'Kremlin wanted pope dead'
2007-01-23 09:15
Rome - The late Pope John Paul seriously considered resigning in 2000 because of poor health and also mulled changing Church law so popes would bow out at age 80 and not rule for life, his ex-secretary discloses in a new book.
Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the pope's private secretary for
40 years, also restates his conviction that the Soviet Union was
behind the assassination attempt on the pontiff in 1981 because
he was seen as a threat to its power.
In A Life with Karol, Dziwisz recalled many of John Paul's
human sides, including how after visiting Mother Teresa's home
for the dying in Calcutta he was so distraught he told her: "If
I could, I would do my work as pope from here".
'Pope hated by the Kremlin'
Dziwisz recalls May 13, 1981, the day Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca shot the pope while his open jeep was being driven through St Peter's square at the start of a weekly general audience.
"Agca was a perfect killer," writes Dziwisz, who was riding
in the jeep at the time. "He was sent by those who thought the
pope was dangerous, inconvenient, by those who feared him..."
At the time of the shooting, events in the pope's Polish homeland were starting a domino effect which eventually led to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989.
The pope was a staunch supporter of Poland's solidarity
union and most historians agree he played a vital role in events
that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
"How could one not have thought of the communist world
(being behind the plot) ... you have to take into consideration
all the elements of that scenario: the election of a pope hated
by the Kremlin, his first trip back to his homeland (as pope in
1979), the explosion of the solidarity union (in 1980)."
"Doesn't everything lead in that direction? Don't the paths,
even if they are different, lead to the KGB?"
Moscow has denied involvement in the assassination attempt.
Last year, a report by an Italian parliamentary
investigative commission said the leaders of the former Soviet
Union were behind the plot and that Agca, a Turk now serving
life in prison in his native country, did not act alone.
Considered quitting
Dziwisz writes that John Paul considered resigning in 2000,
when, in fading health, he led the one billion-member Church
into the new millennium. He discussed it with close advisers,
including then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict.
"He came to the conclusion that he had to submit himself to
God's will, that is, to remain (in office) as long as God
wanted," he writes in the book.
John Paul considered expanding church legislation that says
cardinals cannot enter a conclave to elect a new pontiff after
they turn 80 and "asked himself ... if even the pope should
resign from the post at age 80".