Paul Ⅱ in Rome

When in Rome the pope stopped to pray for the President’s recovery and immediately sent him a personal message with his prayers and hopes.

These were worrisome times. It had not been so long before, during a Vatican meeting with an aide to the pope’s secretary of state, that William Casey left with a final word of caution.

The CIA station in Rome had passed along a curious, and perhaps important, piece of information. When Lech Walesa had visited the pope, his host had been a man from the Italian Labour Confederation. The CIA had been told by Italian counter-intelligence officials that the host was working for Bulgaria. Since Bulgarians were under the control of the Soviets¹, this could either mean that Solidarity’s plans were compromised or that Walesa was in danger.

On May 13, 1981, at 5 pm, the pontiff emerged for his weekly general audience in St, Peter’s Square. After entering the open “popemobile”,the pontiff was riding around the colonnade². His aide Stanislaw Dziwisz was next to him.

Suddenly Dziwisz heard a deafening³ noise, and pigeons all over the square took flight. Then the pope slumped⁴ against him.

“I knew the Holy Father was hit”, Dziwisz says “but there was no sign of blood or a wound on him . Then I asked him. ‘Where?’ he replied, ‘In my stomach.’”

The pope had been wounded in his stomach, right elbow and index finger of his left hand. He was transferred to an ambulance, which sped him to a hospital.

“Mary, my mother! Mary, my mother!” the Holy Father kept repeating. His eyes were closed, and he was in great pain, At the Gemelli Clinic the pope was rushed first to a tenth-floor room reserved for a papal emergency and then to an operating room. He’d lost a great deal of blood, and because his condition was critical, last rites⁵ were administered.

The operation lasted five hours and 20 minutes. Twenty two inches of John Paul Ⅱ’s intestine⁶ were removed. “Hope gradually returned during the operation.” Said Dziwisz. “It became clear that no vital organ had been hit and that he just might survive.”

Like the bullet that almost killed Ronald Reagan, this one had passed a few millimeters from the aorta⁷. “If it had hit, death would have been instantaneous,” Dziwisz observed. “It did not touch any vital point. It was really miraculous⁸.”

“One hand fired,” the pope said later, “and another hand guided the bullet.”

The triggerman was apprehended⁹ almost immediately. He was identified as Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish terrorist. Agca had publicly vowed¹⁰ to kill the pope during the potiff’s 1979 visit to Turkey.

In recent years, ever mindful of a need for dialogue with the Jews, John Paul Ⅱmade the grand gesture of crossing the Tiber River to visit the main synagogue of Rome, something no pope had ever done before. As Roman Jews know, their community is older than the oldest Christian¹¹ church. When Saints Peter and Paul came to Rome, the Torah was already being read and the Sabbath observed in the capital of the Roman Empire.

Onlookers¹² recall that when he delivered his speech in the synagogue, John Paul Ⅱat times seemed close to breaking down. Once, as a boy, he’d gone to the synagogue in his village with his father to a choir¹³ sing “Ani Maamin” (I believe), which had been chanted by condemned¹⁴ Jews in the death camps on their way to the gas chambers¹⁵. As the voice of the choir swelled¹⁶, the pope bent¹⁷ forward, his head bowed and his hand covering his mouth.

Despite john paul Ⅱ’s declining health, the last years of his pontificate24 have seen a burst of activity. And though his hand is increasingly weary as he raises it to bless the faithful25, it points to a wider horizon.  

当教皇在罗马时，他停下为总统的康复而祈祷并同时向总统表示了他本人的祝愿和希望。

那时正是令人提心吊胆的日子。就在不久前，在梵蒂冈一次与教皇的国务秘书的助手的会见中，威廉姆·凯希留下的最后一句话就是要小心。

 驻罗马的中央情报局传来一个奇怪的，同时可能也是个重要的信息。当莱克·瓦文萨拜会教皇时，东道主是个来自意大利工党的人。中央情报局已被意大利反间谍官员告知其人为保加利亚工作。由于保加利亚人受到苏联的控制，这可能就意味着波兰团结工会的计划已被泄露或是瓦文萨本人身处险境。

1981年5月13日下午五时，主教出现在圣彼得广场进行每周的接见。进入敞蓬的“教皇之车”后，主教环柱廊而行。他的助手斯坦尼斯洛·简维茨坐在他旁边。

突然简维茨听到一声震耳欲聋的巨响，广场上的鸽子四散飞去。紧接着教皇靠着他瘫倒下去。

简维茨说：“我知道教皇被击中了，可表面上没有血迹或伤口。于是我问，‘哪儿受伤了？’他答道，‘肚子上。’”

教皇肚子上，右肘和左手食指都受了伤。他被抬上一辆救护车，迅速送往医院。

教皇不停地重复着：“玛丽亚，我的圣母！玛丽亚，我的圣母！”他的双目紧闭着，痛苦万分。在杰米里医院教皇先被火速送往十楼预留的教皇抢救室，而后送往手术室。他失血过多，情况非常危急，因此为他举行了最后的宗教仪式。

手术持续了5小时20分钟。约翰·保罗二世的肠子被切除了二十二英寸。“手术中渐渐有了希望，”简维兹说，“很明显致命的器官未被击中，他得救了。”

就像子弹险些杀害罗纳德·里根那样，这枚子弹在离主动脉几毫米的位置穿过。简维兹说：“如若动脉被击中，死亡可能就是瞬间的事，可子弹未伤到任何要害的地方。这真是个奇迹。”

教皇后来说：“那个人是一只手开火，另一只手扶着准星。”

这个杀手几乎就地被擒。他被认出叫穆罕默德·阿里·阿克查，是个土耳其恐怖主义者。1979年教皇访问土耳其时，阿克查曾公开发誓要将他杀掉。

近些年来，约翰·保罗二世一直关注着与犹太人对话的必要性，他做出了宏伟的壮举，跨过台伯河去访问罗马的主要的犹太教堂，这对教皇来说是前所未有的。 据罗马犹太人所知，他们的社区比最古老的基督教堂皇还要老。当圣彼德和圣保罗来到罗马时，人们已开始在诵读摩西经并且在罗马帝国的首都里过着安息日。

旁观者回忆说，当纪翰·保罗二世在犹太教堂发表演讲时，他时常情难自持。在他还是孩子时，一次他同父亲就曾去过他们村中的犹太教堂去合唱“Ani Maamin”（我想信），这首歌曾为被判罪的犹太人在从集中营到毒气室的路上所吟唱。当合唱的声音越来越响亮时，教皇鞠躬致意并以手掩面。