16 Gulf Pine Catholic • May 22, 2026 First Holy Communion 2026 Our Lady of Fatima Parish, Biloxi The following students made their First Holy Communion on Saturday, May 2. We thank the teachers: Jessica Beauregard, Christine Davis and Valerie Spires; they have shared their faith in preparing the students to receive the Lord. The students are most blessed and grateful for dedication. They are: Adaline Bui, Avemarie D’Angelo, Cayson Diaz, Elizabeth Downs, John Eustaquio, Quinn Faulk, Jacob Fayard, Emmons Gazzo, London Gordon, Bradley Hackett, Adelyn Hahn, Antoinette Jefferson, Marco Lacerna, Mason Loc Le, Matthew Ha Le, Minh Le, Vi Le, Rina Macalla, Brody Skebeck, Murphy Smith, Naomi Staton, Delma Sumrall, Luke Threadgill, Charleigh Walker, and Jacob Wetzel. St. Clare Parish, Waveland The following students made their First Holy Communion on Sunday, May 10. They are: Beckham Cunningham, Bodie LaRue, Emery Mitchell, Emma Jo Webb, Grove Alleman, Hattie Alexander, Olivia O՚Gwin, and Whitynn Landrum. 45 years on, attempted assassination of St. John Paul II recalled as turning point in history St. John Paul II sits with his would-be assassin, Mehmet Ali Agca, in Rome՚s Rebibbia Prison in 1983. The pope suffered serious wounds after the gunman fired shots at him in St. Peter՚s Square May 13, 1981. The pope publicly forgave Agca and later said he did so “because that՚s what Jesus teaches. Jesus teaches us to forgive.” OSV News photo/Arturo Mari, L՚Osservatore Romano BY OSV NEWS WARSAW, Poland (OSV News) -- Forty-five years after the assassination attempt on St. John Paul II, Pope Leo XIV paused in St. Peter՚s Square on May 13 to pray at the spot where the Polish pontiff was shot in 1981. The attack, carried out by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca, happened on the feast of Our Lady of Fátima -- a connection John Paul believed was providential. “One hand fired, another guided the bullet,” the pope later said, crediting Mary with saving his life. Historians and witnesses interviewed by OSV News said the assassination attempt deepened John Paul՚s spiritual message on suffering, forgiveness and human dignity, while also strengthening his moral authority during the Cold War. Two years after the assassination attempt, on Dec. 27, 1983, the pope visited Agca at Rome՚s Rebibbia prison and publicly forgave him -- a gesture that became one of the defining images of his pontificate. Scholars say the attack became a defining turning point in both his pontificate and the eventual collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. Father Miroslaw Cichon, director of the John Paul II Pontificate Documentation Center in Rome, said the assassination attempt marked a turning point -- a “threshold moment,” giving John Paul II՚s ministry a more “distinctly martyr-like and mystical” dimension.
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