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WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A priest in charge of a museum devoted to Pope John Paul II says the gun used by a would-be assassin will be on display as a sign of God's protection of the pontiff.
Monsignor Jacek Pietruszka said Wednesday many wonder why trained assassin Mehmet Ali Agca, firing a Browning HP 9mm handgun from close range, injured but did not kill the pope in 1981.
"We believe that the pope was saved to continue his mission," Pietruszka told The Associated Press.
The gun will be among "witnesses" to the happy and sad moments in the late pope's life at the museum in John Paul's childhood home in Wadowice, in southern Poland.
The expanded museum reopens on April 9.
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