From the Archives, 1981: Pope survives assassination attempt

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From the Archives, 1981: Pope survives assassination attempt

Forty years ago, Pope John Paul II underwent emergency surgery following an assassination attempt by a gunman in front of 15,000 pilgrims in St Peters Square, Rome.

By Desmond O'Grady

First published in the Sydney Morning Herald on May 15, 1981.

ROME, Thursday. — Pope John Paul II, wounded in six places by a gunman yesterday, spent a “tranquil night” after emergency surgery to repair his intestines, but was running a slight fever, a medical bulletin issued this morning said.

Pope John Paul lies wounded in St. Peter's Square after the assassination attempt.

Pope John Paul lies wounded in St. Peter's Square after the assassination attempt.Credit: Reuters/Vatican Handout

Police are guarding all entrances to the Gemelli Policlinico Hospital, the most modern in Rome, where the Pope was taken after the assassination attempt in St Peter’s Square yesterday afternoon. Italian police today charged Mehmet Ali Agca, 23, a convicted Turkish terrorist with the attempted murder of the Pope, as well as the attempted murder of two women also wounded in the attack.

Agca was charged after a night of interrogation at the Rome police headquarters. He was held by some of the 15,000 in St Peter’s Square after yesterday’s shooting.

The anti-terrorist squad of the Rome police said Agca, convicted in 1980 of murdering a newspaper editor in Turkey, told police he was a follower of George Habash, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist faction of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

“I am a comrade of the communist Palestinians,” police quoted Agca as saying. Crowds have gathered again in St Peter’s Square, many saying rosaries for the Pope’s recovery. Cardinal Confalonieri will conduct a Mass in St Peter’s at 6 this evening, and “Romans and Christians” have been called to the square to pray, at 9.

The Italian news agency AGI quoted one of the Pope’s doctors, Francesco Crucitti, as saying he might have to undergo surgery again within a month to complete the healing of his intestines.

“The Pope passed a tranquil night. His mind is alert,” said the bulletin, signed by four attending physicians and released by the Vatican.

The bulletin reported that the Pontiff’s heartbeat was 105 a minute, which is faster than the normal pace of 70-75 times a minute, but said it was steady and showed no signs of a heart attack.

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Left to right Brain McCann (6) of Penrith and his brother Hugo (8) pray and light a candle for Pope John Paul 11, May 14, 1981.

Left to right Brain McCann (6) of Penrith and his brother Hugo (8) pray and light a candle for Pope John Paul 11, May 14, 1981.Credit: Kenneth Stevens

His blood pressure and breathing rate were slightly elevated. His temperature was 37.3 degrees, slightly above the normal 36.8.

“The Pope was very lucky,” said the director of surgery at the hospital, Professor Giancarlo Castiglioni.

“He wasn’t hit in vital parts but they were not light injuries. Important blood vessels were just barely missed.”

He said the Pope was shot twice in the lower intestine.

One bullet passed through the body, causing another wound when it left, and another stayed in the body and was extracted by surgeons. The Pope also had two slight wounds on his right arm and one on his left hand.

The bulletin said the trajectory of one bullet which entered the Pope’s abdomen was long and had caused a massive haemorrhage requiring a transfusion of three litres of A-negative blood, which had not immediately been available.

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The surgeons spent a great deal of their time trying to save as much of the intestine as possible. They also carried out a temporary colostomy.

The Pope, with a beaming smile that has become his trademark to millions around the world, had just finished driving through about 15,000 pilgrims in St Peter’s Square on a slow-moving open vehicle and was about to leave the vehicle to begin a general audience when the shots rang out.

He collapsed into the arms of his aides as the vehicle returned inside the Vatican at high speed.

Two women were wounded by the bullets fired at the Pope. Police said they were fired from a 9mm pistol.

Mrs Ann Odre, a 58-year-old widow from Buffalo, New York, was listed in “serious” condition after surgery for a wound in the chest.

The other woman, Rose Hall, 21, from Jamaica, struck in the leg, was in good condition.

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