On May 13, 1981, the world was shocked by an assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square. As the Pope moved through a crowd of approximately 20,000 pilgrims in his open-air popemobile, he was shot and wounded by a 23-year-old guy.
The shooting occurred at 5:17 p.m. as the Pope was completing a final lap around the square before his weekly general audience. Agca, a Turkish guy, fired four shots from a 9mm Browning semi-automatic pistol at close range. Two bullets struck the Pope in the abdomen, one hit his right arm, and another wounded his left finger. Two bystanders, Ann Odre of Buffalo, New York, and Rose Hall of Jamaica, were also injured in the gunfire.
Immediate chaos started. The Pope lost consciousness as the vehicle sped toward the Vatican’s medical clinic and then to Gemelli Hospital. At the hospital, the Pope spent nearly six hours undergoing emergency surgery to repair intestinal damage and address significant blood loss. Despite the serious injuries, doctors eventually declared him in stable condition.
Mehmet Ali Agca was apprehended immediately by security and bystanders. Investigations revealed that Agca was a right-wing extremist who had escaped a Turkish prison in 1979 while awaiting sentencing for the murder of a prominent journalist. He had previously threatened the Pope’s life during John Paul II’s visit to Turkey.
Pope John Paul II spent several weeks recovering in the hospital. Remarkably, only four days after the shooting, he offered a televised blessing from his hospital bed, stating that he had forgiven his attacker. In a profound gesture of reconciliation, the Pope visited Agca in his Italian prison cell in 1983 to personally offer his forgiveness.
The Pope attributed his survival to the intervention of the Virgin Mary, noting that “one hand fired the shot, and another guided the bullet.” He later had one of the bullets that struck him encased in the crown of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal.
The event fundamentally changed Vatican security. To protect the pontiff from future attacks, the Vatican introduced the “Popemobile” with bulletproof glass, a design that became a standard fixture for papal public appearances.
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