Saturday 25 September 2010

JUAN KROHN


Juan María Fernández y Krohn was born in Spain in 1948. He is is a former Roman Catholic priest. On 12 May 1982, he tried to stab Pope John Paul II with a bayonet in Fátima, Portugal. It was unclear at the time whether he wounded the Pope or not, but recent accounts in the documentary "Testimony" reveal that the Pope was indeed cut by Krohn. Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz says in the movie:

I can now reveal that the Holy Father was wounded. When we got back to the room [in the Fatima sanctuary complex] there was blood

Krohn received a six year prison sentence for the attack on the Pope but was incarcerated for only three years before being expelled from Portugal. During his trial and afterwards in prison, he showed no remorse. Krohn remained opposed to the reforms of Vatican II and believed Pope John Paul II had been in league with the Soviet Union and was a secret Communist agent trying to corrupt the Vatican!

Krohn abandoned the priesthood and after his release moved to Belgium where he became a controversial lawyer.In Belgium he was accused of slapping judge and Cassation president Erik Carre in the face. Krohn was also accused of spreading anti-semitic propaganda in the councillors' room of the Brussels Palace of Justice.

In 1996, he was charged, although subsequently acquitted, with setting fire to Brussels headquarters of Basque separatist party Herri Batasuna, the political branch of the terrorist Basque separatist group ETA. Krohn was arrested again in July 2000 as he ran shouting accusations of murder toward the red carpet in front of the Royal Palace, where King Albert II and Queen Paola were awaiting the arrival of King Juan Carlos of Spain, who was making a state visit to Belgium.

He accused King Juan Carlos of killing his brother Alfonso in order to become King of Spain. Krohn received a four-month probational sentence and a fine. After this arrest, Krohn has lived in Belgium and Spain and is reported to have become an expert in art and literature of the Spanish post Civil War period.


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