Today is the 42nd anniversary of the near-fatal assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II, an event that stunned the world. On the fateful day - 13 May 1981 - the Polish pontiff was passing through the thousands of faithful gathered in St Peter's Square, blessing the crowds from his open Popemobile.
Pope John VIII
John VIII was the first pope to be assassinated during a particularly turbulent century that would see multiple claimants to the papacy and a succession of violent papal deaths.
Benedict resigned at the age of 85, citing declining health due to old age. The conclave to select his successor began on 12 March 2013 and elected cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, who took the name of Francis.
Assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II
He then stabbed John Paul II with the 40 cm-long (16 in) bayonet of a Mauser rifle. An aide of the pope stated that he did wound him, as there was blood on the floor when they returned to the Vatican. John Paul II survived the attack, and blessed the failed assassin.
Pope Francis described him as someone who "lived without compromise". John Paul I died of a heart attack on 28 September 1978. His death caused much controversy - and conspiracy theories - due to two slightly differing accounts. The Vatican said he was found dead by two nuns.
The paper also said (on 28 November 1979) that the killing would be in revenge for the then still ongoing attack on the Grand Mosque in Mecca, which had begun on 20 November, and which he blamed on the United States or Israel.
On 20 November 2001, from a laptop in the Vatican, Pope John Paul II sent his first e-mail apologizing for the Catholic sex abuse cases, the Church-backed "Stolen Generations" of Aboriginal children in Australia, and to China for the behavior of Catholic missionaries in colonial times.
Alexander VI, original Spanish name in full Rodrigo de Borja y Doms, Italian Rodrigo Borgia, (born 1431, Játiva, near Valencia [Spain]—died August 18, 1503, Rome), corrupt, worldly, and ambitious pope (1492–1503), whose neglect of the spiritual inheritance of the church contributed to the development of the Protestant ...
Alexander VI
Before becoming Pope, he was a member of Borgias, the Italian crime family, and his attitude did not change after becoming Pope. During his time, multiple conspiracies and dishonesty surrounded him and his decisions. As well as being a conniving pope in politics, he was also a promiscuous one.
Popes usually get paid hendsomely, the current wage he gets is $32,000 on a monthly basis but he refused to get any of that money. Instead, Pope Francis decided to either donate this money to the church, use it to endow a foundation, placed in trust or pass it on to a family member.
The indoor Papal slippers were made of red velvet or silk and were heavily decorated in gold braid, with a gold cross in the middle. Throughout Church history, the color red has been deliberately chosen to represent the blood of Catholic martyrs spilled through the centuries following in the footsteps of Christ.
That history tells us there were three Black popes in Catholic Church history: Pope Victor I who headed the church from 189 A.D. to 199 A.D., Pope Miltiades (311 A.D. – 314 A.D.) and Pope Gelasius who served between 492 and 496 A.D.
Pope John Paul II had an intimate 32-year relationship with a Polish philosopher who is believed to have once declared her love to him while he was still a cardinal, according to letters discovered by the BBC.
On the night of 5 July 1809 French forces kidnapped Barnabà Chiaramonti, Pope Pius VII, from his private apartments in the Quirinal Palace in Rome. He would spend the following five years as a prisoner of Napoleon.
Lucrezia Borgia (April 18, 1480–June 24, 1519) was the illegitimate daughter of Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia) by one of his mistresses.
V A T I C A N C I T Y, March 27, 2001 -- A leading cardinal present when the coffin of Pope John XXIII was opened after 38 years today said the pontiff looked as if he had “died yesterday.” “None of the body had decomposed,” said Cardinal VirgilioNoe, the high priest of St.
A collection of popes who have had violent deaths through the centuries. The circumstances have ranged from martyrdom (Pope Stephen I) to war (Lucius II), to a beating by a jealous husband (Pope John XII).
Pope Francis said he was “deeply sorry” for more than a century of abuses that First Nations, Métis and Inuit children endured in Catholic-run residential schools in Canada.
Sergius III today is largely seen as an unscrupulous character as contemporary records had included a number of accusations against him; Sergius III had reputedly ordered the murder of his two immediate predecessors, Leo V and Christopher, and allegedly fathered an illegitimate son who later became pope, John XI.
Mann, Benedict IX was about 20 when made pontiff in October 1032.
Struggling to swallow and breathe, Pope John Paul II mumbled his final words weakly in Polish: “Let me go to the house of the Father.” Six hours later, the comatose pontiff died, the Vatican says.
Tensions with the Church
John had a dispute with the church over the appointment of a new Archbishop of Canterbury in 1207. John's preferred appointment was ignored by the Pope, who was the head of the Catholic Church. John refused to allow the Pope's appointed archbishop, Stephen Langton, to enter England.
Peter's Square, the pope was shot by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Ağca. Ali Ağca fired a total of four times. Two bullets hit Pope John Paul II in the abdomen and left hand, and the pontiff immediately collapsed, according to the History Channel.