Stranger things have happened. But reports from Italy say the man who attempted to assassinate the pope has converted to Catholicism.

From the website CathNews:

In a letter written from a Turkish prison, Mehmet Ali Agca, author of the failed attempt against Pope John Paul II in 1981, claims to have renounced Islam and embraced the Catholic faith.

Italian weekly Diva e people donna published the letter, French journal 7s7 reports.

“I am looking for an Italian woman, who wants to correspond with me. Obviously (I hope) she is Catholic because from May 13 2007, I decided to renounce the Muslim faith and becoming a member of the Roman Catholic Church,” Agca writes.

“I have decided to return peacefully to the (St Peter’s) square and to testify to the world of my conversion to Catholicism,” he says in the letter written in Italian.

You can find more at the CathNews link.

PHOTO:  by AP/Arturo Mari