Pope Ali Agca Contribution

As the saying goes; forgive the one who hurts you, not because he deserves it, but because you do not deserve to carry hate in your heart. The Polish Karol Wojtyla, most known as Pope John Paul II, became the leader of the Catholic Church and supreme ruler of the Vatican City between 1978 and 2005. On October 16th, 1978, he became the 263th successor of Saint Peter, the first Slavic Pope in History. He directed the Catholic Church until April 2nd, 2005, when he died at the age of 84 years. Pope John Paul II is considered as one of the most important and prominent leaders in the XX Century. He played an essential role in contributing to the fall of communist regimes in Eastern Europe during late 80s. However, he suffered an attack that overwhelmed

Ali Agca was born in 1958, in a humble family in a suburb of the Turkish province of Malatya. Since he was born, Agca's life was full of crimes, robberies, murders and violence. During his early years, he tried to subsist by selling water and collecting charcoal in train stations. Soon, he began to sympathize with extreme-right organizations, such as the Gray Wolves, which belonged to the National Movement Party of Colonel Aspaslan Turkes. It played an essential role in Agca's ideology and influence. In consequence, he ended integrating to several Palestinian terrorist groups. After committing numerous crimes in Malatya, he moved to Istanbul. where, with false documents, he enrolled for his University degree in the University of Istanbul. Even so, his criminal records began to increase. On February 1st, 1979, he was convicted for the murder of the Turkish liberal journalist Abdi Ipekci, editor of the newspaper Milliet. It was then discovered that Agca worked as a hitman for his political party and was arrested for the crime. He was pleaded guilty, nevertheless, on November 23rd of the same year, before he was sentenced to death in his country, he escaped from Kartal Maltepe prison, in southeast of Istanbul, which by the way, was the safest penitentiary in the country. In July 1980, he crossed Bulgaria escaping away from Turkish justice. His escape, changing passport and

He stated that without the advice of some priests and cardinals, it was impossible to do something like that. He said: "The devil is also within those walls". He added as well, that on May 13th everybody was unaware of what was going to happen. In fact, the same day of the attack he decided not to kill the Pope. However, at that moment, he felt something special, as he defined "a miracle", so he finally decided to go back to St. Peter's Square and conclude the mission. Likewise, Agca also said that behind the attack, was the 'Bulgarian track', which was connected to the secret services of Sofia, the Turkish mafia and the terrorists of the Gray Wolves. Later, he even claimed that he had been used as an instrument of the KGB and the Bulgarian secret services and made some statements such as: "I am Jesus Christ and I announce the end of the world. Everyone will be destroyed". Nonetheless, it is difficult to believe many of the words said by this terrorist as he has changed the version of events several times and provided meaningless