Sunday, January 11, 2015

Lasting Forgiveness?

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Some of you who are as ancient as I am will remember the attempted assassination of  Pope John Paul II in 1981. The gunman Mehmet Ali Agca was Turkish, and he was almost successful, wounding the pontiff.  The reasons for the assault were unclear. Agca first claimed to have acted alone, then that he was part of a conspiracy. He later maintained that he was a messiah, a sign of mental health issues. After his recovery John Paul visited his assailant in prison, offering forgiveness and shaking his hand.

You may have heard that Mehmet Ali Agca visited Pope John Paul's grave recently, on the thirty-first anniversary of his meeting with the pople. He laid white flowers at the tomb in St. Peter’s Basilica, The visit surprised everyone but a Vatican spokesman said  there are no legal matters pending against Agca in the Vatican and he was free to visit.

We never know how forgiveness will be received and what the lasting affects might be.

Thoughts?

Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish former extremist who attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981, holding a wreath of flowers on St. Peter's square in The Vatican on Saturday.

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