One Hand Pulled the Trigger, Another Guided the Bullet
On May 13, the Holy Father had lunched with Professor Jerome Lejeune, his wife and another guest, then he peacefully made his way to Saint Peter’s Square for the General Audience. While he made a tour of the square and approached the bronze door, the Turk Mehmet Ali Agça fired a shot at him, wounding him in abdomen, the right elbow and his left hand index finger. The bullet hit his index finger before entering the abdomen. I was sitting behind the Holy Father as usual, and the bullet, in spite of its force, fell between us, in the car, at my feet. The other wounded his right elbow, burning his skin and went on to wound other people. What did I think? Nobody believed that such a thing was possible. As I was so upset, I did not understand what was happening immediately. The noise had been deafening. All the pigeons flew away. Somebody had fired a shot. Who could it be? Then I saw that the Holy Father was hit. He looked unsteady, but nobody saw any blood or wounds on him. So I asked, “Where?” He answered me, “In the abdomen.” And I asked, “Is it painful?” He answered, “Yes”. The Holy Father was with half sitting, half leaning on me in the car, and this is how the ambulance found him. The Holy Father did not look at us. His eyes were closed, he was in great pain and kept repeating short prayers. If I remember correctly, he said: “Mary, my mother! Mary, my mother!” Dr. Buzzonetti, a male nurse and Brother Camillus were with me in the ambulance. It drove very fast, without a police escort. The siren broke down after a few hundred meters. The journey that would usually have taken at least half an hour took us eight minutes, and in Roman traffic! Later, the Holy Father told me that he had remained conscious all the way to the hospital, and that he had lost consciousness only there. He said that he had been convinced all the while that his wounds were not fatal.
Two hundred Poles had brought an image of Our Lady of Czestochowa with them from Poland, and they had set it on the ground in front of the Pope’s chair while they prayed for him with all their might. The operation lasted five hours and twenty minutes. The pope’s condition was considered very serious. His tension was extremely low. Bishop Dziwisz gave him extreme unction. “But hope gradually returned during the operation. At the beginning, we were all very nervous. Then we realized little by little that no vital organ had been touched, and that the pope could survive”. The pope had lost the three quarters of his blood, and a blood transfusion could transmit a virus to him. He remained in reanimation for a long time, but five days after the attack, adopting a Polish proverb, he declared, “One hand pulled the trigger, another guided the bullet.” He asked the bishop of Fatima who was in Rome to come to speak to him in the hospital about the Virgin’s message and as the bells rang the Angelus the following Sunday, in a message recorded in the pope’s hospital room, he entrusted humanity to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. One year later, on May 13, 1982, he went to give thanks to the Virgin in Fatima and one of the bullets was inserted in the crown of the statue of the Virgin. Finally, on March 25, 1984, he consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in union with all the bishops of the world, as requested by the Virgin. Russia was freed without bloodshed from Communism right afterwards. In Fatima on May 13, 2000, at the time of the beatification of the two little Portuguese shepherds from Fatima, Jacinta and Francisco, he revealed the contents of the “third secret” of Fatima, concerning the sufferings of the Church and “the bishop dressed in white”, struck by the “blasts of a fire arm” - indicating that he believed the message alludes to the attempt on is life of May 13, 1981. Again, in the presence of the original statue of the Virgin of Fatima on October 8, 2000, at the time of the Bishops’ Jubilee, the Pope proclaimed at Saint Peter’s Square in the Vatican the “Act of Entrustment” to Mary, during which he entrusted the Third Millennium to the protection of the Mother of Christ.
According to the testimony of Bishop Stanislas Dziwisz, told by André Frossard in “Do not Be Afraid. Conversations with John Paul II” (N'ayez pas peur. Dialogue avec Jean-Paul II), Robert Laffont, Paris, 1982
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of death. Amen.
