{"id":729,"date":"2009-04-30T16:49:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-30T16:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2009\/04\/agca-says-hes-now-a-catholic.html"},"modified":"2009-04-30T16:49:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-30T16:49:00","slug":"agca-says-hes-now-a-catholic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/04\/agca-says-hes-now-a-catholic.html","title":{"rendered":"Agca says he&#8217;s now a Catholic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Stranger things have happened.  But reports from Italy say the man who attempted to assassinate the pope has converted to Catholicism.<\/p>\n<p>From the website <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cathnews.com\/article.aspx?aeid=13368\">CathNews<\/a>: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p> <a href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SfoPq2YrYHI\/AAAAAAAAFgM\/9mRzY4Lc-wY\/s1600-h\/06_pope.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:left;margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer;cursor:hand;width: 320px;height: 241px\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SfoPq2YrYHI\/AAAAAAAAFgM\/9mRzY4Lc-wY\/s320\/06_pope.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>   In a letter written from a Turkish prison, Mehmet Ali Agca, author of the failed attempt against Pope John Paul II in 1981, claims to have renounced Islam and embraced the Catholic faith.<\/p>\n<p>Italian weekly Diva e people donna published the letter, French journal 7s7 reports.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am looking for an Italian woman, who wants to correspond with me. Obviously (I hope) she is Catholic because from May 13 2007, I decided to renounce the Muslim faith and becoming a member of the Roman Catholic Church,&#8221; Agca writes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have decided to return peacefully to the (St Peter&#8217;s) square and to testify to the world of my conversion to Catholicism,&#8221; he says in the letter written in Italian. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> You can find more at the CathNews link.<\/p>\n<p><b><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: x-small\">PHOTO:\u00a0<\/span><\/b><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: x-small\"> <\/span><i><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: x-small\">by AP\/Arturo Mari<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stranger things have happened. But reports from Italy say the man who attempted to assassinate the pope has converted to Catholicism. From the website CathNews: In a letter written from a Turkish prison, Mehmet Ali Agca, author of the failed attempt against Pope John Paul II in 1981, claims to have renounced Islam and embraced&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,19,12,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-converts","category-links-r-us","category-ripped-from-the-headlines","category-the-pope-and-bishops"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Agca says he&#039;s now a Catholic - The Deacon&#039;s Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/04\/agca-says-hes-now-a-catholic.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Agca says he&#039;s now a Catholic - The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Stranger things have happened. But reports from Italy say the man who attempted to assassinate the pope has converted to Catholicism. 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