The statue of Fatima, which is believed to have saved Pope John Paul II after the assassination attempt, returned to the Vatican.

That was the highlight of events that marked the 25th anniversary since the nearly fatal assassination attempt on the pope John Paul II. The Vatican also laid a marble plaque on the cobblestone floor of St. Peter's Square at the exact spot where John Paul was shot.

Pope John Paul nurtured a deep devotion to Our Lady of Fatima, frequently saying that it was her protection that saved his life when he was shot by on May 13, in 1981.

"By the intercession of Our Lady of Fatima, my life was given back to me," he said of the shooting. Towards the end of his life, the Pope told a close aide: "One hand shot me and another hand saved me."

The Vatican also believes that the attack was predicted in the "Third Secret of Fatima", a message given to the Portuguese children who saw the Virgin's apparition.

In a gesture of gratitude the pope gave one of the bullets that wounded him seriously to the Virgin of Fatima, which is now enshrined in her crown. Experts say it is extraordinary that that bullet perfectly set in the Virgin's crown, as if it had been designed for it.

On 13 May 1981 Pope John Paul II was shot by Turkish gunman Ali Agca. Agca never gave a motive, and the mystery has continued to surround the shooting. An alleged link between Agca and Bulgarian agents, and through them to the Soviet Union's KGB, fed speculations over the so-called Bulgarian connection for years on end.

Bulgarian Sergei Antonov, who was arrested after the shooting and was held for more than three years in Italy, was acquitted over lack of evidence. Shattered and physically damaged, he returned to Bulgaria unable to carry on a conversation or concentrate on complex tasks, symptoms his friends say came from the use of psychotropic drugs in his interrogation.

During his historic visit to Bulgaria in May 2002 the pope said he never believed in the so-called Bulgarian connection.

The Bulgarian connection was first resurrected last year by the Italian media, who claimed that Bulgarian classified documents contain evidence that the attack was planned by the Soviet KGB with participation of the secret service of the former East Germany - the Stasi - and its Bulgarian counterpart.

Bulgaria's special services blamed the so-called Bulgarian connection in the assassination attempt on Western services, CIA in particular and the Italian services which visited Turkish gunman Ali Agca in prison shortly after the shooting.

An Italian parliamentary commission concluded in March this year that the former Soviet Union was behind the assassination attempt on the late Pope John Paul II.

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