Pope John Paul II Wounded in 1982

A priest who attacked Pope John Paul II in 1982 reached the pontiff with a bayonet and drew blood, it has emerged. The extent of the injury from the attack in Portugal was kept quiet, a film based on an aide's memoirs says. The ultra-conservative Spanish priest, Juan Maria Fernandez y Krohn, was convicted and jailed in Portugal. His attack came a year after the Pope was wounded by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca in St Peter's Square in Rome. The Pope died in 2005, aged 84. The latest revelation was made in a new documentary film based on the memoirs of the Pope's personal secretary, Stanislaw Dziwisz. He said that during the Pope's visit to a shrine in Fatima in Portugal, the priest came at the pontiff with a bayonet. According to Cardinal Dziwisz, the priest managed to draw blood with the weapon but was overcome by the Pope's security guards. I can now reveal that the Holy Father was wounded. When we got back to the room [in the Fatima sanctuary complex] there was blood Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz Film breaks usual Vatican secrecy

"I can now reveal that the Holy Father was wounded. When we got back to the room [in the Fatima sanctuary complex] there was blood," he says in the documentary. The Pope did not reveal the injury at the time and continued with the trip. There has been no comment from the Vatican on the cardinal's revelations. The documentary film, Testimony, pulls together material from the Pope's private life as related by Cardinal Dziwisz. He is now the cardinal of Krakow in Poland and served as John Paul's private secretary for nearly 40 years, including all his 27 years as Pope. Krohn was sentenced to six and a half years for the attack

The 90-minute film marks the first time the Vatican has opened its doors to foreign cameras. Pope Benedict XVI will watch a preview later on Thursday.

Pope John Paul injured in 1982 knife attack, says aide

Juan Fernandez Krohn lunged at John Paul with a bayonet in 1982 during a ceremony in the shrine of Fatima in Portugal. (Inacio LudgeroVisao/Reuters) The late Pope John Paul II was wounded in a 1982 knife attack a year after an assassination attempt, but kept the injury secret, a top aide to the pontiff has revealed in a new documentary film. The attack occurred on May 12, 1982, when Juan Fernandez Krohn lunged at John Paul with a bayonet during a ceremony in the shrine of Fatima in Portugal. John Paul went to the shrine to give thanks for surviving a gunshot wound from Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981. The Pope's bodyguards immediately tackled and arrested Krohn, an ultra-conservative priest from Spain. In the film Testimony, which was to be aired Thursday night in the Vatican, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz reveals that the pope was cut in the attack, but continued on his trip without disclosing the injury. "I can now reveal that the Holy Father was wounded. When we got back to the room [in the Fatima sanctuary complex] there was blood," Dziwisz says in the documentary. The film is a combination of documentary footage and recreations of scenes from life of the Pope, who was born Karol Wojtyla. It is based on the memoirs of Dziwisz, who served at the Pope's side for almost 40 years and is now the archbishop of Krakow. Krohn was expelled from Portugal in 1985 after serving half of a six-year jail sentence. He was later sentenced to four months in prison in Belgium for resisting arrest after breaching security

and approaching Spain's King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia during a royal visit to the country in May 2000. Krohn was acquitted of a separate charge of setting fire to the Brussels headquarters of Basque separatist group Herri Batasuna in 1996. John Paul II died in April 2005 at age 85.