VATICAN (CWNews.com)

    Mehmet Ali Agca would like to visit Rome again, as a free man, to thank Pope John Paul II for supporting his plea for clemency. But the would-be papal assassin revealed nothing new about this 1981 attempt on the Pontiff's life.

    The Italian daily La Repubblica published an interview with Agca in its June 22 issue. Agca, who recently received clemency from the Italian president, is now jailed in Turkey, serving out his sentence for a killing there.

    "My fondest desire is to see the Pope again," Agca said. "If I can't go to Italy this year, I will wait for the next, when he comes here." He also said that when he finishes his prison term, he would like to go to Portugal, to "pray for 40 days and 40 nights" at Fatima.

    Agca, who was convicted in a Turkish court of the 1979 murder of journalist Abdi Apexci, told La Repubblica that he is innocent of the crime; he said that he took responsibility for the killing "under pressure." He claimed to have evidence pointing to the real assassin, but said he would not reveal that evidence until he gains his freedom.

    Agca refused to answer any questions about the attempt on the Pope's life, saying that he had already answered every possible question during the Italian investigation of the crime. He would not comment on suggestions that the Soviet government was involved in the plot against the Pope.

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