Do You Worship Christ or His Vicar on Earth?

I can't get over the number of foolish Catholics who practice papolatry. What is that, you ask? The word is so infrequently used that it's not even in some dictionaries. But here's the meaning:

Papolatry refers to the excessive reverence or worship of the pope. It is derived from the combination of "papa," meaning pope, and "latry," which denotes worship or adoration.

Really! Yes, some Catholics put the pope right up there with Jesus Christ, the head of the Church. After all, since the pope is the "visible" head of the Church, he must be a saint who never gets anything wrong. Right?

Not hardly. And yet many laity give the pope honor and obedience that only belongs to Christ Himself. They, in fact, make the pope a rival of Christ. Don't believe me? If you want to see the reality of laity who worship the pope just read some of the comments about the SSPX situation on various websites. I laughed when I saw one commenter describe the Society as a cult. How dare they disobey the pope? We all owe him blind obedience in almost everything he says. At the name of Pope...(fill in the blank), every knee must bend. Maybe the pope, these folks will admit, doesn't have the authority to tell them what to eat for breakfast or the correct laxative to use. On the other hand, maybe he does. Francis, from the perspective of many terrified Catholics, had the right and authority to tell us all to get the COVID jab and mask up! I was chided by several Catholics for not obeying the pope.

At any rate, this post is brought to you by bad popes. Yes, Virginia, there have been a number of evil and scandalous men who abused the papacy. After you read about them, I hope you will always respect the office of the papacy, but recognize that bad popes reigned in the past and, sadly, history tends to repeat itself.

How can you tell a good pope from a bad pope? Jesus made it clear, "By their fruits you shall know them." And there have been many rotten fruits growing in the papal garden in the past and still today. When the fertility goddess Pachamama is venerated in the papal garden, you know there's something rotten in the state of the Vatican.

So let's take a look at some scoundrel popes from the past whom God allowed so we would never make the mistake of worshiping a pope! Remember Judas. Just because he was an apostle didn't protect him from the temptations of the devil.

My sources for this post are Vicars of Christ by Charles Coulombe, a Catholic historian recognized by Pope John Paul II for service to the church and Keepers of the Keys by Nicholas Cheetham, an English diplomat who wrote a number of historical books. Neither book has footnotes, but have detailed indexes. Both ended with the papacy of John Paul II.

Looking at the past from a distance has both benefits and drawbacks. The drama of the times is softened so objectivity is increased. No personal enemies survive; no Dante to put his adversaries in hell. However, the distance also results in loss: lost memories, lost documents, etc. How accurate are the portrayals? I'll leave that to you to decide. 

But let's get on with it. I could have chosen from a long list but picked three to illustrate my point. There have been bad popes in the past and we are not obliged to follow slavishly in their footsteps. In fact, doing so may lead one straight to hell.

1. Pope John XII (December 16, 955 - May 14, 964: John's election reminds me of the activity of the St. Gallen mafia and their conspiring to put Francis on the papal throne. John (Octavian)'s father arranged for the young man to be named pope. What a disaster! As Cheetham writes:

Octavian's private tastes inclined towards horses and girls. According to a contemporary chronicler, he was addicted to hunting, "not like an apostolic but a wild man; he adored his collection of women...[was] hateful to the the church, beloved of violent youth." Many tales were told of his excesses: he consecrated a ten-year-old boy bishop; he ordained a deacon in his stables; he had a cardinal-deacon castrated; he called upon the old Gods to help him at dice. in other words he had a riotously good time and did not care whom he shocked.

John was deposed in 964 and, according to Coulombe died at the hands of an irate husband whose wife was his mistress. 

2.  Pope Benedict IX (October 1032-January 1045, April-May 1045, November 1047-July 1048): If those dates look chaotic, so was the life of this libertine who rose to the papal throne through his father's influence. Coulombe describes him thus:

His personal life was so disgusting (filled as it was with mistresses and rumors of incest and sodomy) that one of the city's factions was able to rally support against him and drove Benedict out of Rome.

But, like a bad penny, he turned up again when Sylvester III, sometimes described as an anti-pope resigned in favor of John Gratian.  Who was John Gratian? the archpriest of Rome who bought the papacy from Benedict who decided he wanted to marry. Two more short-time popes intervened before Benedict, who was spurned by his intended, decided he wanted back on the chair of Peter. So when Pope Clement II died in 1047 Benedict turned up again. He later abdicated. Coulombe gives us the happy end of the story of this profligate pope:

This time, worn out with his lifestyle and adventures, the feckless pontiff sought refuge at the Byzantine rite abbey of Grottaferrata, becoming a disciple of its saintly abbot, Bartholomew. Under his new confessor's influence, Benedict abdicated definitively, gave up his sinful ways, and died a penitent death. 

Where there's life there's hope. Let us pray for such a happy end for all evil clerics who abuse their offices.

3. Pope Alexander VI (August 11, 1492-August 18, 1503): While Christopher Columbus was planting the Catholic faith on the shores of what is now Florida, Alexander was using the papacy for his own pleasure and advancement. Will you be surprised to learn that among his four children (Yes, he had a married mistress and fathered children by her) were the infamous Borgias, Caesar and Lucrezia. The pope was actively involved in Renaissance politics and practiced nepotism, giving the red hat to five members of his family including son Caesar. Talk about a pragmatic, political pope! Alexander's older son Juan was murdered, probably by Caesar out of jealousy over his status as favorite son. Alexander was advancing Juan over his brother and planned for him to be King of Naples. After Caesar's murder the pope "devoted himself whole-heartedly to Caesar's advancement." Caesar, with his father's approval, resigned as cardinal and was promoted to a secular prince. Many of the more lurid tales of Pope Alexander's reign are questionable, but there's plenty of scandal without them. Cheetham quotes a Florentine historian, Francesco Guicciardini, a near contemporary of Alexander (1483-1540) writing that the pope was "most sensual towards both sexes." Cheetham goes on to write:

He was never besotted by his pleasures, unforgivable as they were in a priest. Again according to Guicciardini, he was guilty of avarice, cruelty, injustice and duplicity, vices common to most Renaissance sovereigns....Lacking as he was in any spark of religious feeling, he took a perversely short-sighted view of his office...he dissipated and misused his qualities. In other words, as the Florentine sums up, "he was more evil and more lucky than, perhaps any Pope before."

I could go on, but you get the idea. Not every pope is a saint willing to be a martyr for the faith just like not every doctor is Albert Schweitzer. Some popes spiritually kill the faith of their flock; some doctors physically kill their patients. Worshiping the popes or believing that one must obey every word out of their mouths is misguided and naive and just plain wrong!

As these popes and other evil clerics illustrate, the man in white or the cardinal and bishops in red or the parish priest in black all may have black hearts. We must always honor the papacy and the office of the bishop and the ministry of priests, but we have no obligation to obey any of them except when they are preaching and teaching what the Church has always taught. And what is that? Unchanging doctrine and Sacred Tradition. 

In necessary things, yes, obey the pope, your bishop, and your pastor. When they teach things that conflict with the unchanging doctrine of the Church, NO. Not only do the faithful not have to obey, they are obliged to resist. Pray the Holy Spirit prayer often to have an enlightened mind to know the faith, love the faith, and defend the faith.

May Jesus Christ be praised, now and forever!