What
You Didn’t Know About the Popes of Rome
by
Mark Owen
On
the evening of Saturday April 2, 2005, after receiving the
Rite of Extreme Unction, Pope John Paul II passed away. At
this time his chamberlain would have gone to the papal hospital
bed and asked the Bishop of Rome a question, “Are you
dead?” There would be no reply from the Pope.
The
chamberlain would then pick up a silver hammer and strike
the Pope on the head and repeat his question, "Are you
dead?" Again there would be no reply. The chamberlain
would then thrice call out the Pope's baptismal name. He would
then declare the Pope to be dead.
This
is the way the Church has
determined papal deaths for centuries. This is the way of
the world's oldest monarchy.
Since
1763 the august Almanach de Gotha has been the ultimate
authority on the royal houses of Europe. Listed under "Reigning
Sovereign Houses" is the Holy See. Therein is stated,
"…the incumbent of the Holy See is considered by
Christian sovereign families as the 'Father of the Family of Kings,' [and] his
Holiness represents the OLDEST MONARCHY on earth."
The
triple sovereignty of the Pope's Person, Holy See & Vatican
City - is distinct in fact and in law. Internationally, he
is not subject to any authority on earth. His Cardinals are
considered to be Princes of the Church and peers of the sons
of reigning monarchs. Each diocese is considered to be a royal
fiefdom. The word "diocese" originally signified
an administrative unit devised by the Emperor Diocletian,
a tyrant noted for his persecution of Christians.
Following
are brief sketches of some of the more interesting holders
of the title "Vicar of Christ" (it should be noted
that the Latin equivalent of the Greek "anti" is
"vicarius," from whence is derived the word "vicar").
Without
a doubt, there was one Pope who was completely mad. In 896
Stephen VII set in motion the trial of his rival, the late
Pope Formosus who had been dead for 9 months at the time.
Formosus' corpse was dragged from its tomb and arrayed on
a throne in the council chamber. The corpse, wrapped in a
hair shirt, was provided with council, who wisely remained
silent while Pope Stephen raved and screamed at it.
The
crime of Formosus was that he had crowned emperor one of the
numerous illegitimate heirs of Charlemagne after first having
performed the same office for a candidate favored by Stephen.
After Stephen's rant, the corpse was stripped of its clothes
and its fingers were chopped off. It was then dragged through
the palace and hurled from a balcony to a howling mob below
who threw it into the Tiber. The body was later rescued by
people sympathetic to Formosus and given a quiet burial. Stephen
was strangled to death a few years later.
In
964, Pope Benedict V raped a young girl and absconded to Constantinople
with the papal treasury only to reappear when the money ran
out. Church historian Gerbert called Benedict "the most
iniquitous of all the monsters of ungodliness." The pontiff
was eventually slain by a jealous husband. His corpse, bearing
a hundred dagger wounds, was dragged through the streets before
being tossed into a cesspit.
In
October 1032 the papal miter was purchased for the 11-year
old Benedict IX. Upon reaching his 14th year, a
chronicler wrote that Benedict had already surpassed in wantonness
and profligacy all who had preceded him. He often had to leave
Rome in a hurry.
Gregory
VII was a master forger, surpassing even the great fraud known
as the "Donation of Constantine," the document that
created the Papal States. Gregory had an entire school of
forgers turning out document after document bearing the papal
seal of approval. These documents were later systematized
in the mid-1100s in Bologna by Gratian, a Benedictine monk.
He called his work the Decretum, or Code of Canon Law.
It was peppered throughout with several centuries of forgeries
along with Gratian's own fictional additions. Gregory also
formalized the celibacy doctrine in order to curtail the many
gifts of church lands being given away to all of the illegitimate
children of priests and bishops. According to Catholic historian
Peter de Rosa in his book Vicars of Christ:
"Popes
had mistresses as young as fifteen years of age, were guilty
of incest and sexual perversions of every sort, had innumerable
children, were murdered in the very act of adultery. In the
old Catholic phrase, why be holier than the Pope?"
Another
interesting figure was Alexander VI (formerly Rodrigo Borgia).
He reigned from 1492-1503. Alexander committed his first murder
at the age of 12. Upon assuming the Papal miter he cried,
"I am Pope, Vicar of Christ!" In his Decline
and Fall Gibbon referred to Alexander as the Tiberius
of Rome. Like his predecessor Innocent VIII, Alexander sired
many children, baptized them personally and officiated at
their weddings in the Vatican. He had ten known illegitimate
children (including the notorious Cesare and Lucrezia), by
his favorite mistress Vannoza Catanei. When she faded, Borgia
took the 15-year old Giulia Farnese. Farnese obtained a Cardinal's
red hat for her brother who later became Paul III.
Alexander
was followed by Julius II who purchased the papacy with his
own private fortune. He didn't even pretend to be a Christian.
A notorious womanizer who sired any number of bastards, Julius
was so eaten away with syphilis that he couldn't even expose
his foot to be kissed.
Under
Leo X (1513-21), who cursed and excommunicated Martin Luther,
specific prices were enumerated by the Roman Chancery for
every imaginable crime. For instance, a deacon accused of
murder could be absolved for 20 crowns. Once pardoned, he
could not be prosecuted by civil authorities. Two hundred
years earlier, John XXII had done much the same thing, setting
prices for crimes ranging from incest to sodomy.
During
his pontificate Innocent VIII (1484-92) granted a 20-year
Butterbriefe indulgence to persons who met his price. For
a sum, one could purchase the privilege of eating favorite
dishes during Lent. Leo X (Giovanni de Medici) commissioned
the Dominican friar Tetzel to sell indulgences which released
one from purgatory. Tetzel's famous refrain went, "As
soon as the coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory
springs!"
Pope
Sixtus IV charged Roman brothels a Church tax. According to
historian Will Durant, in 1490 there were 6800 registered
prostitutes in Rome. Pius II declared that Rome was the only
city run by bastards (the sons of Popes and Cardinals).
The
iniquity of the various Popes has filled many books, and one
has to wonder if the Church has been cursed from the very
beginning. After all, Constantine leveled the Stadium of Caligula
and the Temple of Apollo and used the stones and marble from
them to erect the original basilica of Peter. Could he have
been engaging in an act of sympathetic magic, as some have
alleged? Constantine's choice of building materials might
account for the observation made in Rome by Martin Luther
centuries later who declared, "If there is a Hell, Rome
is built over it. It is an abyss from whence issues every
kind of sin."
Very
brief mention should be made of the staggering scale of the
Inquisition. In his History of the Inquisition, Canon
Llorente, who was Secretary of the Inquistion in Madrid from
1790-92 estimated the number of condemned in Spain alone to
have exceeded 3 million, with 300,000 burned at the stake.
A Catholic historian comments on the events leading up to
the suppression of the Spanish Inquisition:
"When
Napoleon conquered Spain in 1808, a Polish officer in his
army, Col. Lemanouski, reported that the Dominicans (in charge
of the Inquisition) blockaded themselves in their monastery
in Madrid. When Lemanouski's troops forced an entry, the inquisitors
denied the existence of any torture chambers. The soldiers
searched the monastery and discovered them under the floors.
The chambers were full of prisoners, all naked, many insane.
The French troops, used to cruelty and blood, could not stomach
the sight. They emptied the torture chambers, laid gunpowder
to the monastery and blew the place up…"
Rome
was truly drunk with the Martyr's blood.
And
the Papacy isn't faring much better in our modern age, and
would appear to be in serious decline, if not in outright
defeat.
In
November 2000 Italian headlines screamed, "Devil Defeats
Pope!" when Il Messaggero reported that the Pope
had been confronted by a teenage girl in the Vatican who screamed
insults in a cavernous voice during an audience. John Paul
attempted an exorcism but his ministrations had no effect
on the girl.
Devils
in the Vatican would come as no surprise to Msgr. Luigi Marinelli.
His book Gone With the Wind at the Vatican fairly flew
off the shelves in Italy, revealing as it did stories of money-laundering
prelates, sex abuse and Satanic rituals performed within the
walls of the Holy See.
Marinelli's
comments echo those of the late Fr. Malachi Martin, a former
Jesuit and exorcist, whose 1990 book The Keys of this Blood contains the following disturbing information:
"Most
frighteningly for John Paul, he had come up against the irremovable
presence of a malign strength in his own Vatican and in certain
bishop's chanceries. It was what knowledgeable Churchmen called
the 'superforce.' Rumors, difficult to verify, tied its installation
to the beginning of Paul VI's reign in 1963. Indeed, Paul
had alluded somberly to 'the smoke of Satan which has entered
the Sanctuary,' an oblique reference to an enthronement ceremony
performed by Satanists in the Vatican. Besides, the incidence
of Satanic pedophilia 'rites and practices' was already documented
among certain bishops and priests as widely dispersed as Turin
in Italy and South Carolina in the United States. The cultic
acts of Satanic pedophilia are considered by professionals
to be the culmination of the Fallen Archangel's rites."
Adding
fuel to the fire is ex-Jesuit Robert Kaiser with his recent
book Clerical Error. Kaiser states that Malachi Martin
was something of a confabulist who lived for 30 years as a
kept man under the roof of Manhattan socialite Kakia Livanos,
the ex-wife of Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos. Kaiser
goes on to say that Martin also stole his wife Mary from him
at one point in the 60s when all three were quartered in Rome.
Kaiser also surmises that Martin may have been a paid lobbyist
for the American Jewish Committee.
In
his new book Glimpses of the Devil, psychiatrist M.
Scott Peck weighs in with many interesting comments on possession
and exorcism. He also declares Martin to have been most scrupulous
in his histories of the exorcisms recounted in Hostage
to the Devil. However, according to Peck, although a formidable
scholar and gifted polyglot (17 languages), Martin could by
turns be a "pathological liar" and a "leprechaun."
Needless to say, the jury is still out on the legacy of Malachi
Martin.
On
the other hand, the verdict on the pederasty that is endemic
to the Roman priesthood, is in. The Church paid out more than
$1 billion in claims to victims of sex abuse by clergy in
the 1990s alone. And the American branch offers a very disturbing
treatment method to offenders. One startling example should
suffice:
Fr.
Jay Mullin was accused of molesting a boy more than 20 years
ago in Boston. Then Cardinal Bernard Law commanded Mullin
to be evaluated at St. Luke's Institute. The Institute is
a Washington clinic that was profiled in a Boston Globe article of February 24, 2002:
"…Mullin
was flown south in 1992 to a clinic outside Washington, D.C.
The church-run clinic had a huge collection of child pornography
of varying degrees, which ranged from soft porn to hardcore
S&M images, all featuring pre-teen boys and girls…"
This
would have to rate as the most devilish form of aversion therapy
ever known. It would be akin to treating alcoholics with copious
quantities of vintage wine or bombarding junkies with free
packets of China White heroin. Truly degenerate and depraved
lunatics were running the asylum known as St. Lukes.
Notwithstanding
the scandal and shock of the aforementioned, Rome carries
on quietly with her program of world dominion, leading the
competition to establish the first one-world system that has
ever existed. Their ultimate goal is global religious syncretism,
and to eventually wield control and authority over every individual
on earth. The human solidarity goals of the Roman Church are
identical to the goals and objectives of the United Nations.
This is why they are such a perfect fit. Rome only gives the
appearance of objecting to the UN agenda. At the 1996 World
Food Summit in Rome Cardinal Angelo Sodana pledged the Holy
See's support for the UNs humanistic "Programs of Action."
Rome
also has designs on Jerusalem.
For
46 years after Israel's rebirth the Vatican refused to acknowledge
Israel's right to exist. But Rome wants to exert premier influence
over Jerusalem, which will one day function as the capital
of her World Church.
In
a 1993 letter to the Pope, Shimon Peres promised to internationalize
Jerusalem, granting the UN political control of the Old City
and the Vatican hegemony over the holy sites within. This
was confirmed by the Italian newspaper La Stampa. In
March 1995 the Israeli radio station Arutz Sheva was leaked
a cable from the Israeli Embassy in Rome, confirming the hand
over of Jerusalem to the Vatican.
The
future Pope will establish his throne one day within the walls
of the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. It is from here that he
will rule his World Church.
And
this day may not be as far off as many believe. The cornerstones
for the Third Temple have already been quarried by the Jewish
group known as the Temple Mount Faithful. They are extremely
well financed and organized. They have also produced priestly
vestments in accordance with scriptural outlines and are presently
attempting to breed a perfect red heifer in anticipation of
the coming dedication ceremonies. Obviously, Rome and the
Temple Mount Faithful are headed for a showdown.
In
a letter sent to the Vatican in January 2004, the TMF demanded
that Pope John Paul return the Temple Menorah and other vessels
and treasures removed in 70AD by Titus and taken to Rome,
where they are presently held within the Secret Vatican Archives.
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