Pope John Paul cleared Bulgaria today of any link to the attempt to assassinate him in 1981, a Vatican spokesman said, rebuffing years of speculation that the Balkan state was linked to gunman Mehmet Ali Agca.
The Pope made the statement at a meeting with President Georgi Parvanov on the second day of his trip to the ex-communist state, and was music to the ears of Bulgarians, who feel unfairly accused of plotting to murder the Polish-born Pontiff.
"Now I can say that the Holy Father at the meeting with the president expressed his view on the topic. He literally said 'I never believed in the so called Bulgarian connection'," spokesman Mr Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters.
Agca, who shot the Pope in St. Peter's Square on May 13th, 1981, alleged he was commissioned to do so by the Bulgarian secret service acting on the orders of the Soviet KGB, which feared the Pontiff would stir anti-communist revolt.
Three Turks and three Bulgarians charged with conspiring with Agca were acquitted by an Italian court for lack of evidence. But the Bulgarian link has never been put to rest and still exercises conspiracy theorists.