MAN WHO SHOT POPE TO BE FREED

Drudge Report ^

[gondramB]

"Mehmet Ali Agca was extradited to Turkey in 2000 after serving almost 20 years in Italy for shooting and wounding the pope in St. Peter's Square in Rome. His motives for the attack remain unclear."

Twenty years may be above average in Italy for attempted murder... but would be assasins should get the death penalty.

[Gay State Conservative]

If John Paul II can forgive him, I suppose it's appropriate for Catholics like me to as well.

There's certainly a strong argument to be made for your position. However,a few months after being released,what are the chances that we'll find this guy carrying a rocket launcher in Iraq?

[TheRobb7]

It makes sense in a world where Mary Jo Kopechne's killer gets elected to the Senate...repeatedly.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Put him in a sealed room with Hinckley and Dahmer, one knife, and a dinner plate.

Dahmer died by the mop handle.

[Zeppelin]

Mehmet Ali Agca was from Turkey, which is 99.8% Muslim...

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/tu.html#People

His bio...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehmet_Ali_Agca

(FYI, Agca converted to Catholicism after Pope John Paul II visited him and prayed with him.)

"His desire to be near his people nearly killed him - on 13th May 1981 he was shot by Mehmet Ali Agca in Saint Peter's Square, Rome. He believed that he survived, because it was on the day of the apparition of our Lady of Fatima, and for this reason he traveled to Portugal at the first opportunity the following year to place one of the bullets in the crown on the head of the statue of the Virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal. Later he visited Agca in prison and forgave him. Agca converted to Catholicism."

http://english.pravda.ru/printed.html?news_id=15222

[Zeppelin]

I don't feel it's up to you or me to determine the sincerity of his actions. I would put that in God's hands. I for one would like to believe that a person has the ability to turn from FROM a life of evil just as they did TO a life of evil. Otherwise, there's no hope for humanity.

What he did (and tried to do) is beyond words, and personally, I don't believe I could forgive him had he done that to me. But Pope John Paul II was a greater man than I, and if he can forgive him, then I can too. It's all in God's hands now.

[Zeppelin]

Oh and welcome to Free Republic!!! =)

[Terabitten]

That photo inspired a song by one of my all time favorite Christian artists, Steve Taylor.

To Forgive
Steve Taylor

I saw a man
he was holding the hand
that had fired a gun at his heart
oh, will we live
to forgive?

I saw the eyes
and the look of surprise
as he left an indelible mark
oh, will we live?
to forgive?

Come...find release
go...make your peace

Follow his lead
let the madness recede
when we shatter the cycle of pain
oh, we will live
to forgive

Come...find release
go...make your peace

I saw a man
with a hole in His hand
who could offer the miracle cure
oh, He said live
I forgive
(repeat)

Oh, He said live
to forgive
oh, He said live
to forgive

[Terabitten]

In some alternate universe, your reply was funny.

[Zeppelin]

I don't understand. So he shot himself in the hand by accident?

[Terabitten]

Or maybe it was an image of the crucified Christ with a "hole in His hand" where He hung from the cross for our sins.

And maybe it was also a play on the first lines of the song, "I saw a man who was holding the hand."

[brainstem223]

You have nothing to forgive him for; did he sin against you?

[brainstem223]

There is no substitute for street justice when the pols forbid the necessary remedy of the death penalty, someone else will carry out justice. This homosexual cannibal deserved a gruesome death and the sentence was carried out.

[Zeppelin]

haha no biggie. My dad's the same way. One of the smartest dudes I know, just has no grasp on poetics. We're both engineers, but he's the old-school, stereotypical engineer. =P