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Film shows priest's 1982 knife attack hurt pope
The longtime private secretary of the late Pope John Paul II revealed in a film screened on Thursday that the pope was lightly wounded in a 1982 knife attack by a priest in Portugal.
- AP
- Published: 00:01 October 18, 2008
- Image Credit: AP
- The longtime private secretary of the late Pope John Paul II revealed in a film screened on Thursday that the pope was lightly wounded in a 1982 knife attack by a priest in Portugal.
Vatican City: The longtime private secretary of the late Pope John Paul II revealed in a film screened on Thursday that the pope was lightly wounded in a 1982 knife attack by a priest in Portugal.
Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz made the revelation in Testimony, a movie on John Paul's life that was screened for Pope Benedict XVI and top clergy at the Vatican. It was known that John Paul was assaulted by a knife-wielding Spanish priest while visiting the shrine of Fatima in Portugal to give thanks for surviving an assassination attempt when he was shot by a Turkish gunman in St Peter's Square in 1981.
Ultra conservative
"Today I can say what up to now we have kept secret," Dziwisz said in the movie. "That priest wounded the Holy Father."
The ultraconservative priest, Juan Maria Fernandez Krohn, was opposed to the reforms adopted by the Catholic Church and attacked the pope in a Fatima square. He was stopped by police and spent several years in jail.
Dziwisz said blood was found on the pope's vestments after the attack but John Paul was not seriously injured and was able to continue with his schedule.
Dziwisz, now archbishop of Krakow, served the pope for 39 years from his years as bishop there until his death in Rome in 2005 and has often said John Paul was "a father" to him.
The movie is an all-Polish production based on Dziwisz's book titled A Life with Karol - a reference to John Paul's real name, Karol Wojtyla. Benedict said he was "deeply moved" by the film.
The movie, narrated by Dziwisz and British actor Michael York, combines documentary footage, including images of the pope's 1982 visit to Fatima, with dramatisations.
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