LES COMBES, Italy (CWNews.com)

    Pope John Paul II personally intervened on behalf of the man who tried to kill him, asking Italian President Carlo Ciampi to grant clemency to Mehmet Ali Agca, according to a Vatican spokesman on Sunday.

    The Holy Father wrote to the president on behalf of Agca, the Turkish gunman who tried to kill him in 1981, said spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls. He was granted clemency on his life sentence on June 13 and deported to Turkey where will finish a previous sentence and is on trial on other charges. Agca, in a bizarre letter from his prison, recently accused the Catholic Church of being the "enemy of God" and called on the Pope to resign.

    The Pope is in the midst of a 13-day mountain vacation in the Italian Alps.

We encourage you to check the Catholic World News site at the CWN home page and Church News at Noticias Eclesiales and the Dossiers, features and Daily Dispatches from ZENIT International News Agency CWN, NE and ZENIT are not affiliated with the Daily CATHOLIC, but provide this service via e-mail to the Daily CATHOLIC Monday through Friday.