Really Really Bad Popes

The Coat of Arms of Vatican City 

It's time to fess up. The Catholic Church, the Church that Christ began has had some of the worst leaders imaginable in the twenty centuries since Jesus appointed Peter as it's first leader.  So how does this affect the claims of the Catholic Church, her teachings and her authority?  Lets first examine a few of the rotters that occupied the Chair of Peter. 

Pope Julius III

This pope was in office for five years and during that time he looted the church treasury to fix up his home. He was known to be a child abuser and flaunted it.  Not exactly what one would expect of a pope. 

Pope Paul III

This pope ruled during a time of turmoil. He adopted a public anti corruption stance but offered offices in the church for sale. He had lovers on the side, the most famous was the Constanza Farnese, his daughter! 

Pope John XII

Pope John XII was haunted his whole life with lust. This can be explained perhaps as he assumed the throne of Peter at age 18 when hormones are raging.  He did not take NO for an answer and his list of crimes includes having sex with his niece.  It is reported that he died as the result of the punitive action of a jealous husband who found him in bed with his wife. 

Pope Benedict IX 

His contemporaries had a lot to say about this man. St. Peter Damian said "he is guilty of feasting on immorality." He also described him as a "demon from hell in the guise of a priest."  He also was deposed, got an army together, became pope again. He then sold the papacy and had sellers remorse, came back with an army and took it back.  He was forced out, refused to stand trial for his crimes and was excommunicated. 

Pope Stephen VII

He dug up Pope Formosus and tried him. Yes, he tried a corpse, found Formosus guilty and had the papal vestments removed from the the corpse, dressed it rags and eventually had the corrupted corpse thrown into the Tiber. For some reason, the people of Rome thought Stephen was insane. They rioted and eventually killed Stephen. 

Pope Alexander VI

This man worshiped one god, money. He is often thought of as the worst of the worst. He cared little about religion and was famous for throwing wild orgies. When money became a problem he arranged for the rich to have their treasures confiscated and if they refused well, there was the death penalty to consider. As you can readily imagine he made many enemies and some of them succeeded in getting him to step down from the throne of Peter by feeding him a wonderful poisoned pasta plate which he consumed with gusto, washing it down with most likely tainted vino.  

Okay, there you have it. My picks for the absolute worst popes of all time.  Have I shot myself in the foot?  Have I given ammunition to the anti-Catholic trolls out there?  No, not at all!! The Catholic Church has had 266 popes including Peter. The Pope is a fallible human being. A pope can commit sin and it is said that Saint Pope John Paul II went to confession at least once a week.  Out of all these men there was bound to be some who did not measure up to the standards we would expect a man in charge of the Church that Christ built.  But if you delve into church history a bit you will find one amazing fact.  Never in the history of the Catholic Church has a pope taught heresy or error. The Holy Spirit sees to that.  

There was a pope in the sixteenth century named Sixtus V.  He was a good pope, he brought order to the northern Italy, refilled the treasury but he was deficient in one thing, as far as his Latin went, well, he sucked. He assigned the task of translating the Bible to a group of scholars and they took what Sixtus thought was a long time. He fired them and undertook the translation himself, providing a Bible that was full of error and mis-translations.  He prepared the paperwork to tell the Church this was now the official translation that will be used. The night before he was going to issue the papal bull, he died, of natural causes.  This is an example of how the Holy Spirit protects the Church and the Pope from teaching error. 

So, when your non-Catholic friends point out a bad pope, you can point out the fact that Jesus has kept His promise and continues to keep it.  The gates of Hell will never prevail against His Church. 

 "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it"