”Shortly before the attack, the Italian secret services warned that the Red Brigades’ terrorists had a plan to kidnap John Paul,” the book, Why He Is a Saint, explains.
Polish Monsignor Slawomir Oder, who is heading the cause for the canonization of Pope John Paul, co-authored the book with Italian journalist, Saverio Gaeta, and presented it to the public on January 27.
Before the May 13,1981 attack on the pope by a Turkish assailant, the Red Brigades, which aimed to overthrow the Italian State, had assassinated Roman Catholic Judge Vittorio Bachelet.
The existence of the proposed kidnapping, which never took place, has not been revealed before until the authors obtained testimony pertaining to it.
The attack on the pope was by Ali Agca, who shot John Paul II, and badly wounded him. Italian intelligence had told the pontiff shortly beforehand that the Red Brigades planned to kidnap him.
During the 1980s, the Red Brigades consisted of extremist communists. In 1978, they had kidnapped Aldo Moro, who had twice been the Italian prime minister and was a senior member of the Christian Democratic party, which ruled the country during much of the second half of the 20th century. The Red Brigades held Moro hostage for 55 days, and then murdered him in Rome.
In a 1994 document mentioned in the book, John Paul II affirmed his willingness to abdicate from the papacy, “in case of incurable illness, which could prevent me for exercising my St. Peter’s ministry.”
Born in Poland in 1920, Karol Wojtyla was elected pope and chose John Paul as his papal name on October 16,1978. He died on April 2, 2005, after a long illness.
In December 2009, Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed the “heroic virtues” of John Paul II, thus opening the way for his beatification, which is the next to the last step to canonization as a saint.
The Italian press has speculated that his canonization could take place in a solemn ceremony on October 16, 2010, the anniversary of Wojtyla’s election as pope. The Vatican was unable to confirm this speculation.
