Pope's assailant sends get-well wishes from jail in Turkey

[Minstrel Boy]

Pope's assailant sends get-well wishes from jail in Turkey

AFP: 2/3/2005


ISTANBUL, Feb 3 (AFP) - The Turk who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981 issued a message from jail here Thursday, containing a wish of speedy recovery for the ailing pontiff and a bizarre call on him to acknowledge that the world has come close to an end.

Mehmet Ali Agca, 46, was extradited to Turkey in June 2000 after serving 19 years in Italy for shooting and seriously wounding the Pope, who has forgiven him for the attack.

...

"Dear Pope, you must now confirm that we are at the end of the world. This is the last generation of humanity on Planet Earth. Only like this will God give you health and miraculous strength for the coming years.

"In any case, I embrace you Karol Wojtyla. I give you my best wishes," Agca wrote, addressing the pontiff with his Polish name.

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?ID=36845

[henrik larssonisking]

1. cheers mate i think.

[seemslikeadream]

2. Cardinal Francis Arinze

...

Others cast their eyes to the right of the apostolic palace, to the window of a cardinal who could become very famous very soon. Francis Arinze is tipped by some to succeed John Paul II and become the first African in 1,500 years to sit on the throne of St Peter.

If he does, the world will devour every detail about this stocky Nigerian - that he spent his early years in the countryside outside the Catholic faith; that he loves tennis and football; that he hangs African masks on his apartment walls; that he thinks Muslims, Buddhists and Jews can go to heaven; and that he stopped taking sugar in his tea during the Biafran war.

For many, the most compelling detail would be his race: a black man with more international influence than many white prime ministers and presidents. As pope he would wield a unique blend of spiritual and political power, able to mobilise the opinions of up to a billion Catholics and sway the policies of nation states.

It has been quite a journey from the baked red earth of Eziowelle, a village in south-east Nigeria, to the marbled halls of Rome, where Cardinal Arinze, 70, is the prefect of the congregation for divine worship and the discipline of the sacraments, a post which puts him in charge of liturgy, and number four in the Vatican hierarchy.

more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,12272,1055080,00.html

[xray s]

4. this is encouraging news

sounds like he would be a great choice.

[TahitiNut]

5. It'd be about time.

I wonder if the extremely conservative Conclave would have the guts.

[abandon_ship]

3. inmate bob terwilliger?