WHEN Pope St. John Paul II was shot by his Turkish would-be assassin Mehmet Ali Agca at St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981, many Catholics wondered whether God did not intervene to deflect the bullet from hitting the pope's vital organs.

That day, the Church was celebrating the 64th anniversary of the Virgin Mary's apparition to the children at Fatima — a day special to the Holy Father, who had a deep devotion to the Blessed Mother. The pope, after surviving the attack, expressed the belief that the Mother of God had a hand in his survival; at the very least, it was her motherly intercession that saved him.