Pope John Paul II has enjoyed one of the longer Papal reigns, and his canonization is a near certainty. He might, however, have died only three years into his Papacy, on May 13, 1981, when Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish citizen with a long criminal record, shot him twice in St. Peter’s Square. There was much speculation at the time about whether Agca was in the pay of others, but he has never talked. (He is currently imprisoned in Turkey after being convicted of murdering a journalist.) Now records from the Soviet era are talking for him. The OpinionJournal Political Diary (subscription-only, $3.95/month cheap) reports:
One of the most intriguing mysteries of the Cold War has finally been laid to rest. Ever since he was shot by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca in 1981, Pope John Paul II has refused to discuss the incident. But last month, the ailing Pope included this passage in his just released book Memory and Identity: “Ali Agca is a professional killer. This means the attempt was not his initiative, that it was someone else who planned it, that someone else had commissioned it.”
We now know the Pope's statement was backed up by documents from the East German secret police that have finally been unearthed. The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reports that the files show that the Soviet KGB ordered the Bulgarian secret police to kill the Pope, whose Polish heritage led the Soviets to conclude he would foment trouble in their empire. The newspaper said the documents include letters from Stasi agents to their Bulgarian counterparts seeking help in covering up traces of the crime and creating a disinformation campaign denying Bulgaria's involvement.
I well remember when suggesting the communists had anything to do with this incident was regarded in bien pensant circles as incontrovertible proof of right-wing kookery. It’s pleasant to learn, though it took a quarter of a century, who was right about Soviet behavior.
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