The Al-Qaeda-funded Bojinka plot planned to kill John Paul II during a visit to the Philippines during World Youth Day 1995 celebrations . On 15 January 1995 a suicide bomber was planning to dress as a priest and detonate a bomb when the pope passed in his motorcade on his way to the San Carlos Seminary in Makati City . The assassination was supposed to divert attention from the next phase of the operation . However , a chemical fire inadvertently started by the cell alerted police to their whereabouts , and all were arrested a week before the pope 's visit , and confessed to the plot
Bojinka plot
Bojinka plot
Pope John Paul II