Lawyer: Pope gunman wants to visit Fatima shrine

A lawyer says the Turkish man (Mehmet Ali Agca who called himself as the “Messiah”) who shot Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981, wants to attend annual ceremonies at Portugal's Fatima shrine, which Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to attend.

Lawyer Hacı Ali Özhan says he has written to Portuguese leaders seeking permission for Mehmet Ali Ağca to travel there for the May 13 event.

Ağca, who was released from prison in January after completing a sentence for the 1979 killing of a journalist, has also said he wishes to visit the Vatican and pray at the tomb of the man he once tried to kill.

Three shepherd children claimed in 1917 to have seen the Virgin Mary in Fatima and that she made predictions.

Church officials said in 2000 that she foretold the assassination attempt.

“MESSIAH” Mehmet Ali Agca to write a “perfect Bible”

Mehmet Ali Agca in police custody in Istanbul on 20 Jan 2006/Cihan

Mehmet Ali Agca, Pope John Paul’s would-be assassin due to be released from prison on Monday, has answered a set of questions put to him by Reuters through his lawyers. Earlier on Wednesday, his lawyers issued a hand-written letter to journalists in which he called for a new “American Empire.” Our later news story on his answers to our questions highlights his stated desire to visit the late pope’s tomb in Saint Peter’s Basilica. The statement went on to call on Pope Benedict to announce the end of the world and say he would prove he was “Agca the Messiah” and would write the “perfect Bible.” Agca’s answers are rambling and bizarre.

Read the complete text of the Q&A to give a fuller view of his current thinking HERE.

Would-be assassin of Pope John Paul II says he wants to be baptized

Ankara, Turkey, May 14, 2009 / 05:24 pm (CNA).- Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II, now claims he would like to convert to Christianity after his release from prison. He says he wants to be baptized in a ceremony at the Vatican.

Agca shot and seriously wounded John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981. In 1983, the Pope met with his would-be assassin in an Italian prison and forgave him.

Now serving a prison term for killing a Turkish journalist, Agca has made frequent claims that he is the Messiah or Jesus Christ, the Associated Press reports. This has raised questions about his mental health and also sparked speculations he has converted to Christianity.

"Agca is not formally a Christian," lawyer Haci Ali Ozhan told the Associated Press. "When he converts, he would like a baptism ceremony at the Vatican," Ozhan.

He is scheduled for release on January 18, 2010.