Red Brigades planned to kidnap Pope John Paul II, says book

Rome (ENI). A new book about Pope John Paul II reveals that shortly before the 1981 assassination attempt on the pontiff's life, he learned that the militant Red Brigades group planned to kidnap him. ''Shortly before the attack, the Italian secret services warned that the Red Brigades' terrorists had a plan to kidnap John Paul,'' the book, "Why he is a saint", explains. Polish Monsignor Slawomir Oder, who is heading the cause for the canonisation of Pope John Paul, co-authored the book with Italian journalist, Saverio Gaeta, and presented it to the public on 27 January. Before the 13 May 1981 attack on the Pope by a Turkish assailant, the Red Brigades, which aimed to overthrow the Italian State, had assassinated Roman Catholic Judge Vittorio Bachelet. [398 words, ENI-10-0064]


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