Why Did Pope John Paul II Forgive Mehmet Ali Ağca, the Man Who Shot Him?

On 13 May 1981, Mehmet Ali Ağca shot Pope John Paul II in St Peter’s Square. The pope survived and publicly expressed forgiveness while recovering. More than two years later, on 27 December 1983, he visited Ağca in Rome’s Rebibbia prison. Their meeting became one of the most widely remembered images of his pontificate.

This short documentary places that encounter beside the pope’s public words and his visit to the other prisoners. Forgiveness was a religious and personal act; it did not cancel the criminal case or establish who, if anyone, had directed the attack.

The private conversation was not released as a complete public transcript. The distinction matters: photographs record the meeting, but they cannot reveal every thought or sentence exchanged inside the cell. The accompanying article follows the documented chronology without turning an extraordinary encounter into an invented dialogue.

Sources and further reading: Events: 1981 — Pontificate of John Paul II

• vatican.va/holy_father/special_features/xxv_pontificate/en/eventi_1981_en.htm

Meeting with Prisoners at Rebibbia, 27 December 1983

• vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/it/speeches/1983/december/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19831227_detenuti-rebibbia.html