The plot to kill the pope

Fülszöveg

The only thing that was accidental about the attack on Pope John Paul II on 13 May 1981 was that it failed. Mehmet Ali Agca came within a centimeter and a half of killing this dynamic pontiff, the first Slav ever to be elevated to the throne of St Peter, who sees himself not only as the leader of the Church of Rome but as a force for renewal and unification of all Christendom.
Mehmet Ali Agca, the 23-year-old Turk who tried to kill the Pope, was neither stupid nor insane. He was not motivated by personal grudge against his target nor by religious or nationalist sentiment. He was not acting alone. He was the instrument of a plot which in all likelihood had its ultimate origins in Moscow. The drama which was played out in St Peter's Square was part of a contest for men's minds between two competing power centers: the Vatican and Kremlin. In a broader sense it was — and is — part of the continuing struggle between freedom and totalitarianism that has characterized most of the... Tovább

Fülszöveg

The only thing that was accidental about the attack on Pope John Paul II on 13 May 1981 was that it failed. Mehmet Ali Agca came within a centimeter and a half of killing this dynamic pontiff, the first Slav ever to be elevated to the throne of St Peter, who sees himself not only as the leader of the Church of Rome but as a force for renewal and unification of all Christendom.
Mehmet Ali Agca, the 23-year-old Turk who tried to kill the Pope, was neither stupid nor insane. He was not motivated by personal grudge against his target nor by religious or nationalist sentiment. He was not acting alone. He was the instrument of a plot which in all likelihood had its ultimate origins in Moscow. The drama which was played out in St Peter's Square was part of a contest for men's minds between two competing power centers: the Vatican and Kremlin. In a broader sense it was — and is — part of the continuing struggle between freedom and totalitarianism that has characterized most of the twentieth century.
This is a book about the plot, its context and its implications. The full story is still not known in complete detail. But what has been learned in two years of investigation in several countries makes it possible to draw a picture where most of the main outlines are reasonably clear. This book sketches out a solid and sometimes convoluted framework into which the reader will be able to place new facts as they come to light. Vissza