PART 14: Antichrists revealed by Christ – Feasts of the antichrists

On May 13, the group went to the Pope’s weekly Wednesday audience, and “all the kids crowded up to the front” in order to shake hands with the Pope and wave as he drove by in the popemobile. David and his siblings were up against the security barricade along the open-air vehicle’s route in St. Peter’s Square, and the Pope drove by as they reached out. Several minutes later, the popemobile circled back so Pope John Paul II could greet the children, and faithful gathered on the other side of the aisle cleared out for the vehicle’s route.  

The popemobile passed by again, this time across from DePerro’s group. “It was then that I heard the popping sounds,” he recalled. “That was all it was: popping sounds. I thought they were fireworks.” Still, the sound of “fireworks” was unsettling, odd. Fireworks were for the Fourth of July or New Year’s Eve, not on a Wednesday in broad daylight.

As it turned out, Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish citizen, had attempted to assassinate John Paul II, firing four bullets at the Bishop of Rome. Father Rachly, who stood behind David at St. Peter’s Square, saw Agca raise his gun as he attacked the Holy Father.

The scene after the shooting was chaotic, as the popemobile sped off, DePerro remembered. “We didn’t know what was happening.” After the Pope left, the witnesses were kept in the square “for hours and hours and hours — they would not let us leave,” as Swiss Guards confiscated cameras and film to search for evidence and to treat bystanders who were injured in the shooting.

The four bullets Agca fired hit John Paul II and left him seriously injured, passing through the Pope’s abdomen, arms and narrowly missing his heart. Two of the bullets that passed through the Pope hit bystanders, one of whom was a member of DePerro’s group from Germany. The woman, who had to stay in Rome for treatment, was struck in the elbow while resting her arms on the shoulders of one of the religious sisters traveling with the Army group. The woman’s elbow was only inches from the sister’s head.