Paul Kengor - A Pope and a President: John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Extraordinary Untold Story of the 20th Century

Contents

A POPE

and

A PRESIDENT

John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the

Extraordinary Untold Story of the 20th Century

PAUL KENGOR

Wilmington, Delaware

To the memory of Bill Clark,

for the greater honor and glory,

and for the DP

Every human being [is] unique and unrepeatable.

Pope John Paul II, Christmas Day 1978

There is purpose and worth to each and every life.

Ronald Reagan, November 4, 1991

Prologue

MAY 13, 1981

MOSCOW TAKES ITS SHOT

On May 13, 1981, sixty-year-old Pope John Paul II, two and a half years into an already historic papacy, hopped into his open-air vehicle to ride through Saint Peters Square and greet the ecstatic crowd. Thousands from all over the world had gathered for the pontiffs weekly public audience: American and Italian, Chinese and German, English and AfricanTurkish and Bulgarian.

It was a beautiful Wednesday in Rome. It was also a special day spiritually. May 13 was the Feast Day of Our Lady of Ftima, harkening back to the day in 1917 that began a series of remarkable events connected to the Virgin Mary, to whom this pope had dedicated his life and papacy.

The fact that this pontiff was Polish had alone made his papacy historic. When Karol Wojtya was chosen the 264th heir to the chair of Saint Peter in October 1978, the Polish cardinal was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years and the first Slavic pope ever. More powerful still, his native Poland was the heart of the Communist Bloc in Eastern Europe, and the one spot in the Soviet atheistic empirewhich the American president would unforgettably call an Evil Empirewhere the communist war on religion had failed.

If you choose the example of what we Poles have in our pockets and in our shops communism has done very little for us, said Lech Wasa, the hero of Polands anti-Soviet Solidarity movement, and one of millions of Poles whose admiration of John Paul II bordered on veneration. But if you choose the example of what is in our souls, I answer that communism has done very much for us. In fact our souls contain exactly the opposite of what they wanted. They wanted us not to believe in God, and our churches are full.

The Poles fidelity to the Church rather than to Moscow angered communist authorities; the stunning selection of this Polish pope made them even angrier. In the 1970s, under the dtente presidencies of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter and the Ostpolitik papacy of Pope Paul VI, the Soviets picked up nearly a dozen satellite states around the world. These were major Cold War victories.

Then the Vatican conclave chose the Polish pope. The advent of this pontiff threatened the Soviets global ambitions, particularly when paired with the new leadership that came to Washington under President Reagan two years later. With characteristic vitriol, one Soviet publication in early 1981 denounced John Paul II as malicious, lowly, perfidious, and backward and as a toady of the American militarists who was seeking to undermine communism with his overseas accomplices and new boss in the White House.

That was Moscows take on this future saint and his emerging partner in the Oval Office. But these leaders were not accomplices, and neither was the others boss. Their relationship would be a partnership of equals.

Make no mistake: Pope John Paul II and President Ronald Reagan scared the Kremlin. And with good reason. The pope implored his people to choose Gods side over what the Protestant Reagan and the Roman Catholic Church both called godless communism. The Soviets dubbed Reagan The Crusader.

Soviet officials knew that this Polish pontiff was a grave affront to their existence. They wanted him dead. And now, on May 13, 1981, two and a half years into his papacy, they were ready to take their shot.

CONSPIRATORS

Carrying out this evil plan was a cabal of plotters primarily from Muslim Turkey and communist Bulgaria. Not since the First World War had Turks and Bulgarians found a way to overcome bitter differences and partner for the cause of murder and mayhem. In World War I, the partnership meant unprecedented death, precipitating the appearance of a Lady in Ftima. Back then, too, the Turks and Bulgarians had the support of the Bolsheviksall of them violently confronted Czarist-Christian Russia. Now there was common ground again: the Bolsheviks, the Bulgarians, and the Turks all violently confronted the Slavic-Christian man in Rome.

Mehmet Ali Agca of Turkey had been commissioned to deliver a fatal blow. Later he would name seven accomplices, all working under a plan conceived by the Bulgarian secret service, one of the communist worlds most restrictive intelligence services, and the one most subject to Moscows control.

At 9 A . M . on May 13, Agca gathered with his collaborators. The driver was a Bulgarian named Zelio Vasilev. He gave instructions to Agca and his Turkish friend Oral elik, telling them that Sergei Antonov, another Bulgarian conspirator, would help them escape after they finished their bloody assignment. Antonov, according to the plan, would whisk away the assassins to a large delivery truck concealed as a Bulgarian household-goods company, a front for the communist states secret service. At 10 A . M ., the Bulgarians drove off, leaving the Turks.

The Turks would wait a while. At 3 P . M . Antonov reconnected with Agca and elik in the Piazza della Repubblica. He was driving a blue sports car. With him was another Bulgarian, Todor Aivazov. They handed the Turks two packages, one with a 9-millimeter handgun and the other with a panic bomb to scatter the crowd after the shooting and facilitate their escape.

The four men made their way toward the Vatican, arriving at 4 oclock. Agca and elik took their positions among a crowd of faithful seeking repentance and reconciliation. Reports on the precise plan of action vary, but it seems Agca was supposed to fire all or most of the shots, with elik perhaps firing if necessary but at the least setting off the panic bomb.

The Polish pontiff came out in his small, white Fiat Popemobile, waving to the excited gathering, grabbing hands and giving kisses, lifting children in his arms, smiling joyously.

As John Paul IIs vehicle moved slowly along, the

As John Paul II edged closer, the Turkish national lifted his pistol. Loud cracks of gunfire filled the air. Four shots were fired, two of which hit the pope, one in the left hand and another in the abdomen.

It was roughly quarter past the hour, a time that some have pinpointed as 5:13 P . M .when the numbers on the clock stood in perfect harmony with the numbers on the calendar on this Feast Day of Our Lady of Ftima.

The strong, physically fit pope folded and collapsed, his white figure sinking into the arms of his aides. Cradling his sagging frame were his loyal Polish secretary, Father Stanisaw Dziwisz, and his personal assistant, Angelo Gugel.

Mary, my mother; Mary, my mother, said John Paul II, who had lost his earthly mother as a child. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, he prayed, imploring the mother of Christ for her intercession at the heavenly throne of the Lord, the Lord she had watched be murdered by executioners. Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

IT WAS YOU!

After the gunshots were fired, Oral elik fled the scene in panic, failing to ignite his diversionary bomb. He would not be seen again.