From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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]
References