Pope

From Philosopedia

POPE

The head of the Roman Catholic Church is the pope, who is believed by his church to be the successor of the apostle Peter. He is Bishop of Rome, president of the College of Cardinals, and monarch of the 108.7-acre Vatican city state, which is a small nation within Rome. The corporate finances have never been made public. Fewer than 500 residents live there, but the Vatican has diplomatic relations with 130 nations. In Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes (1997), Eamon Duffy points out that one-third of the popes elected between 872 and 1012 died under unusual circumstances; for example:

• John VIII (872–882) was bludgeoned to death by his own entourage;

• Stephen VI (896–897) was strangled;

• Leo V (903) was murdered by his successor, Sergius III (904–911);

• John X (914–928) suffocated;

• Stephen VIII (934–942) was horribly mutilated.

Meanwhile, the Greek antipope John XVI (997–998) had his eyes, nose, lips, tongue, and hands removed but failed to die. Pius II (1458-1464), according to William Manchester, as bishop “fathered several children by various mistresses.” Quentin Crisp theorized that Pope John Paul I “died so suspiciously soon after his enthronement [that he was] rumored to have been poisoned with lethal cups of tea.”

(See entry for the notoriously immoral John XII, pope from 955 to 964. For a description of his wild parties, see the entry for Alexander VI. For Pope Joan, see entry for Hoaxes. Also see Papal Bull. A recent book on the politics of the Vatican and how the church’s leaders wish their followers would follow, not complain, see Thomas Reese’s Inside the Vatican, 1997.

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