Popes at Play

According to the Catholic Church, the pope is infallible and preserved from the possibility of error. This belief is belied by the antics of past popes:

Pope Benedict XVI – Pope who resigned recently (so does he retain his ’infallibailty’ after this?) was part of the Hitler Youth. He served in the Nazi army and was captured as a POW by the Allies.

Pope Stephen VI – Ordered former Pope For mosus’ nine-month-old corpse to be exhumed, and tried for crimes. He chopped off three fingers of Fomosus and ordered the body to be stripped and dumped into a cemetery.

Pope Alexander VI – Romanced several mistresses and fathered numerous illegitimate children with longtime mistress Vannozza dei Cattani (who was married at the time). Even as crime and violence overtook the streets of Rome, he busied himself with staging comedic plays, lavish banquets, masquerades and dance parties paid for with church funds.

Pope Benedict IX – Pope Victor III wrote of Benedict IX’s ‘rapes, murders and other unspeakable acts. His life as a pope so vile, so foul, so execrable, that I shudder to think of it.’

Pope John XII – Accused by clergy of murder, arson, gambling and adultery with nu- merous women.

These are just a few of the grave acts committed by popes, the leaders of the Catholic Church