remain a secret between him and me. I spoke to him as a brother whom I have pardoned and who has my complete trust,' John Paul II said.
Asked an apologetic Agca: 'Tell me why it is that I could not kill you?'
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