It appears every institution in existence has undergone scandals and controversies. And the Vatican is no exemption to it. Being the main office of the largest religious institution in the world and at the same time an independent state, the Vatican is very prone to leaders who could be so frail to succumb to the wayward side of this world. Among the pontiffs who have turned remiss in their papal duties are listed below.
Pope Stephen VI
Pope Stephen VI held the pontifical office from May 22, 896 to August 897. He is chiefly remembered for his conduct towards his predecessor – Pope Formosus. For frail reasons he harbored hatred towards Formosus, so when Stephen ascended the throne he immediately ordered the exhumation of the latter. The corpse was put to trial (shown above), with a clergy answering on behalf of the deceased pontiff. He was found guilty for doing the function of a bishop while deposed and for receiving the pontifical office while he was bishop of Porto. The corpse was then stripped of his sacred vestment, had his three fingers cut off and was immediately buried but was later re-exhumed where his body was thrown in Tiber. All ordinations performed by Formosus were annulled. This grim act of Stephen ignited a tumult that resulted to his imprisonment and death by strangling.
Pope John XII
Pope John XII was Pope from December 16, 955 to May 14, 964. He could be the most evil man that ever occupied the highest office at the Vatican. He was accused of multiple diabolical acts by his enemies. He was said to have given lands to his many mistresses that include his father’s concubine and even his niece. He made the sacred palace into a whorehouse and ordained many incompetent people into a bishop that include a 10-year old boy. His enemies accused him further of committing multiple murders. Pope John XII was eventually killed by a man who caught him in bed with his wife according to allegations. Albeit, the pope was never seen to have done such evil acts but his accusers confessed with certainty. For this reason, many church scholars of today remain uncertain regarding the true story of this beleaguered Pope.
Pope Alexander VI
Pope Alexander VI was Pope from 1492 to 1503. His administration at first was marked by strict administration, in contrast to the previous pontificate. But it did not last long when he begun to fill the Vatican with his relatives. He had a mistress with whom he had three sons and a daughter. His daughter was later given a magnificent marriage at the Vatican. Alexander himself indulged in the chase, arranged dancing sessions, and stage plays while Rome became a haven of criminals. Assassinations, prostitution, robberies have been committed with impunity. He was said to have died unattended until his corpse swelled and barely fit in a coffin.
Pope Clement VII
Pope Clement VII held the pontificate from 1513 to 15 23. He was not linked to something sensual in contrast to other Popes who were considered bad. His remiss was his power-politicking with France, Spain and Germany. At first he sent an archbishop to those European nations to bring the war. Soon he went friendly with France and it became the beginning of his wavering politics. It all resulted to the fall of Vatican and of Rome thereafter. Series of murders, rapes and vandalism followed and ended forever the Renaissance Rome. Pope Clement was later held prisoner.
Pope Benedict IX
Pope Benedict IX was Pope from 1032 to 1044, again in 1045, and reclaimed the papacy for the last time from 1047 to 1048. His ascent to the throne a number of times was due to his being a nephew of two former Popes. His father acquired the pontifical office for him while he was around 18 to 20 years old, making him very incompetent for the sacred office. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, he led an extremely immoral life and called him a disgrace to the chair of Peter. St. Peter Damian described him as “feasting on immorality” and “a demon from hell in the disguise of a priest.”
Based on the records of their primary deeds while in office, one can safely say that these Popes were really remiss in their sacred duties. In defense of the Catholic Church and in which every sensible individual will likely agree, the brunt of culpability entirely belongs to these people, not on the religious institution where they have served with incredible failures.
Very interesting article! Excellent work as usual!
Excellent article,the truth beforehand,and I recognize the courage ,to whom wrote this article,taking account that is man who makes mistake,could be a President a Pope, a father etc. But the institutions always take up their path.
Thank you eddie, thanks sir Juancav, without your encouragement, I woudn’t have written this article.
good write
but actually, I didn’t know there were any good ones?^^
I did’nt know that Popes can do such evil things. Well researched article.
Great information, great pictures!
Take care.
you have a well researched work. Why not make another article about good popes to balance the fact.
Well presented and interesting fact, just disappointed to them (bad popes), I thought they are HOLY?
Interesting!
I guess they are also people. Another good article by my friend, Unofre . Congratulations!
There is always a rotten apple in the barrel, good article
And then there was this pope who had the Evil Eye… I thought it was a Pius… Maybe you also should write about him? Fascinating stories here!
I love how “…the most evil man that ever occupied the highest office at the Vatican.” is an adulterer, not the man who ordered the execution of thousands of people in the name of the Catholic church. The man who ordered the disbanding and execution of the Knights Templar? not slightly more evil than the dude who supposedly-according to accusers-got his wee’ pope a lil’ wet?
just astounds me the elevation of this mortal man above all others… “I did’nt know that Popes can do such evil things.” (Leo Reyes) your own religious rules say “put no others before me”
forgive me, I forgot where I was going with that last bit, the lack of intelligence Leo Reyes has demonstrated has left me dumbfounded.
Thanks everyone for the comments. Dear Papaleng, I will consider your suggestion. It is so worth-doing.
Nice , bro. You’ve made it again!
Murder, lust and war, ha! Is the Pope a Catholic?
Love the Paintings…J
It’s the first time for me to know about this. Thanks for the information and research.
Very nice work once again Unofre
nice work,congrats
Popes are mortals just like the rest of us. A title only means they can get away with more and most of the time escape punishment. More interesting writing. Take csare,Ruby
Fascinating find..and I enjoy reading it!
Thanks for the article. Alot of stuff in there I didn’t know before. Being a Catholic with an eye towards Atheism I see stuff like this and find myslf inching closer and closer and closer toward beleiving in nothing at all. But all this happened centuries ago, so why should it mean anything today? Seems the Catholic Church has cleaned itself up since then, mostly because they had to, but they did nonetheless. Now if we can just get our priests to quit banging little children we could be good shape. They should be allowed to marry in my opinion. I once heard this was a middle-age holdover where they didn’t want church officials to have children so that they could not pass their wealth on to them. Is this true? Anyone know? Thanks for suffering through my bannality. Good article.
Are you ready to answer to God for this?
Jesus said “You are Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Either you believe in the Living Word of God is TRUTH or you don’t.
Pray for our priests, Bishops & Popes. Do not accuse them or the log is in your heart.
God bless
Why do we give more credence to these by even talking of them.
When I was being taught prior to my joining the Catholic Church, my teacher told me about the bad popes and said that the fact that the bad popes, wicked as they were, did not lead the Church into false doctrine is evidence that the Holy Spirit of God is watching over the Church.
God works through fallible human beings, even the bad popes. And there is nothing sinful or disrespectful to the Church in writing about them— you did a good job.
I love your article. I knew about most of them, but still learned a lot. My feeling is the current Pope will be the worst yet.
Your piece is wonderfully revealing.It chronicles the lives and deaths of misfits in popish garb.Keep it up!
Wonderful article. It’s interesting that Pope Stephen held a tribunal for a dead man, and a bit bizarre..lol! A bit on the crazy side he was. Makes me wonder how often people in powerful positions often to awful things just because they think they can get away with it. Your article makes one think.
Lucas Die must be a Jew.
If we listed all the Jews who were evil you’d take up half the Internet storage.
Bernie Madoff?
Lots of ignorance in some of the comments here. Lots of confusion as to what the Catholic Church actually teaches on the role of the Popes and what they do and don’t have authority over. I must say it always amazes me to hear that people are astounded that those in positions of authority in the Church have ever sinned. I believe that Christ, in part, chose Judas to be among the leaders of His infant Church precisely to refute the idea that the authority of the Church is somehow undermined by the conduct of her members. Judas in many ways is an archetype of the unfaithful clergyman. Despite this he was present among the twelve when Jesus assured them that the gates of hell would never prevail against the Church and He gave them (the Apostles) the authority to bind and loose. What a scandal it must have been for the early Christians to know that the greatest sin possible: “deicide” -was committed by one of the Apostles themselves. Yet here we are 2000 years later. I’m gonna take Jesus at His word on this. If there were never to be any scandals in the Church it would not have been necessary for Him to assure us that “the gates of hell will not prevail.” To lose ones faith over scandal is not really logical. To say there is no God because of all the evil in the world makes no sense. The terms “good” and “evil” presuppose a meaningful universe. An atheistic universe is purposeless by it’s very nature. Therefore, the terms good and evil do not really apply to it.
Interesting read, thank you Unofre.
Its a good work but,Why not make another article about good Popes, There are many good Popes who have done lot of good work to the world
holy man ?????? cant understand
The official title of the pope is Pontifex Maximus which is the same as that of the Roman Emperor. One of the crowns in the Triple Tiara is Temporal Power, and by virtue of the Pactum Donationis (Donation of Emperor Constantine)owner and sovereign of vast territories in Europe. It is therefore a political, not religious title. The most evil popes are those who ordered Grignon de Monfort to exterminate the Cathars in southern France. This was a large group of Gnostics who were led by Desposynis and had with them an original copy of the Memoirs (Gospel) Mariamne e Mara Koinonus of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Yusuf.
Pope worship is a sin of all sins! I am not the least bit surprised about the sex scandals and the devil worship for this Church of Rome is exactly what it is and a “doctrine of devils and Satan” that the Bible speaks about. God continues to expose this church of man and ceasar worship.
“come out of her my children and choose not to partake of her sins for her sins have reached the heights of heaven”.
Roman Catholics have butchered and murdering the true saints through out history “dont partake of drinking the wine of her fornication.”
Rome killed the apostles we learn that from the Bible and the Roman government dissapeared from sight and turned into a religion. Simply put Rome never left. God continues to expose this church of Satan and sexual immorality and death for it has a history of it. Let us not forget history this church is a monster and sin surrounds it will be destroyed by the hand of God. “the truth will be proclaimed from the rooftops” and the mighty God is still here and always has and is coming. God seeks a relatioship with us but man seems to want to worship in his own way rather than Gods way.
Why do we question sinners among those called by Christ to become leaders in His church? Didn’t Jesus Christ Himself choose Judas? Perhaps Judas serves as a precursor to all those who betray Christ. I’m certainly glad the early Christians didn’t grasp Christ’s teaching simply because one of His own had fallen.
No man should be elevated above the rest as you Catholics do, that is too much power for one man, Wasn’t he also born in sin as the rest. Hummmmmmmmm. You people are brain washed by the church, my pitty….. think about it and don’t be fools.
ALL that there is or will ever be to the pope and to Catholicism has nothing to do with JESUS and salvation. and in actual fact the pope at his core and all that he does or stands for is ANTI-CHRIST. The pope and the old serpent are very close buddies working together to accomplish unspeakable evil on a global scale. BUT I truly believe that there are some people in the catholic establishment, who are genuinely born-again. JESUS through his unconditional love and grace brought salvation and emphasizes a LOVE guided relationship with GOD the father NOT an allegiance to the pope, worshiping of idols and demon spirits masquerading as Mary (Exodus 20:4-5), hoping that your bible is not yet corrupted by “guess who”. If you are reading this and you are still a catholic, go read (John 3:16, John 14:6) then denounce papacy and the false-hood in Catholicism and embrace the true salvation by ONLY trusting in the unconditional LOVE and GRACE of GOD for the forgiveness of your sins and you have eternal life. Don’t say you were not warned!!!. GOD LOVES YOU.
thank you for this article! very informative. the vatican is going down!the great whore is comming to an end! time is ticking,god is on earth and his name is joseluis de jesus miranda!
this article, which well researched, should be made available to all catholics to educate them of their history! i was catholic by birth until a few years ago,after trying to believe the catholic teachings, came to realize that “there is no god!” god, which is a creation and/or a product of religious evolution, is a creation of man and not the other way around. . .