White cap and gray wolf

(Photo: AP )

Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi last week announced a pardon for one of the most notorious terrorists of our time, Ali Agca, the man who tried to kill and seriously wounded the Pope. On May 13, 1981, when Pope John Paul II was holding a traditional general audience in St. Peter's Square in Rome, shots suddenly rang out from the crowd, the pope fell, and the shooter was captured. By evening, the whole world knew the name of the attacker - Mehmet Ali Agca, a member of the far-right Turkish organization Gray Wolves.

Details of Agca's trial made headlines around the world in the 1980s, especially after he stated that he had acted under the direction of the Bulgarian intelligence services, which were backed by the KGB. Soon, Bulgarian citizen Sergei Antonov was arrested, whom Agca pointed out as the organizer of the conspiracy against the pontiff. Italian justice spent a long time deciding whether there really was a “Bulgarian trace” in the Agca case, but no convincing evidence was found that the KGB or another intelligence agency of the Eastern Bloc was behind the shots in St. Peter’s Square. In 1986, after many years of proceedings, a Roman jury acquitted Antonov and several other people whom Agca had accused. The “gray wolf” himself received a life sentence.

Last week, nineteen years after the tragic events in Rome, Agca left the Apennines - he was transported to Turkey on a special plane. The Pope himself has long since forgiven the man who shot him. However, Italian justice turned out to be not so merciful and agreed to release Agca from the prison of the Italian city of Ancona only after they were convinced that he would end up in Istanbul: the “wolf” would have to answer for a murder committed many years ago in Turkey and for robbery. The notorious terrorist will spend at least another 10 years behind bars.

Agca himself today claims that he was chosen by higher powers to carry out some special mission. His confidence was strengthened after the Holy See revealed the mystery of the so-called “third Fatima prophecy” last month: on May 13, 1917, three children from the Portuguese town of Fatima witnessed the apparition of the “Beautiful Lady,” whom the Catholic Church considers Our Lady. She allegedly predicted the Second World War and the Bolshevik revolution in Russia for the children. The third prophecy, recently revealed by the Vatican, allegedly tells of a bishop dressed in white who falls as if struck by a gunshot.

Agca is delighted. He said that he had no doubt that the prophecy was about an assassination attempt on the pope. This means that he is not a sinner, but a servant of Providence, and, therefore, he needs to forgive all his crimes. However, it seems unlikely that Turkish justice will listen to Catholic prophecies.