- Title: ITALY: Catholics hope for Ali Agca's change of heart after release
- Date: 19th January 2010
- Summary: VATICAN CITY (JANUARY 18, 2010) (REUTERS) ST. PETER'S SQUARE PRIESTS SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) ARCHBISHOP ENNIO APIGNANESI SAYING: "He has served his time in jail so now he is a free man according to the law. Let's hope also his heart has changed. Maybe he will come to Rome. The Pope went twice to forgive him. Now he could come and make a prayer." VARIOUS OF ST. PETER'S SQUARE (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) CATHOLIC PRIEST, FATHER NATALE COLAFATI, SAYING: "Thirty years have gone by. According to civil laws has paid his debt with justice. John Paul II, as the good Pope he was, had forgiven him. I believe that one of the aims of prison is the re-education of those who committed crimes. Let's hope this happened to him and that he may live a civil life and rebuild his human dignity." VARIOUS OF ST. PETER'S SQUARE NUN REFUSING TO ANSWER ST. PETER'S SQUARE
- Embargoed: 2nd February 2010 22:35
- Keywords:
- Location: Italy
- Country: Italy
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Religion
- Reuters ID: LVA9635UK179BA2UFXAZBVEBQ67F
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
- Story Text: Priests and nuns outside the Vatican on Monday morning (January 18) said they would pray for Mehmet Ali Agca after his release from a Turkish prison nearly thirty years after the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.
Agca served 19 years in an Italian prison for the attack, before being pardoned on the pope's initiative in 2000 but was extradited to serve a sentence in his home country for other crimes including the 1979 murder of a newspaper editor.
The 52-year-old was released from an Ankara jail on Monday morning.
Catholic clergy walking through St. Peter's square where the assignation attempt on Pope John Paul had taken place said they thought it was correct he be released from prison after serving his sentence but hoped that his heart had changed.
"He has served his time in jail so now he is a free man according to the law. Let's hope also his heart has changed." said Father Ennio Apignanesi, emeritus archbishop of Potenza.
"Maybe he will come to Rome. The Pope went twice to forgive him. Now he could come and make a prayer." he added.
"Thirty years have gone by. According to civil laws has paid his debt with justice. John Paul II, as the good Pope he was, had forgiven him." said Father Natale Colafati.
"I believe that one of the aims of prison is the re-education of those who committed crimes. Let's hope this happened to him and that he may live a civil life and rebuild his human dignity." he added.
Agca's motives for shooting and wounding the pope at the Vatican in 1981 remain a mystery.
Some people believe he was working for Soviet-era eastern European security services alarmed by the Polish pontiff's fierce opposition to communism. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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