Appearing in good form

Appearing in good form, the Pope appeared with the statue in St. Peter's Square, scene of the 1981 event in which Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali shot him. Doctor's said the bullet took a miraculous path away from vital organs and blood vessels and the Pope recovered despite losing three-quarters of his blood. The shooting occurred on May 13 -- anniversary of the first Fatima apparition -- and during his recovery the Pope saw a miracle in the sun, as was also reported in the last Fatima apparition on October 13, 1917.

Pope John Paul II did bend down at the moment before he was shot during the attempted assassination in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981. He had been bending down to hug a young girl who was wearing a small icon of Our Lady of Fatima. This action is believed to have possibly saved him from more serious injury, as it caused the bullets to hit his torso rather than his head.

Earlier this year the Vatican released contents of the famous Fatima third secret and in it was the prophecy of a "bishop in white" (the Pope is bishop of Rome) who would be felled by a bullet. The 80-year-old Pope had the statue brought to Rome from Fatima for a Holy Year celebration attended by some 1,500 of the world's 4,430 Roman Catholic bishops. The lone surviving Fatima seer, Lucia Dos Santos, 93, led part of the praying via a live television link with the convent where she lives in Portugal. In a sign of gratitude a year after the assassination attempt, the Pope had one of the 9 mm bullets which Agca fired at him placed in the crown of the three-foot statue. ` `One hand fired the bullet and another guided it,'' the Pope once said of Agca's attempt to kill him. When he died years later, it was April 2, 2005, six days after Easter and the weekend of Divine MercyBenedict lightning: Francis day after Easter JOHn PAUL ii April 2, 2005, Divine Mercy weekend POPE LEO? STAY TUNED