ROME (CWNews.com) - The primary Italian investigator into the 1981 shooting of Pope John Paul II said on Sunday that the just-revealed third secret of Fatima proves his theory that Communist spy agencies were behind the assassination attempt.
Ferdinando Imposimato told Italian state radio RAI that he is still convinced that the Bulgarian secret services, acting on behalf of the then-Soviet Union, had hired Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca to kill the Pope. "By now, I think there are no longer any doubts," Imposimato said.
On Saturday, the Holy Father asked Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano to read a statement at the end of a beatification ceremony for two of the seers of Fatima that revealed the secret. According to the cardinal, the secret said "the bishop dressed in white" would be shot and warned of a "war waged by atheist systems against the Church and Christians" in the 20th century.
Imposimato, the magistrate who investigated and prosecuted the so-called Bulgarian Connection before Italian courts, said the Soviet Union saw that the Pope would be a key figure in the downfall of Communism, first in his native Poland and then later throughout Eastern Europe. Prosecutors failed to prove the connection in two separate trials, and three Turks and three Bulgarians charged in the plot were acquitted. Agca had at first said he was part of a conspiracy and then later denied it.
Imposimato has said in the past that he found it difficult to understand how Agca could have acted alone because the Turk had false passports, moved freely about the Eastern Bloc, and spent lavishly although he had no job. He said he believed the Pope knew Agca did not act alone and that the Pontiff understood the "historical role" Agca played.
Catholic World News Service - Daily News Briefs