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Escorted from his cell in Rome's Rebibbia Prison by a heavy police convoy, Mehmet Ali Agca arrived in a high-security courtroom in Rome last week, presumably to tell a jury that he had been hired by Bulgarian intelligence officials to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981. But as the 27-year-old Turk settled into his white steel cage in a former gymnasium converted to a courtroom, he had loftier matters on his mind. "I am Jesus Christ!" Agca shouted. "I am omnipotent. I announce the end of the world. All will be destroyed." The bizarre outburst...
After years of preparation, one of the most complex and controversial criminal proceedings ever entered upon gets under way this week when eight men charged with conspiring to assassinate Pope John Paul II go on trial in Rome's criminal court. Mehmet Ali Agca, 27, the Turkish terrorist who was sentenced to life imprisonment after he shot the Pope in St. Peter's Square four years ago, is expected to be the central figure during the initial phases of the trial...
...Agca's testimony will undoubtedly focus on the so-called ( Bulgarian connection: the prosecution's contention that Agca and a co- conspirator were hired by three Bulgarians to carry out the killing. Only one of the three, Sergei Antonov, 46, ex-chief of the Balkan Bulgarian Airlines office in Rome, is being held by the Italians. The others, former officials of the Bulgarian embassy in Rome, Jelio Kolev Vassilev, 43, and Todor Sotyanov Ayvazov, 42, are back home and have refused to return to Italy. The Bulgarian government has said that it will fully cooperate with the Italians. That raises...
Perhaps the Pope's most important confrontation was with the Rev. Henk Huting, chairman of the Netherlands Reformed Synod. Huting deplored the Catholic Church's ecumenical regression and blamed it on "instructions from higher authority." Read: Rome. For his part, John Paul skipped some hard-line passages in his prepared address, but the text remains the Pontiff's most forthright statement on his approach toward Protestantism. Discussion of joint Communion services is futile, he indicated, and Rome is unwilling to explore changes in the nature of the priesthood. The speech removed any remaining doubt that John Paul now foresees substantial...
...Paul spent a placid day and a half in Luxembourg. He then moved on to Belgium, where the crowds lining the streets and joining the mass meetings were once again large and friendly, as they have been in so many nations. The Pope was scheduled to fly back to Rome...