Vatican City, Feb 4, 2013 / 16:46 pm
The director of the Vatican press office has rejected claims by Ali Agca, the man responsible for the assassination attempt on Blessed John Paul II, that the plot was ordered by an Iranian Islamic leader.
"Must we believe Agca this time? I think not," said Fr. Federico Lombardi in a written statement.
On Feb. 1, Fr. Lombardi told reporters that Agca's new book details a false conversation with the late Holy Father, in which he told the Pope that he had been working for Ayatollah Khomeini, who died in 1989.
The Turkish gunman's new book hit Italian bookstores on Jan. 31. Fr. Lombardi argued that the book was an attempt to gain money while distracting investigators who linked Agca to crimes committed in Eastern Europe.