One Hand Pulled the Trigger, Another Guided the Bullet (I)

On May 13, the Holy Father had lunched with Professor Jerome Lejeune, his wife and another guest, then he peacefully made his way to Saint Peter’s Square for the General Audience. While he made a tour of the square and approached the bronze door, the Turk Mehmet Ali Agça fired a shot at him, wounding him in abdomen, the right elbow and his left hand index finger. The bullet hit his index finger before entering the abdomen. I was sitting behind the Holy Father as usual, and the bullet, in spite of its force, fell between us, in the car, at my feet. The other wounded his right elbow, burning his skin and went on to wound other people. What did I think? Nobody believed that such a thing was possible. As I was so upset, I did not understand what was happening immediately. The noise had been deafening. All the pigeons flew away. Somebody had fired a shot. Who could it be? Then I saw that the Holy Father was hit. He looked unsteady, but nobody saw any blood or wounds on him. So I asked, “Where?” He answered me, “In the abdomen.” And I asked, “Is it painful?” He answered, “Yes”. The Holy Father was with half sitting, half leaning on me in the car, and this is how the ambulance found him. The Holy Father did not look at us. His eyes were closed, he was in great pain and kept repeating short prayers. If I remember correctly, he said: “Mary, my mother! Mary, my mother!” Dr. Buzzonetti, a male nurse and Brother Camillus were with me in the ambulance. It drove very fast, without a police escort. The siren broke down after a few hundred meters. The journey that would usually have taken at least half an hour took us eight minutes, and in Roman traffic! Later, the Holy Father told me that he had remained conscious all the way to the hospital, and that he had lost consciousness only there. He said that he had been convinced all the while that his wounds were not fatal.