Gun used against Pope John Paul II to be exhibited

March 21, 2014 - The gun used in the failed assassination attempt on Pope John Paul nearly 33 years ago will be on display at a museum dedicated to the pontiff in his native Poland as a sign of God's protection of him, according to an official of the museum. The Pope, who died in 2005, is to be proclaimed a saint April 27 at the Vatican, and the multi-media museum in John Paul's childhood hometown of Wadowice, in southern Poland, is preparing a new exhibition for the occasion.

Trained Turkish assassin Mehmet Ali Agca fired a Browning HP 9mm handgun from close range at the Pope in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981. Pope John Paul was rushed to a Rome hospital where he spent nearly three weeks recovering from injuries to his abdomen and from massive loss of blood.

Monsignor Jacek Pietruszka, the deputy director of the multi-media museum in John Paul's childhood hometown of Wadowice, in southern Poland, explained to Associated Press on Wednesday that ``the gun is a sign of God's Providence.'' The gun, on three-year lease from Rome's penal authorities, and a replica of the bullet will be among ``witnesses'' to the happy and sad moments in the late pope's life that will be documented at the museum. The hospital where he recovered also offered exhibits, Monsignor Pietruszka said, but refused to specify. The current, small exhibition at the house where the pope was born in 1920 as Karol Wojtyla, will close this week to give room for the expanded museum that will reopen on April 9. Pope John Paul pardoned Agca, who was released from prison in 2010. (Source: AP)