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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, DECEMBER 17, 1982
PAGE 8
Three weeks ago, police in Rome arrested a Bulgarian airline official,
Sergei Ivanov Antonov, on a charge of "active complicity" in the assassi
nation attempt. Then, two weeks ago, the Italian press reported that Agca,
in a long and detailed confession, told police that the attack on the pope
was conceived in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, and that he took orders
from the Bulgarian secret police.
Agca also implicated two other Bulgarian officials--the cashier of the Bul
garian embassy in Rome, and the secretary to the Bulgarian military attache
in Rome. Both of these men were recently spirited home to safety out of
reach of Italian law officials.
After gaining access to Agca's purported confession, the Milan daily
CORRIERA DELLA SERRA asserted bluntly, "The plan to kill the Pope was con
ceived in Sofia."
But it should be obvious that the trail does not stop there. Bulgaria is
the Soviet Union's most compliant satellite.
It is so subservient to
Moscow that it is jokingly referred to as the U.S.S.R.'s "sixteenth re
public."
The small Bulgarian secret police cooperates hand-in-glove with their
dominant Soviet counterpart, the KGB. Every espionage department within
the service takes orders directly from Soviet officials.
So says the
former chief of Bulgaria's secret service, who defected to the West three
years ago.
The Bulgarians thus could not have attempted to perform such a drastic
measure as to kill the pope without the express knowledge and approval of
the KGB. And that's being charitable. The most likely explanation is that
Bulgarian agents were selected and ordered by the KGB to carry out the mur
der, thus keeping the Soviets at arms-length distance from the deed. And
who was in charge of the KGB at that time? None other than the current
party boss, Yuri Andropov. It should be obvious that Bulgaria itself would
have little interest in doing away with the pope. Orthodox in culture,
Bulgaria possesses but a tiny Catholic population and a docile work force.
As to why the Soviets would do such a thing should also be obvious. Moscow
had grown increasingly concerned over the pope's influential role in Polish
affairs and the support he had been giving to the Solidarity independent
labor union.
The pope was the "spiritual father" of Solidarity, which
would never have been born without his blessing. Moscow perceived a long
term threat to its hold over all of Eastern Europe if the Polish-born pope
were allowed to go on, and the Solidarity movement spread to other East bloc
members. (Solidarity was finally banned a year ago.)
The pope himself believes that the KGB was behind the assassination at
tempt. Cable Network News in the United States reported that the pope re
vealed his belief to visiting U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz who
conversed with the pope in Rome December 13.
(Shultz later denied the
report, diplomatically, of course, lest undue offense be cast against
Moscow.)
While the U.S. government might feel a need to be cautious, for some reason
the press also has been squeamish in pointing the finger all the way in the
right direction. (The press would have screamed had the CIA been remotely