"In a recent interview, Ali Agca insisted that he acted alone.
"Milan's daily Corriere della Sera quoted him as saying: ``I am sure a
supernatural force pushed me to shoot that May 13th 1981.''
Agca has implied that certain unnamed authorities had suggested that he
invent a conspiracy and co-conspirators in order to win early release."
Pope Reveals Fatima Secret His Way
By FRANCES D'EMILIO
VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope John Paul II said Sunday he'd been deeply moved by
his trip to Portugal, where a day before the Vatican revealed that the
so-called third secret of Fatima involved a prophecy of the 1981 attempt on
the pontiff's life.
The pope chose the Vatican's No. 2 - Cardinal Angelo Sodano - to reveal the
vision seen by three Portuguese shepherd children in 1917. Sodano said in an
interview published Sunday that the pope had wanted to put an end to decades
of speculation surrounding the secret.
Many believers had feared the secret was about some apocalyptic end looming
for humanity.
``It seemed opportune to reveal these symbolic visions, also to show that
there wasn't anything mysterious,'' the Italian cardinal said in Rome's daily
La Repubblica.
The other two secrets - based on several visions the little shepherds of
Fatima had of the Virgin Mary starting on May 13, 1917 - had been revealed
decades earlier. The visions foretold the end of World War I and the
beginning of World War II, and the rise and fall of Soviet Communism.
The pope's third pilgrimage to Fatima coincided with the anniversary of the
May 13, 1981, assassination attempt in St. Peter's Square, in which he was
gravely wounded.
Two of the three shepherd children died of pneumonia at the ages of 9 and 11,
two years after the visions. Their cousin who also saw the visions, Lucia Dos
Santos, is now a 93-year-old cloistered nun in Fatima.
``Still strong in my heart is the emotion felt yesterday at Fatima in
beatifying the little shepherds Francesco and Giacinta Marto, who, together
with Lucia, still living, had the privilege of seeing the Madonna and
speaking with her,'' John Paul told the public gathered in St. Peter's Square
at noon Sunday for a ceremony to ordain 26 priests.
Sodano told the faithful at Fatima on Saturday that the shepherds interpreted
a vision of a ``bishop clothed in white'' as signifying the pontiff. In the
vision, the figure ``falls to the ground, apparently dead, under a burst of
gunfire,'' Sodano said.
The cardinal said the pope had credited the Virgin of Fatima with lending a
``motherly hand'' to guide the bullet's path and spare his life.
John Paul, who turns 80 on Thursday, has asked a commission led by Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger, his top guardian of orthodoxy, to issue a text and
commentary about the third secret.
Asked in the interview why the pope chose now to reveal a secret he learned
in 1978 in the first days of his papacy, Sodano said: ``Fatima was the most
proper place, a symbolic place in the moment in which a millennium,
especially such a tormented century so full suffering, closes.''
Referring to the atheism promoted by the now defunct Communist regimes in
Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, Sodano said Saturday that Fatima's call
``to conversion and penance, issued at the beginning of the 20th century,
remains timely and urgent today.''
The pope on Sunday encouraged prayer and penitence for the church ``for the
conversion of who those who live in sin and for peace in the world.''
Milan's daily Corriere della Sera quoted the pope's 1981 attacker, Mehmet Ali
Agca, as saying: ``I am sure a supernatural force pushed me to shoot that May
13th 1981.''
Mehmet, a Turk, is serving a life sentence in an Italian prison. However
those serving life sentences in Italy rarely spend more than 20 years in
prison before being released, and Agca has petitioned for an early release.
``If I get out of prison, I will go to kneel before the Madonna of Fatima and
I will stay there 10 days in prayer,'' Agca was quoted as saying.
"In a recent interview, Ali Agca insisted he acted alone. He implied
that unnamed authorities suggested that he invent co-conspirators in order to
win early release."
Pope's Attacker Had Second Thoughts
By FRANCES D'EMILIO
ROME (AP) - The gunman serving a life sentence for shooting Pope John Paul II
in 1981 said Monday that he almost walked away from St. Peter's Square that
day without pulling the trigger.
Mehmet Ali Agca was interviewed on a talk show late Monday on RAI state TV
about the Vatican's revelation two days earlier that the so-called third
secret of Fatima was a prophetic vision of the assassination attempt.
The church says the prophecy was delivered to three shepherd children when
the Virgin Mary appeared to them in Fatima, Portugal, on May 13, 1917.
Speaking from his prison in Ancona, on Italy's east coast, Agca offered the
public his version of the dramatic moments during the pope's general audience
before he started firing.
``The pope had done his first swing,'' Agca said, referring to the pontiff's
moving through the square in an open-topped white vehicle as thousands of
faithful waved and cheered. ``He had his back to me,'' said Agca, an alleged
sharpshooter, contending that he refused to shoot any man who had his back to
him.
Agca said at that point he was thinking that he would walk away, ``throw the
gun into the Tiber'' River, which flows near the Vatican and take a train to
Zurich, Switzerland.
Then ``I heard this strong applause. I saw the pope in front of me, 50 meters
(yards) away ....something was dragging me (back). `You must do it. You must
do it,''' Agca said he recalled a voice in his head saying.
The pope had just picked up a blond, curly-haired toddler that a parish
priest had held out to the pontiff, then gave the girl back. Agca said at
that moment he pulled the trigger.
In the interview, Agca, speaking almost perfect Italian, insisted he acted
alone.
The Turk, who has been seeking a pardon from the Italian president, implied
in his interview Monday that some unnamed authorities had suggested that he
come up with some co-conspirators in order to win early release.
``If there is nothing, you have to invent something to get out,'' Agca said.
Most life sentences in Italy are commuted after about 20 years.
The pope chose the Vatican's No. 2, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, to reveal the
meaning of the secret while the pontiff was at Fatima Saturday during his
latest pilgrimage to the shrine to give thanks for surviving the shooting.
Many believers had feared the secret was about some apocalyptic end for
humanity.
The other two secrets had been revealed decades earlier. The visions foretold
the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II, and the rise and
fall of Soviet Communism.
TEXT-Vatican statement on third secret of Fatima
FATIMA, Portugal, May 13 (Reuters) - The Vatican on Saturday unveiled part of
the third secret of Fatima, saying it included prophecies of the
assassination attempt on Pope John Paul and persecution of Christians in the
20th century by communist regimes.
Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano announced the decision to reveal
the secret during a mass in Fatima where the Pope beatified two of three
Portuguese shepherd children said to have seen the Madonna in 1917 and
received her message.
He said the Vatican would publish the entire text of the secret after
``appropriate'' preparation for the faithful.
The following is a Cardinal Sodano's statement at the conclusion of the mass
in Fatima:
``Brothers and Sisters of the Lord!
At the conclusion of this solemn celebration, I feel bound to offer our
beloved Holy Father John Paul II, on behalf of all present, heartfelt good
wishes for his approaching 80th birthday and to thank him for his significant
pastoral ministry for the good of all God's Holy Church.
On the solemn occasion of his visit to Fatima, His Holiness has directed me
to make an announcement to you. As you know, the purpose of his visit to
Fatima has been to beatify the two ``little shepherds.'' Nevertheless, he
also wishes his pilgrimage to be a renewed gesture of gratitude to Our Lady
for her protection during these years of his papacy. This protection seems
also to be linked to the so-called ``third part'' of the secret of Fatima.
That text contains a prophetic vision similar to those found in the sacred
scripture, which do not describe with photographic clarity the details of
future events, but rather synthesise and condense against a unified
background events spread out over time in a succession and a duration which
are not specified. As a result, the text must be interpreted in a symbolic
key.
The vision of Fatima concerns above all the war waged by atheist systems
against the Church and Christians, and it describes the immense suffering
endured by the witnesses to the faith in the last century of the second
millennium. It is an interminable Way of the Cross led by the Popes of the
20th century.
According to the interpretation of the ``little shepherds,'' which was also
recently confirmed by Sister Lucia, the ``Bishop clothed in white'' who prays
for all the faithful is the Pope. As he makes his way with great effort
towards the cross amid the corpses of those who were martyred (bishops,
priests, religious men and women and many lay persons), he too falls to the
ground, apparently dead, under a burst of gunfire.
After the assassination attempt of 13 May 1981, it appeared evident to His
Holiness that it was a ``motherly hand which guided the bullet's path,''
enabling the ``dying Pope'' to halt ``at the threshold of death'' (Pope John
Paul II. Meditation with the Italian Bishops from the Policlinico Gemelli,
Insegnamenti, vol XVII/1, 1994, p. 1061). On the occasion of a visit to Rome
by the then Bishop of Leiria-Fatima, the Pope decided to give him the bullet
which had remained in the jeep after the assassination attempt, so that it
might be kept in the shrine. At the behest of the bishop, the bullet was
later set in the crown of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima.
The successive events of 1989 led, both in the Soviet Union and in a number
of countries of Eastern Europe, to the fall of the communist regime which
promoted atheism. For this too His Holiness offers heartfelt thanks to the
Most Holy Virgin. In other parts of the world, however, attacks against the
Church and against Christians, together with the burden of suffering which
they involve, tragically continue. Even if the events to which the third part
of the Secret of Fatima refers now seem part of the past, Our Lady's call to
conversion and penance, issued at the beginning of the 20th century, remains
timely and urgent today. ``The Lady of the message seems to read the signs of
the times -- the signs of our times -- with special insight... The insistent
invitation of Mary Most Holy to penance is nothing but the manifestation of
her maternal concern for the fate of the human family, in need of conversion
and forgiveness'' (Pope John Paul II, Message for the 1997 World Day of the
Sick, No. 1, in Insegnamenti, vol XIX/2, 1996, p. 561).
In order that the faithful may better receive the message of Our Lady of
Fatima, the Pope has charged the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith with
the making public the third part of the secret, after the preparation of an
appropriate commentary.
Let us thank Our Lady of Fatima for her protection. To her maternal
intercession let us entrust the Church of the Third Millennium.
Sub tuum praesidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genetrix!''
