Posted on 04/03/2005 3:47:50 PM PDT by wagglebee
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca, who gravely wounded Pope John Paul in a failed assassination attempt in 1981, was grief-stricken over the Pontiff's death, Agca's brother said Sunday.
Agca, now in an Istanbul prison, was mourning the loss of "a great friend," the gunman's brother Adnan Agca told Reuters.
"He is extremely saddened, he is in grief. He loved the Pope," said Adnan Agca. "They developed a personal friendship while Mehmet Ali was (imprisoned) in Italy, and they had announced their brotherhood.
"The Pope showed my brother and the rest of our family closeness. He was a great man," Adnan Agca said, adding he and his mother were received by the Pope six times at the Vatican over the years.
The Pope forgave his assailant during a meeting in his Italian prison cell in 1983, two years after Agca shot the Pope in the abdomen during a general audience in St. Peter's Square.
Many have hailed the Pope's reconciliation with Agca as an example of the Christian principle of forgiveness.
Agca was extradited to Turkey in 2000 to serve a sentence for other crimes after spending 19 years in an Italian prison for the shooting.
Over the years, Agca has given conflicting reasons for his attempt on the Pontiff's life, including allegations of a conspiracy with Bulgaria's communist-era secret services and the Soviet KGB, who feared the Polish-born Pope would stir anti-communist revolt in Eastern Europe.
The Pope proved to the world that God's love transcends everything.
He's a better man than I am.
God rest him.
You know he saved a Jew from the Nazi Holocaust too. He carried himself through life with the confidence of someone who was truly fearless.
Ditto
Ping
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Praise GOD that...
LOVE is the Only Reality and that...
GOD is LOVE..?
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I fear we'll never see the likes of this man again.
I listened to an Ali Agca interview shortly after the Pope forgave him and I saw no contrition, on the contrary he sounded defiant and phony.
Maybe since '83 he has really changed, but back in '83 he was not a repented man.
It's 22 years later.
Wow.
bttt
The fact that he met with Agca's mother and brother six times is amazing. He truly did care about them and his forgiveness was for real. It is often the case that the more you learn about the details of great historical figures, you lose some respect, the shine dulls. But the more I learn about the Pope, the more I admire him.
Perhaps this great example could help some of the people screaming death threats against Michael Schaivo to understand a more Christian way to respond?
Nah. Keep hate alive!
John Paul II was an utterly fearless man and I think it will be very hard to find anyone as firmly grounded in the true Christian way.
Which made forgiving him all the harder.
That is so bizarre a comment it screams. Michael Schiavo is not being punished for his crimes (yet), Why would you need forgiving if you had done nothing to be forgiven for? This is not rocket science.
Wonderful man, eh Ronnie? What a wonderful example.
No lessons learned.
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Pope JOHN PAUL II fully understood that LOVE was the Only Reality and we humans were made of it, by It.
Be not afraid,
Have no Fear,
Go LOVE = JOHN PAUL II's Message
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To receive forgiveness, one must understand they did wrong and seek it from those he hurt. Funny, Big Mike doesn't strike me as too contrite as he looks for book and movie deals.
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