Paul Ⅱ in Rome When in Rome the pope stopped to pray for the President’s recovery and immediately sent him a personal message with his prayers and hopes. These were worrisome times. It had not been so long before, during a Vatican meeting with an aide to the pope’s secretary of state, that William Casey left with a final word of caution. The CIA station in Rome had passed along a curious, and perhaps important, piece of information. When Lech Walesa had visited the pope, his host had been a man from the Italian Labour Confederation. The CIA had been told by Italian counter-intelligence officials that the host was working for Bulgaria. Since Bulgarians were under the control of the Soviets, this could either mean that Solidarity’s plans were compromised or that Walesa was in danger. On May 13, 1981, at 5 pm, the pontiff emerged for his weekly general audience in St, Peter’s Square. After entering the open “popemobile”,the pontiff was riding around the colonnade. His aide Stanislaw Dziwisz was next to him. Suddenly Dziwisz heard a deafening noise, and pigeons all over the square took flight. Then the pope slumped against him. “I knew the Holy Father was hit”, Dziwisz says “but there was no sign of blood or a wound on him . Then I asked him. ‘Where?’ he replied, ‘In my stomach.’” The pope had been wounded in his stomach, right elbow and index finger of his left hand. He was transferred to an ambulance, which sped him to a hospital. “Mary, my mother! Mary, my mother!” the Holy Father kept repeating. His eyes were closed, and he was in great pain, At the Gemelli Clinic the pope was rushed first to a tenth-floor room reserved for a papal emergency and then to an operating room. He’d lost a great deal of blood, and because his condition was critical, last rites were administered. The operation lasted five hours and 20 minutes. Twenty two inches of John Paul Ⅱ’s intestine were removed. “Hope gradually returned during the operation.” Said Dziwisz. “It became clear that no vital organ had been hit and that he just might survive.” Like the bullet that almost killed Ronald Reagan, this one had passed a few millimeters from the aorta. “If it had hit, death would have been instantaneous,” Dziwisz observed. “It did not touch any vital point. It was really miraculous.” “One hand fired,” the pope said later, “and another hand guided the bullet.” The triggerman was apprehended almost immediately. He was identified as Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish terrorist. Agca had publicly vowed to kill the pope during the potiff’s 1979 visit to Turkey. In recent years, ever mindful of a need for dialogue with the Jews, John Paul Ⅱmade the grand gesture of crossing the Tiber River to visit the main synagogue of Rome, something no pope had ever done before. As Roman Jews know, their community is older than the oldest Christian church. When Saints Peter and Paul came to Rome, the Torah was already being read and the Sabbath observed in the capital of the Roman Empire. Onlookers recall that when he delivered his speech in the synagogue, John Paul Ⅱat times seemed close to breaking down. Once, as a boy, he’d gone to the synagogue in his village with his father to a choir sing “Ani Maamin” (I believe), which had been chanted by condemned Jews in the death camps on their way to the gas chambers. As the voice of the choir swelled, the pope bent forward, his head bowed and his hand covering his mouth. Despite john paul Ⅱ’s declining health, the last years of his pontificate24 have seen a burst of activity. And though his hand is increasingly weary as he raises it to bless the faithful25, it points to a wider horizon. 當教皇在羅馬時，他停下爲總統的康復而祈禱並同時向總統表示了他本人的祝願和希望。 那時正是令人提心吊膽的日子。就在不久前，在梵蒂岡一次與教皇的國務祕書的助手的會見中，威廉姆·凱希留下的最後一句話就是要小心。 駐羅馬的中央情報局傳來一個奇怪的，同時可能也是個重要的信息。當萊克·瓦文薩拜會教皇時，東道主是個來自意大利工黨的人。中央情報局已被意大利反間諜官員告知其人爲保加利亞工作。由於保加利亞人受到蘇聯的控制，這可能就意味着波蘭團結工會的計劃已被泄露或是瓦文薩本人身處險境。 1981年5月13日下午五時，主教出現在聖彼得廣場進行每週的接見。進入敞蓬的“教皇之車”後，主教環柱廊而行。他的助手斯坦尼斯洛·簡維茨坐在他旁邊。 突然簡維茨聽到一聲震耳欲聾的巨響，廣場上的鴿子四散飛去。緊接着教皇靠着他癱倒下去。 簡維茨說：“我知道教皇被擊中了，可表面上沒有血跡或傷口。於是我問，‘哪兒受傷了？’他答道，‘肚子上。’” 教皇肚子上，右肘和左手食指都受了傷。他被擡上一輛救護車，迅速送往醫院。 教皇不停地重複着：“瑪麗亞，我的聖母！瑪麗亞，我的聖母！”他的雙目緊閉着，痛苦萬分。在傑米裏醫院教皇先被火速送往十樓預留的教皇搶救室，而後送往手術室。他失血過多，情況非常危急，因此爲他舉行了最後的宗教儀式。 手術持續了5小時20分鐘。約翰·保羅二世的腸子被切除了二十二英寸。“手術中漸漸有了希望，”簡維茲說，“很明顯致命的器官未被擊中，他得救了。” 就像子彈險些殺害羅納德·里根那樣，這枚子彈在離主動脈幾毫米的位置穿過。簡維茲說：“如若動脈被擊中，死亡可能就是瞬間的事，可子彈未傷到任何要害的地方。這真是個奇蹟。” 教皇后來說：“那個人是一隻手開火，另一隻手扶着準星。” 這個殺手幾乎就地被擒。他被認出叫穆罕默德·阿里·阿克查，是個土耳其恐怖主義者。1979年教皇訪問土耳其時，阿克查曾公開發誓要將他殺掉。 近些年來，約翰·保羅二世一直關注着與猶太人對話的必要性，他做出了宏偉的壯舉，跨過臺伯河去訪問羅馬的主要的猶太教堂，這對教皇來說是前所未有的。 據羅馬猶太人所知，他們的社區比最古老的基督教堂皇還要老。當聖彼德和聖保羅來到羅馬時，人們已開始在誦讀摩西經並且在羅馬帝國的首都裏過着安息日。 旁觀者回憶說，當紀翰·保羅二世在猶太教堂發表演講時，他時常情難自持。在他還是孩子時，一次他同父親就曾去過他們村中的猶太教堂去合唱“Ani Maamin”（我想信），這首歌曾爲被判罪的猶太人在從集中營到毒氣室的路上所吟唱。當合唱的聲音越來越響亮時，教皇鞠躬致意並以手掩面。 儘管約翰·保羅二世健康狀況越來越糟， 可他在最後幾年的教皇任期裏仍進行了大量的活動。而且儘管當他向信徒揮手祝福時感覺越來越沉重，但那仍指向着更寬廣的天地。
