Juan María Fernández y Krohn (born in Spain in 1948) is a former Roman Catholic priest and former Belgian lawyer who tried to physically attack Pope John Paul II in 1982[1]. He was ordained a priest in the Society of Saint Pius X seminary in Ecône, Switzerland in 1978.[2] He was retroactively terminated from membership in the Society after his assassination attempt on the Pope and because he openly proclaimed that Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre's opposition to Pope John Paul II was too weak[2][3].
On May 12, 1982, he tried to stab Pope John Paul II with a bayonet in Fatima, Portugal. It's unclear whether he wounded the Pope or not[4][5][6]. During his trial, he claimed that he was opposed to the reforms of Vatican II and that he believed Pope John Paul II had been in league with the Soviet Union and even was a secret Communist agent trying to corrupt the Vatican. He received a six-year sentence though he served only three years[7] and then was expelled from Portugal, after which he moved to Belgium. By then, he had already completely given up the Roman Catholic priesthood.
In Belgium he became a controversial lawyer. During the beginning of his career as a lawyer, he was accused of slapping judge and Cassation president Erik Carre in the face with his flat of his hand. Fernández y Krohn was also accused of spreading "anti-semitic propaganda" in the councillors' room of the Brussels Palace of Justice.
In 1996, he was charged with setting fire to a centre of the Herri Batasuna, the political branch of the terrorist Basque separatist group ETA. He was subsequently acquitted.
He was arrested again in July 2000 after climbing over a security barricade at the Royal Palace of Brussels, and throwing accusations of murder at the approaching Spanish King Juan Carlos. He accused him of killing his brother Alfonso in 1956 in order to become King of Spain. He received a four-month probational sentence and a fine.
After 2000, he has lived in Belgium and Spain, and is reported to be an expert in art and literature of the Spanish post-Civil War period (1939-1990).[8]
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