The upcoming canonizations of Blessed John XXIII and Blessed John Paul II have generated some very good press for the Roman Catholic Church. While a few articles have sought to punch holes in the reputations of the soon to be saints -- a frequent criticism I have seen is that John Paul was negligent in disciplining the serial abuser Fr. Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legion of Christ -- most converge has been positive. The German news magazine Der Spiegel published an in depth piece on the miracles associated with John Paul, that treated the issue with sympathy and empathy. It is too early to tell how outfits normally hostile to the papacy such as the BBC or the European leftist press will present this story. However, interest in the canonization outside of religious circles appears to be very high.
On Friday Vatican Radio reported that 93 nations will send official delegations to the April 27 canonization service, while two dozen heads of state and as many as 150 cardinals and 1,000 bishops will be present at the Mass.
One oddball item that caught me eye amongst the flurry of articles was an interview conducted by the Italian wire service ANSA with John Paul's would-be assassin, Mehmet Ali Agca. Here the lede of the story that ran with the headline: "Foiled killer said sinful to 'deify' John Paul":
Pope John Paul II is not a saint, because only God can be considered holy and attempts to "deify a human being" are sinful, Ali Agca, the man who tried to assassinate the pope in 1981, said Thursday in an interview with ANSA.
The article offers some background information on Agca, who in 1981 shot and nearly killed John Paul -- a crime for which he served 20 years in an Italian prison, before being deported to Turkey, where he served a further ten years imprisonment for a 1979 murder. The article further notes Agca:
has claimed at various times that his attempted murder of the pontiff was ordered by Ayatollah Rhollah Khomeini of Iran and the Soviet-era Bulgarian Secret Police.
The piece then offers an insight into the assassin's mind, giving him space to speak.
Agca, who was released from jail in 2010, said that he "definitely wanted to kill" John Paul II so it's a "miracle" the pontiff survived the St. Peter's Square attack, which shocked the world. "I have seen with indisputable evidence that on May 13, 1981, God performed a miracle in St. Peter's Square," ...
The Turkish national added that he feels no remorse because his act was part of a "divine plan". "There's an immeasurable difference between a divine miracle such as my assassination attempt and a psychopathic, unjustifiable crime," said Ali Agca. "I'm extremely happy to have been at the center of a divine plan that's cost me 30 hellish years in solitary confinement".
Which leads me to ask, which God? Whose divine plan? Is Agca a Muslim, Christian or something else? Is he crazy?
Upon his release from prison in Turkey in 2010 Agca claimed he was "the Christ eternal" and the Messiah. Ten years in a Turkish prison are likely to addle most people's brains and long-distance psychiatry is a risky business.
But as a point of journalism, when the subject of an interview begins to talk about god, divine plans and the like, should not the newspaper clarify the religious tradition or belief system being offered? ANSA offers background on Agca's past and his prison history, but in a story that focuses on religion it is silent as to the subject's own beliefs and chosen faith.
Or, is "30 hellish years in solitary confinement" excuse enough not to press too hard upon the mind of Mehmet Ali Agca?