There was strong circumstantial evidence of the involvement of the Bulgarian secret service (and thus, inevitably, of the KGB) but the Italian court did not admit this as sufficient proof (the rumours about a cover-up could not be verified). The Pope, gravely wounded by gunshots, was twice at the edge of death but he recovered after several months in hospital. The background of the assassination attempt has never been satisfactorily explained. He repeatedly stresses his respect for science and its autonomy but the claims of philosophy to “self-sufficiency” which implicitly rejects the help of revelation is to him, not surprisingly, an aberration of the modern age.On 13 May 1981 in St Peter’s Square an attempt was made on the Pope’s life by Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turk who had escaped from prison in his country. That faith and reason cannot contradict each other is to him obvious, conformably to the Thomist tradition. He deplores the “post-modernist” dismissal of the classic truth-concept as well as of traditional metaphysical problems. It clearly departs from the Augustinian legacy in matters concerning predestination and grace.
It codifies the traditional teaching of the Church and enriches it by many additions, explanations and new ideas elaborated during and after the Second Vatican Council.In the important and interesting encyclical Fides et Ratio (signed 14 September 1998) the Pope returns to his philosophical worries. The conflict with the “progressivists” resulted in reprimands, warnings or the occasional withdrawal of the official title of a Catholic theologian (as in the case of Professor Hans K?. It did not bring the end to the tyrannical regime but it apparently made the religious life in the country easier. And the Pope left Cuba convinced that the heart of the dictator had not been untouched by this encounter.Although the terms of the clash between “progressivism” and “integrism” in the Catholic world changed considerably during his pontificate, the Pope was criticised from both sides. This scandalised many people, who felt that the Pope was thereby legitimising despotic regimes But he said nothing to endorse these regimes. He conveyed his message of love, and hope, and faith, to all dwellers of all countries and he believed, it seems, that personal contacts with some unsavoury figures are never totally in vain.The visit to Communist Cuba in 1998 was certainly risky to its dictator Fidel Castro and perhaps to the Pope himself. The collapse of the Soviet empire and the end of Communism in Russia did not make the prospects of such a journey better, though.
The Russian Orthodox Church lives in dread of Catholic missionary activity and it would expect a significant reinforcement of the Roman Church as a result of such a visit.Being not only the head of the Church but the head of the Vatican State as well, the Pope had, during his voyages, to speak to the leaders of dictatorial countries: Chile’s Pinochet, Cuba’s Castro, Poland’s Jaruzelski, among others. He spoke fluently in many languages, all of them with a recognisable Polish accent; and he acknowledged that the texts he personally composed were written in Polish. Some critics blamed him even for the “Polonisation” of the Church (the reason was perhaps his emphasis, conforming to the Polish tradition, on the cult of the Virgin Mary).The Pope’s trip to Russia, tentatively planned for 1987, fizzled out; Soviet leaders apparently feared his presence – keeping in mind the results of his pilgrimage to Poland; on the other hand he could not conceivably visit Russia without making contacts with the Ukrainian Uniate Church which was then illegal. His last foreign visits were to Slovakia, in September 2003, and Switzerland, in June 2004; and last August he made a pilgrimage to Lourdes. It is widely assumed that his first visit to Poland in June 1979 contributed very strongly to the subsequent events which resulted in the emergence of the mass non-violent democratic movement, embodied in Solidarity, and in the gradual dismantling of Communist totalitarian institutions: not that the Pope made direct political appeals but because, thanks to his presence, millions of Poles could count themselves on the streets, so to say, gain the feeling of strength and reassert both their religious and their national identity with the blessing of the highest moral authority.Wojtyla was a Polish patriot and frequently displayed his special attachment to his native land. He was the first pope ever to pray in a synagogue and in a Lutheran temple.John Paul II made innumerable journeys to all continents – from Papua New Guinea to Britain, from Poland to Nigeria, from Mexico to Thailand.
