On the anniversary of the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II, Pope Leo XIV paused in prayer at the very place in St. Peter’s Square where the late pontiff was shot in 1981, offering a powerful reminder of faith, forgiveness, and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
According to Vatican News, before the May 13 General Audience began, Pope Leo XIV stopped the popemobile and knelt at the white marble plaque marking the site of the attack on St. John Paul II. The plaque, embedded among the cobblestones of St. Peter’s Square, bears the Polish pope’s coat of arms.
Addressing English-speaking pilgrims later during the audience, Pope Leo reflected on the significance of the date and the feast of Our Lady of Fatima.
“Today we remember the memorial of Our Lady of Fatima. On this day, forty-five years ago, an attempt was made on Pope John Paul II’s life, and for these reasons, I dedicated my catechesis today to the Blessed Virgin Mary,” the Pope said, according to Vatican News.
The assassination attempt took place on May 13, 1981, as St. John Paul II greeted crowds gathered for his weekly audience in St. Peter’s Square. Shots were fired at close range, seriously wounding the Holy Father. He was rushed to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital for emergency surgery.
According to Vatican News, the Holy See Press Office at the time confirmed that the Pope had been struck in the abdomen and described his condition as serious, though there were “founded hopes for recovery.”
In the years that followed, St. John Paul II frequently credited the Virgin Mary with saving his life. The date of the attack coincided with the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, whose apparitions in Portugal carried a message of prayer, repentance, and peace.
During his greetings to Portuguese-speaking pilgrims, Pope Leo XIV encouraged the faithful to look toward Fatima as a place of hope for the modern world.
“In that place, so dear to Christianity, numerous pilgrims from all five continents gather today: their presence is a sign of the need for consolation, unity, and hope among the people of our time,” Pope Leo said, according to Vatican News.
He also entrusted the suffering of nations torn apart by violence to Mary’s care, praying for “peace and harmony rising from every part of the world, especially from peoples afflicted by war.”
Just days after the 1981 attack, St. John Paul II publicly forgave his attacker, Mehmet Ali Ağca, during a Regina Caeli message delivered from the hospital. According to Vatican News, the Pope entrusted himself again to the Virgin Mary using the words, “Totus tuus ego sum” — “I am entirely yours.”
Pope Leo XIV’s prayerful gesture at the site of the attack served as a visible connection between two pontiffs united by Marian devotion and trust in God’s providence in moments of suffering and trial.
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