The assassination attempt was certainly the moment that opened a new chapter of his Calvary – says the former Papal secretary. This assassination attempt destroyed his health. It marked the entire Papal ministry with suffering. However, Archbishop Mokrzycki points out that immediately after the assassination, still from the hospital, John Paul II said publicly that he had forgiven Ali Agca. And, two years later he met with him and the gesture of forgiveness saw the entire world. The Holy Father forgave him as Christ forgave those who did not know what they were doing, says Archbishop Mokrzycki. – Showing us that this is also the mystery of the cross. Mystery of love and forgiveness. Therefore, on Good Friday almost every year he reminded us that the time of the Lord’s Passion is a time of hope. Because love has conquered death. For forgiveness has conquered evil. Even then, during the first Papal pilgrimage to Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, he explained that in the mystery of these paths there is everything “that constitutes our human earthly pilgrimage, on the “paths” of the daily life.” That everything that on these daily paths we experience together with Jesus and His Mother comes back to us. But, already in a new form as “a new light went through it, without which human life makes no sense, remains in the dark. “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” And, at every opportunity the Pope called us to pray. There, in Calvary, he said that this “simple and fundamental Papal call to prayer” is paramount. He called it “the most important message.”
With the consent of Archbishop Mieczysław Mokrzycki – “Place for everyone”
Znak Publishing House, Kraków 2013.
