On this 45th anniversary of the assassination attempt of Pope John Paul II, his successor, Pope Leo XIV, stopped at the spot in St. Peter's Square where the shooting occurred.
Before the general audience today, the Holy Father was in his popemobile -- just as John Paul II was on that Wednesday of 1981 for the general audience of that day. He had been elected pope less than three years earlier and was driving around St. Peter's Square in his open-top jeep when gunshots rang out. It was 5:19 p.m., and the Pope collapsed in the popemobile, struck in the abdomen.
A marble plaque in the cobblestones of St. Peter's Square marks the spot where the shooting happened.
Today, Leo asked his popemobile driver to stop and he went to the plaque, spending a brief moment in prayer before kneeling down to touch the image.
After the audience, in greetings to English-speaking pilgrims, Pope Leo noted:
Today we remember the memorial of Our Lady of Fatima. On this day, forty-five years ago, an attempt was made on the life of Pope John Paul II, and for these reasons, I dedicated my catechesis today to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
See here if the video below does not open on your screen:
John Paul II always attributed his survival to the hand of Our Lady of Fatima, and he even had the bullet placed in her crown.
Twenty years after the attack, in 2001, praying for new priests of the Diocese of Rome and entrusting them to Our Lady, he said: I myself experienced her protection on May 13 twenty years ago.
Another Leo connection
Interestingly the text that John Paul II was intending to deliver at that audience is connected to this week in another way.
He was going to speak on the plight of workers, as it was the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the publication of “Rerum Novarum” — the social encyclical of Pope Leo XIII that set in motion a number of social encyclicals released on this date in successive decades.
Pope Leo XIV is expected to sign his first encyclical, on the same theme, this Friday, May 15.
Here you can read an unofficial English translation of John Paul II's text.
