Benedict XVI recalls miraculous saving of Pope John Paul II in assassination attempt

Vatican City, May 14, 2006 / 22:00 pm

During the Sunday Angelus he presided over this morning, Pope Benedict recalled today the apparitions in Fatima and the prophecy uttered by the “Lady of White Light” to the shepherds: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”  He recalled as well the miraculous saving of his predecessor John Paul II by “the intervention of a maternal hand.”

Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of the assassination attempt against Pope Wojtyla, in which the “Servant of God, John Paul II, felt he had been miraculously saved from death by the intervention of ‘a maternal hand’, as he himself used to say. His entire pontificate was marked by what the Virgin pronounced at Fatima”.

Only yesterday, the statue of Our Lady of Fatima was welcomed in St Peter’s Square by tens of thousands of believers, and a plaque was unveiled in the square on the exact spot where the attempt to take the life of the Polish Pope took place.

Benedict XVI recalled that the message the Virgin entrusted in Fatima, “was a strong call to prayer and conversion. It was a truly prophetic message considering that the XX century was ravaged by unheard-of destruction caused by wars and totalitarian regimes, as well as long drawn out persecution against the Church”.

Pope Benedict commented briefly on today’s Gospel. “In this Sunday of Easter, the liturgy offers us a reading of the Gospel of Saint John, in which Jesus, talking to his disciples during the Last Supper, is exhorting them to abide by Him as the branches to the vine. This is a parable that is truly significant, as it expresses with great relevancy how Christian life is a mystery of communion with Jesus.”

“A certain way of remaining united in Christ is to have recourse to the intercession of  Mary,” the pope reminded.