THE Pope is to publish his “last testament”, in which he will give his first account of his thoughts during the attempt on his life by a young Turkish assassin in 1981.
The rare personal revelations will guarantee that the book, Memory and Identity, is an instant bestseller when it lands in bookshops around the world in March. Aimed at a global audience rather than just the Roman Catholic faithful, it is also certain to be hailed as the most important religious book of recent times.
Defying the old age and illness that have marked the final years of his pontificate, the 84-year-old Pope has written the 400-page tome in a question and answer format.
The personal and moving account of how he almost lost his life to an assassin’s bullet in St Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981, is in the epilogue.
“It has a very moving last chapter,” Lord Weidenfeld, the multimillionaire tycoon who is publishing the book, told The Times.
“He describes the day of the assassination in detail. He found himself suddenly in the presence of death. He was aware, conscious that some guy was shooting at him to kill him. He describes what was going on in his mind.”Mehmet Ali Agca shot the Pope while he circled St Peter’s Square before his General Audience. Severely wounded, he was operated on for six hours at Gemelli Hospital.
Four days later, he recited the Angelus from his hospital bed: “Pray for the brother who shot me, whom I have sincerely forgiven.”
In a deal negotiated by Lord Weidenfeld, who has spent 15 years on a quest for the book, the hardback will be published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson in March and is likely to spark a bidding war between British newspapers.
Written by the Pope in Polish and Italian, it has been translated for publication in the UK over Easter. The Vatican says that the royalties from the Pope’s books are used for charitable and humanitarian projects. The book is described as an “autobiographical, philosophical and historical reflection on the horrors of the 20th century and the Pope’s hopes for the new millennium”.
It will explore issues such as the nature of evil in society, the conflict between Communism and capitalism, the evangelisation of Europe and modern democracy. It ranges from the start of the Second World War through the upheavals in Poland, the Pope’s homeland, to the modern era.
The book has arisen from summer seminars at Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence in the Alban Hills in Latium, central Italy. These talking shops, which took place more than 15 years ago, grew out of the work of the Vienna Institute of Human Sciences, a political and philosophical think-tank. Lord Weidenfeld, who was a refugee from Nazi Austria, was appointed to the board of the Institute in 1989 and attended meetings at the Castel.
The valedictory meeting took place two years ago, in the Clementine Rooms at the Vatican, when married members of the group were allowed to bring their wives. Lord Weidenfeld’s wife, who speaks Polish, got on particularly well with the Pope.
Lord Wiedenfeld said: “I am a publisher, and I was trying to make discreet enquiries to see if we could do a book. Then suddenly one day, I talked to Joaquim Navarro-Vals, director of the Vatican press office, who said they would welcome the idea.
“This is his testament. It is a kind of legacy in which he deals with some of the major questions that vex him, such as the future of the Church, the essence of national socialism, the essence of Communism and the variants of evil.”