Paul KeenanDear Editor, In the extensive coverage of the life of St John Paul II, including your own excellent souvenir edition, there was little reference to what the new saint believed was a miraculous event in his own life. St John Paul II believed, with scientific evidence to support his belief, that in the 1981 assassination attempt, on the feast day of Our Lady of Fatima, he was saved from certain death by what must have been the direct intervention of Our Lady.
Fr Stanley Jaki, a highly respected and world-renowned physicist, dealt with this incident in his 1999 book God and the Sun at Fatima. In the course of his scientific analysis of the Fatima events Fr Jaki studied the Gemelli Clinic medical records. These indicated that the bullet that should have gone in a straight line, made three distinct sharp twists or turns within the Pope's abdomen. Each turn was almost 90 degrees. These three twists resulted in the bullet avoiding vital organs which if pierced would have meant certain death. Neither medical nor ballistic science can explain how these strange movements in the bullet's path happened. St John Paul II said: "One hand fired the bullet, and another hand guided it.”
Yours etc.,
Lauri Duffy,
Howth,
Dublin 13.