John Paul II's Attacker Wants Vatican Baptism

Man who shot pontiff seeks ceremony after prison release
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted May 13, 2009 1:46 PM CDT
John Paul II's Attacker Wants Vatican Baptism
Pope John Paul II, right, and Romanian Orthodox Patriarch Teoctist, left, arrive for a ceremony at the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest Friday, May 7, 1999.   (AP Photo/Massimo Sambucetti)

The man who shot Pope John Paul II gets out of prison in January—and when he does, he wants to be baptized at the Vatican, his lawyer says. Over the years, Mehmet Ali Agca has claimed to be the Messiah or Jesus Christ, fueling speculation about his mental health and the possibility that he had converted to Christianity. But his lawyer tells the AP Agca’s “not formally a Christian.”
(More Pope John Paul II stories.)

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