This dagger which stopped a few centimeters from the heart of Paul VI

VATICAN NEWS

A man dressed as a priest holding a crucifix in one hand and a dagger in the other. A 73-year-old pope facing the longest journey of his pontificate. A frustrated attack thanks to the rapid reaction of the Pope’s collaborators. This happened fifty years ago, in November 1970, when Paul VI visited Asia and Oceania. The pilgrimage is motivated by the first East Asian Bishops’ Conference and aimed to meet people who live on the other side of the globe, with a message that clarified the meaning of the inculturation of the faith and the enrichment of the communion of all catholicity.

It was Paul VI himself who presented to the faithful, during a general audience, the itinerary of the journey, which has as its first stopover three days in Manila, then a stopover on an island in Polynesia, then three days in Sydney, Australia, and then to Jakarta, the capital of Muslim Indonesia. From there, a flight to Hong Kong, “for a few hours we wait to bear witness to the great Chinese people of everything without distinction to the esteem and love of the Catholic Church and our own.” Finally, the last scheduled stop is Colombo. A long and demanding journey, but, explains Pope Montini, “power and duty have ignited the will”.

Paul VI left on November 26 and the plane made a technical stopover in Tehran, where the Pontiff was warmly received by the Shah of Persia Reza Pahlavi. It was also decided to make an unplanned stopover in Dhaka, then in East Pakistan, for a meeting with the victims of a typhoon: Montini wanted to hand over a large sum of money for the relief activities, which included the proceeds of a collection collected from on board the plane among the journalists who accompanied him on the trip.

On the morning of November 27, upon landing at Manila airport, Paul VI suffered an attack that could cost him his life. “For each trip – recalls the special secretary Don Pasquale Macchi in his memoirs – the Pope was warned that a possible attack was planned, from the trip to the Holy Land to the Far East. The secret services also alerted the Secretary of State. And each time, the Pope approached the trips without any concern, trusting in God. “This time, however, the Pope was injured.

“While greeting the authorities, the cardinals and the bishops”, writes his secretary, “the Pope was attacked by a Bolivian painter, Benjamin Mendoza y Amor, thirty-five years old, dressed as a priest, who was holding a golden crucifix and in the other, hidden by a rag, a kriss (Malaysian snake blade dagger). Suddenly he wounded the Pope in the neck, fortunately protected by the rigidity of the clerical collar, and with another in the chest near the heart “.

In a note written by the Pontiff himself that day, we read: “If I remember correctly, after the greetings to the aligned personalities … I see in confusion a man … who approached me with impetuosity. I thought he was one of the many that they wanted to greet me or kiss my hand, or say something … As soon as he was in front of me he gave me two hands, two blows formidable on the chest, and immediately two more, so that I can feel the strong beat “.

This is how Don Macchi relives those moments: “For my part, thinking he was a fanatic, I rushed at him with a certain violence to immobilize him and threw him into the arms of the police, thus preventing him from giving more hits. The Pope, after a first moment of perplexity, he smiles gently … And I also see his gaze on me, veiled by a slight reproach for my impetuosity. Then he continued towards the stage for the first speech, without forgetting the attack: his white coat, however, was stained with a blood stain. “The intervention of Bishop Paul Marcinkus, organizer of the papal journeys, who attacked the assailant was also decisive.

It was Paul VI himself, in the note written on the day of the attack, who wrote: “He got into the car. Then I saw on my sleeve (on the left?) A few small drops of blood , and I realized that one of my hands must have touched something stained with blood, possibly the hand of the unknown assailant. I felt the beatings on my chest, but nothing more. He reached the cathedral. When I put on my robe, I tried to wash off the bloody handprints, without giving myself any other reason as to what really happened. “

After the ceremony, arrived at the nunciature, the Pope can finally be visited. It is again he who says: “I was able to undress, then I realized that the shirt soaked in sweat had a big blood stain on the chest, due to a small wound, just next to the region of the breast. heart, shallow and painless: the shirt had contained the hemorrhage, not much after all. Another wound, even smaller, almost a scratch, appeared on the right at the base of the neck.

“Immediately treated by the care of the good and very professional Professor Mario Fontana”, continues Paul VI, “the two wounds were closed and healed over the following days, and soon they healed … A little adventure trip, a little of noise in the world (I knew that in Italy, when the news arrived, the Parliament suspended the session) and a great gratitude to those who were interested in me; but above all thank you to the Lord who wanted me to be safe and allowed me to continue on my way “.

The Pope’s doctor, seeing the wounds, gave him the tetanus vaccine, which caused a fever attack. And he advised Paul VI to suspend his evening engagements. However, Montini “decided that the program had to proceed as planned in order not to disappoint the expectations of the population and to keep the events secret.” The Pope therefore went to meetings with President Marcos, with the diplomatic corps and with a delegation from Formosa.

News of the attack makes the world go round, but the Holy See does not confirm that the Pope was injured. The forward said: “I’m sorry I failed, I would do it again if I had the chance.” He was released from prison a few years later, thanks to the fact that the Vatican had not formed a civil party.