WARSAW - A previously unknown letter from the late Pope John Paul II to Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turk who tried to assassinate the pontiff in 1981, was found in the pope's private archives, Archbishop Stanilaw Dziwisz said Tuesday.
"The Holy Father wrote a letter to Ali Agca, but it was never sent," the pope's former secretary told AFP, adding that it was never shown to anyone.
According to the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita, the letter was probably written between May 1981 and December 1983, and it asked Agca: "Why did you gun me down, when we both believe in one God?"
The paper also said the letter may be sent to the officials overseeing the beatification process of Karol Wojtyla, the Polish name of the John Paul II, who died on April 2.
The assassination attempt on John Paul took place on May 23 1981, when the pope was riding in an open car through St. Peter's Square in the Vatican. He was shot and seriously wounded in the stomach.
The pontiff afterwards forgave Agca for the attempted assassination and visited him in prison on December 27 1983.
Agca's motive for shooting the pope is still unknown.
He was a former extreme-nationalist who was extradited to Turkey in 2000 where he was convicted of killing a journalist in 1979 and received a life sentence which was later reduced to ten years in prison.
He was also sentenced to a seven-year jail term for an armed robbery.
07/05/2005 16:29 GMT