Mehmet Alì Ağca, 58, the Turkish gunman who was unsuccessful in his assassination of John Paul II, "is now saying he’s ready to become a Catholic priest if Pope Francis will welcome him in the Vatican." [1] Will the pope who once asked: "Who am I to judge?" [2] judge Mehmet Alì Ağca and find him unfit to become a priest because of a prior criminal record?
"'Here in Turkey, I live as a pensioner wasting my time,' Alì Ağca told the Italian television network Canale 5, in an interview set for broadcast July 12.
"'That’s why I want to make an appeal to Pope Francis: Welcome me in the Vatican, and I will become a priest,' he said.
"'After John Paul II visited me in prison, I thought about it, and I studied the Gospel at length,' Alì Ağca said. 'I know the sacred books better than many others. If the pope welcomes me, I’ll be a priest and I will celebrate Mass, if he wants me!'" [3], [4]
Why would the pope not want him? After all, one of the two thieves who was crucified along with Jesus was promised entry into Heaven because he came to know Christ as the Son of God. [5] Mehmet Alì Ağca has come to know Christ by studying the Gospels.
If Mehmet Alì Ağca is not allowed to become a priest, could the statement he made in 2010 saying that "I am not God, I am not son of God, I am Christ eternal" [6] be the reason? Did his claim to be "Christ eternal" make Ağca delusional and unfit to be a priest? Going out on a limb, this blogger says no, and goes even farther out and says that Ağca could be a holy priest.
Mehmet Alì Ağca was right to say: "I am not God." He was also correct to say: "I am not son of God." Then he made a seemingly contradictory statement by saying: "I am Christ eternal" after admitting that he was not the Son of God. To make sense of this, one must accept that Ağca's first two statements were factual and the third was metaphorical.
When Ağca stated that he was Christ eternal, he did not contradict himself earlier by saying that he was not the Son of God. He said he was Christ eternal because he had so internalized the teachings of Christ that whatever he thought, said and did (since studying the Gospels) became, as a whole, an extension of Jesus Himself, and as such, he could spiritually, though not literally, have been Christ eternal.
Moreover, when Jesus was here on earth in the flesh, did He not wish everyone to repent and be like Him, to think, to act and to love in sinless ways? In other words, did Jesus not want everyone to be just like Him, Who is Christ Eternal, so that each person can be unique individually, and all peoples the same as Christ Eternal collectively?
[1] https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2016/07/12/papal-assassin-says-wants-become-priest/
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/30/world/europe/pope-francis-gay-priests.html?_r=0
[3] https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2016/07/12/papal-assassin-says-wants-become-priest/
[4] If John Paul II needs a real miracle to attain sainthood legitimately, the conversion of an assassin into a holy Catholic priest ought to work.
[5] http://www.allaboutjesuschrist.org/two-thieves-crucified-faq.htm
[6] https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2016/07/12/papal-assassin-says-wants-become-priest/
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