In his new book, Pope John Paul II for the first time described publicly the moments after he was gravely wounded in 1981, saying he was fearful and in pain but had "a strange feeling of confidence" that he would live.
Also in the book, a copy of which was obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, the pontiff said his would-be assassin, Mehmet Ali Agca, "understood that above his power -- the power of shooting and killing -- there is a greater power."
In "Memory and Identity: Conversations Between Millenniums," the pope said he remembered being rushed to the hospital but didn't recall much of what happened after he arrived because "I was almost on the other side."
The book, his fifth, is essentially a transcript of conversations he had in Polish with his close friends, political philosopher Krzysztof Michalski and the late Rev. Jozef Tischner, at his summer residence near Rome in 1993. It will be published Wednesday in Italy by Rizzoli, which also plans an English version soon for the United States.
The pope reflected on a range of topics and broadly compares abortion with the Holocaust, saying both derived from governments in conflict with God's laws.
The most personal section of the book contains John Paul's recollections of how his faith sustained him after he was shot in the abdomen by the Turkish gunman on May 13, 1981, while riding in an open car in St. Peter's Square.
Before reaching the hospital, he told his personal secretary, the Rev. Stanislaw Dziwisz, now an archbishop, that "I forgive the assassin," according to the book.
John Paul recalled his belief that the bullet was steered away from vital organs by divine intervention - which he has credited to the Virgin Mary of Fatima.
"Agca knew how to shoot and he shot with confidence, with perfection. But it was just as if someone guided this bullet," the pope said.
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