VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI met on Wednesday with the woman who knocked him over at St. Peter's Basilica during Christmas Eve Mass, and he forgave her, the Vatican said.
Susanna Maiolo, a 25-year-old with a history of psychiatric problems, and her family met in a private audience with the pope at the end of his general audience, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said.
Maiolo told the pontiff she was sorry for what had happened, while Benedict inquired about her health and "wanted to demonstrate his forgiveness," Lombardi said in a statement.
The Vatican said no photos or video would be released of the meeting.
Maiolo, a Swiss-Italian national, jumped a security barricade in St. Peter's Basilica at the start of Christmas Eve Mass and pulled Benedict down when a security guard tackled her. The pope was unhurt.
Maiolo had tried to reach the pope in the same way during the 2008 Midnight Mass service but didn't manage to get to him. She has been treated at a clinic outside Rome since the incident.
While there, she received a visit from Benedict's personal secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, who had wanted to show the pontiff's concern for her well-being, the Vatican said at the time.
The Vatican investigation into the incident continues, Lombardi said. A retired Vatican diplomat, French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, fractured his hip in the commotion and had to undergo surgery. Benedict visited Etchegaray in the hospital last week.
Benedict's decision to meet with Maiolo and forgive her follows a similar gesture by Pope John Paul II.
In 1983, John Paul met with and forgave Mehmet Ali Agca while the gunman was serving a 19-year sentence in an Italian prison for having shot the pope in 1981 in St. Peter's Square.
On Monday, Agca, 52, ends another 10-year prison sentence for killing a Turkish journalist in 1979. He told reporters in Turkey on Wednesday that he would answer questions about the attack after his release. Through the years, he has given various and often contradictory accounts of who was behind the attack. - AP
Welcome to the Family
Welcome to the Youth Encounter, or as we usually call it the YE. this program is meant for young people, and for those who work among the young, or the so called "youth ministers"We refer to it as the Virac Model coz this program started in Virac, Catanduanes, way back in 1971. It was started by Fr. Ping Molina, a diocesan priest who work with the young people. He was with the full support by his own bishop, Msgr. Jose Sorra, who was the 1st bishop-chairman of ECY.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Pope gunman to be released from Turkish prison
ANKARA, Turkey – The gunman who wounded Pope John Paul II said Wednesday he would answer questions about the 1981 attack after he is released from prison next week.
Little is known about what led Mehmet Ali Agca to shoot at the pope while he was greeting the faithful in St. Peter's Square, but rumors have swirled about whether foreign powers had conspired to have the Polish-born pontiff killed.
"I will answer to all of these questions in the next weeks," Agca said in a letter written in English and released by his lawyers.
Historians, law enforcement officials and John Paul's followers have long sought answers about the attack, including whether it was a plot to assassinate the pope whose championing of Poland's Solidarity labor movement figured in the demise of communism in the Soviet bloc.
When Agca was arrested minutes after the attack, he declared he had acted alone. Later, he suggested Bulgaria and the Soviet Union's KGB were behind the attack, but then backed off that line. His contradictory statements, including claims to be a Messiah, have frustrated prosecutors over the decades and raised questions about his mental health.
The pope met and forgave Agca in 1983 while the gunman was serving a 19-year sentence in an Italian prison. On Monday, Agca ends another 10-year prison sentence for killing a Turkish journalist in 1979.
Italian magistrate Rosario Priore has said he was convinced there was a plot against the pope and that Agca did not act alone, but he failed to convince a jury in Rome in 1986 that Bulgaria and the Soviet KGB were involved.
The Italian jury acquitted six defendants — three Bulgarians and three Turks — in the "Bulgarian connection" case. An appeals trial in 1987 reached the same conclusion.
John Paul himself gave his take on the question, saying during a 2002 visit to Bulgaria that he never believed there was a Bulgarian connection.
But in his book "Memory and Identity: Conversations Between Millenniums," the pope said of his attacker and the shooting: "someone else planned it, someone else commissioned it." John Paul died in 2005.
Two years before Agca's 1981 attack on the pope, he had escaped from a Turkish military prison while serving time for the murder of Turkish journalist Abdi Ipekci.
In the letter released Wednesday, Agca said he would answer whether there was any link between the Nov. 25, 1979, escape and an alleged Kremlin document dated the same day and claiming that Moscow had decided to kill the pope.
He said he would also discuss the unsolved 1983 disappearance of a Vatican messenger's 15-year-old daughter. At one point, people claiming to have kidnapped the girl reportedly demanded Agca's release in exchange for her safe return, but Italian officials said there was not enough evidence that the kidnapping and the pope's shooting were linked.
In a recent letter to The Associated Press, Agca said he wanted to visit the Vatican after his release.
___
Associated Press Writer Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara contributed to this report.
Little is known about what led Mehmet Ali Agca to shoot at the pope while he was greeting the faithful in St. Peter's Square, but rumors have swirled about whether foreign powers had conspired to have the Polish-born pontiff killed.
"I will answer to all of these questions in the next weeks," Agca said in a letter written in English and released by his lawyers.
Historians, law enforcement officials and John Paul's followers have long sought answers about the attack, including whether it was a plot to assassinate the pope whose championing of Poland's Solidarity labor movement figured in the demise of communism in the Soviet bloc.
When Agca was arrested minutes after the attack, he declared he had acted alone. Later, he suggested Bulgaria and the Soviet Union's KGB were behind the attack, but then backed off that line. His contradictory statements, including claims to be a Messiah, have frustrated prosecutors over the decades and raised questions about his mental health.
The pope met and forgave Agca in 1983 while the gunman was serving a 19-year sentence in an Italian prison. On Monday, Agca ends another 10-year prison sentence for killing a Turkish journalist in 1979.
Italian magistrate Rosario Priore has said he was convinced there was a plot against the pope and that Agca did not act alone, but he failed to convince a jury in Rome in 1986 that Bulgaria and the Soviet KGB were involved.
The Italian jury acquitted six defendants — three Bulgarians and three Turks — in the "Bulgarian connection" case. An appeals trial in 1987 reached the same conclusion.
John Paul himself gave his take on the question, saying during a 2002 visit to Bulgaria that he never believed there was a Bulgarian connection.
But in his book "Memory and Identity: Conversations Between Millenniums," the pope said of his attacker and the shooting: "someone else planned it, someone else commissioned it." John Paul died in 2005.
Two years before Agca's 1981 attack on the pope, he had escaped from a Turkish military prison while serving time for the murder of Turkish journalist Abdi Ipekci.
In the letter released Wednesday, Agca said he would answer whether there was any link between the Nov. 25, 1979, escape and an alleged Kremlin document dated the same day and claiming that Moscow had decided to kill the pope.
He said he would also discuss the unsolved 1983 disappearance of a Vatican messenger's 15-year-old daughter. At one point, people claiming to have kidnapped the girl reportedly demanded Agca's release in exchange for her safe return, but Italian officials said there was not enough evidence that the kidnapping and the pope's shooting were linked.
In a recent letter to The Associated Press, Agca said he wanted to visit the Vatican after his release.
___
Associated Press Writer Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara contributed to this report.
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