Angelo Gugel, who supported Pope John Paul II after the 1981 assassination attempt and worked for 50 years at the Vatican, has died at age 88.
The Holy Father Called Me to His Office
“I was stunned when, on the morning of October 22, 1978, before going to St. Peter’s Square for the solemn inauguration of the pontificate, the Holy Father called me to his office and read me the homily he was about to deliver,” Angelo Gugel recalled in 2018 in an interview with “Corriere della Sera”. He asked Gugel to point out pronunciation errors and with a pencil noted where the accents should fall.
Two months later, meeting with his former gendarmerie colleagues, the Pope blurted out: “If I mispronounce a few words, 50 percent of the blame is Angelo’s,” and he smiled at Gugel, who added this detail to his recollection.
Assassination Attempt on John Paul II
Angelo Gugel supported John Paul II when the Pope was shot by Mehmet Ali Agca on St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981. “I looked at the secretary, Father Stanisław Dziwisz, and blurted out: ‘Let’s hope,'” Gugel told the “Corriere della Sera” newspaper.
He last met with Karol Wojtyła on April 2, 2005, the day of the Pope’s death.
