{"id":5561,"date":"2006-01-11T12:46:07","date_gmt":"2006-01-11T12:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/01\/get-out-of-jail.html"},"modified":"2006-01-11T12:46:07","modified_gmt":"2006-01-11T12:46:07","slug":"get-out-of-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/01\/get-out-of-jail.html","title":{"rendered":"Get Out of Jail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Agca credits Vatican<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Agca will be set free on parole by Turkish prison officials on Thursday, January 12. He has been serving out an earlier jail sentence in Turkey since being pardoned by Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in 2000. <\/p>\n

In a letter sent to the Italian daily La Repubblica<\/em>, Agca offers his "deepest gratitude and respect to the Pope for helping to secure my release." The newspaper also quotes Agca’s brother as saying that the Vatican has offered to guarantee the safety of the would-be assassin, whose family has said that his life will be in danger after his release from jail. <\/p>\n

Vatican officials have said that the Holy See was not involved– in fact, not consulted– before a Turkish court ordered Agca’s release. Although Pope John Paul II said that he had forgiven his assailant, Church spokesmen have stressed that the decision to pardon Agca in 2000 was made by President Ciampi himself, without interference from the Vatican. It is true, however, that Pope John Paul encouraged acts of clemency for prisoners during the Jubilee Year, and raised no objection when the possibility of a pardon for Agca was suggested. <\/p>\n

Agca himself has not been a reliable witness. Over the years since 1981 his explanations of the attempted assassination, of his religious beliefs, and of his relationship with Pope John Paul have been inconsistent and frequently contradictory. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Agca credits Vatican Agca will be set free on parole by Turkish prison officials on Thursday, January 12. He has been serving out an earlier jail sentence in Turkey since being pardoned by Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in 2000. In a letter sent to the Italian daily La Repubblica, Agca offers his "deepest gratitude…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nGet Out of Jail - Via Media<\/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\/viamedia\/2006\/01\/get-out-of-jail.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Get Out of Jail - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Agca credits Vatican Agca will be set free on parole by Turkish prison officials on Thursday, January 12. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. 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