The Benedictine Network

Addendum to Source Document I:

May they all be one.

The information — and it is only this, information — was culled from: Peter De Rosa, Vicars of Christ: The Dark Side of the Papacy (London: Corgi Books, 1988). Peter De Rosa graduated from the Gregorian University, Rome. He was Professor of Metaphysics and Ethics at Westminster Seminary and is the former Dean of Theology at Corpus Christi College, London. One might also refer to Garry Wills' Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit (Doubleday, 2000 ISBN 0-385-49410-6) to find further background information about papal activities and the corporate culture of the Church of Rome. Some have noted that one mark of the Church of Rome's cultural identity is to cover-up its own failings under the guise that revelation of errors will produce scandal among the Faithful. Such a belief system allows the hierarchy and clerics to carry on as usual without having to take personal responsibility for the integrity of their actions in light of the message of the founder. As history relates, in time such errant belief systems come back to haunt and some things either change or destroy the institution or the institution may put on the appropriate public face of guilt and repentance and then after a while return to its original course of action.

It is acknowledged in the human sector that most, if not all, human communities tend to become institutionalized to some extent, some more than others. To maintain clarity and integrity with the founder's plan, the subsequent people must keep the founder's mission statement forefront in the operations manuals and ever developing marketing and business plans. Over time, the founder's initial vision becomes clouded in subsequent generations. The early church, in favor of its own conceived mission, lost very quickly the mission statement of Christ that we might extrapolate as follows:

You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Writing with the clarity of 20/20 vision of hindsight, for consciously developing a corporate identity and strategy, the early Church might have simply focused on Paul:

Love is patient; love is kind. Love is not jealous, it does not put on airs, it is not snobbish. Love is never rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not prone to anger; neither does it brood over injuries. Love does not rejoice in what is wrong but rejoices with the truth. There is no limit to love's forbearance, to its trust, its hope, its power to endure. Love never fails.

(An Awakening Church: A Catholic Papacy offers such a possibility: a papacy stemming from presence rather than belief.)

With these thoughts in an open mind and heart, let us now make a brief psycho-historical, sociopolitical excursion through papal history. (For further information please refer to New Advent: A Catholic Web Site List of Popes. Please note that our list below shows 263 Popes and the referenced site shows 265. We count Benedict IX once, the list counts him twice.

Index: Popes

(Index: Popes)

001. Peter

• Never Bishop of Rome.
• Not buried in St. Peter's, his head is in the Lateran.
• "Thou art Peter.. ": Cyprian, Origen, Cyril, Hilary, Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine did not call the Bishop of Rome a Rock or that even Rock refers to him and specifically so with the promise of the keys.

002. Linus 67-76

• First Bishop of Rome.
• Chosen by Paul.

004. Clement I 88-97

• Chosen by Peter.
• Condemned Athanasius, champion of orthodoxy against Arians, therefore suggested that the Son was lower than the Father.

036. Liberius 352-366

• Condemned Athanasius, champion of orthodoxy against Arians, therefore suggested that the Son was lower than the Father.

037. Damascus I 366-383

• Killed 137 people in St. Mary Major. To compensate, claimed spiritual authority as a "successor of St. Peter," a claim not made by the Fathers of the Church.

040. Innocent I 401-417

• Wrote to Council of Milevis that baptized babies were obligated to receive communion or else, if they died, they'd go to Hell. (Condemned by Trent)

049. Gelasius I 492-496

• Wrote to Bishops of Picenum as Innocent I.

059. Vigilius I 537-555

• Nominated by Boniface II whose letter the people of clergy of Rome forced him to burn as an infringement upon their democratic right to elect Bishop of Rome.
• Declared a heretic and excommunicated by the 5th General Council, recanted in spirit of Augustine, and was almost lynched when he returned to Rome.

064. Gregory I 590-604

• Civil leader and Patriarch of the West.
• Said unbaptized go straight to hell and suffer for all eternity.
• Approved Augustine's anti-sex views:
• —Marriage is not sinful, but sex between partners is.
• —Original sin is passed on to children of baptized parents by the evils of sex.

070. Honorius I 625-638

• Condemned by Church for heresy.
• Founder of Monothelitism: Christ has two natures (Council of Chalcedon), but only one will.
• Condemned in 1680 at 6th General Council.

093. Stephen II 752

• Asked Pepin (King of Franks) for military protection against Lombards.
• Showed Pepin "The Donation of Constantine" dated 30 Mar 315 proving Pope is successor to Peter and Constantine. (Proved forgery by Lorenzo Valla in 1440 and probably made by a scribe of Stephen III.)

096. Adrian I 772-795

• Gave Charlemagne the privilege of choosing the Roman pontiff because he had enlarged considerably the papal states.

097. Leo III 795-816

• Tricked Charlemagne by crowning him Emperor and Augustus while he himself was considered by Charlemagne his vassal.
• Had eyes torn out and tongue cut off by Roman crowd for adultery.

106. Nicholas I 858-867

• To Baptize, it is enough to call on the name of Christ.
• Stated that confirmations provided by priests were invalid, therefore there were no confirmations in the Greek Church, therefore annulled them all.

114. Steven VII 896-897

• Insane. He dug up Pope Formosus (891-6), dressed up corpse in pontificals, and found him guilty of becoming pope under false pretenses.
• Died by strangulation.

120. Sergius III 904-911

• Killed Cardinal Christopher and Leo V to become pope.
• Also exhumed Formosus (10 years dead) and beheaded corpse.
• Seduced Marozia, mother of Theodora, at 15 years of age, he 45, in Lateran Palace.
• Fathered John XI.

121. John X 914-929

• Fathered Theodora (behind legend of Pope Joan) by Marozia.

125. Stephen VIII 928-931

• Ears and nose cut-off.

126. John X 931-935

• Son of Sergius III and Marozia.
• Imprisoned by his half-brother, Alberic, Jr., also a pope's son.

131. John XII 955-963

• Grandson of Sergius III and Marozia.
• 16 when made pope.
• Slept with his mother.
• Harem in Lateran Palace.
• Gambled with pilgrims' offerings.
• Toasted Devil at high altar, etc.
• Died inflagrante delicto by a hammer blow in back of head by angry Husband: the climax of his career! (Roman wit)

133. Benedict V 964

• Dishonored a young girl, fled to Constantinople with the entire treasury of St. Peter's.
• Killed by a jealous husband.
• His corpse with 100 dagger wounds was dragged through the streets before being tossed into a cess pool.

136. Benedict VII 974-983

• Died in act of adultery at hands of an enraged husband.

139. Gregory V 996-999

• Had Marozia exorcised, lifted ban of excommunication, absolved her, then executed her.

146. Benedict IX 1032-1044; 1045; 1047-1048

• Pope when 11 years old.
• Forced to leave Rome often.
• Resigned to marry for 200 pounds of gold, got Peter's Pence from England instead.

148. Gregory VI 1045-1046

• Advised Benedict IX it was OK for him to resign — so that he himself could become pope.
• Resigned because of simony involved when confronted with temporal sword.

149. Clement II 1046-1047

• Chosen by Henry of Germany.
• Crowned Henry Emperor in such a way that he was nothing more than Henry's chaplain.

154. Nicholas II 1058-1061

• Christ's body can be sensibly touched by hands and bitten by teeth in Eucharist.

155. Alexander II 1061-1073

• A priest had committed adultery with his father's second wife. He was lenient with him because he had not "committed matrimony."

156. Gregory VII 1073-1085

• When chaplain of Gregory VI, learned revenge.
• Last pope whose papal election had to be confirmed by emperor.
• Bent on breaking princes once and for all as priests are superior to kings.
• Wrote Dictatus: 27 theses outlining power of Peter's Vicar.
• Head of school of forgers.
• Turned spiritual principle of excommunication into a political weapon.
• Lied by saying Innocent I and Gregory The Great had deposed an emperor and king.
• Reversed that popes are subject to Councils in matters of faith and morals.
• Manufactured history to meet own ends.
• Against a 1000 year old tradition, he made all bishops take a personal oath of loyalty to him.
• Imposed Romanism on the church, no longer allowing enrichment from every locality and culture.
• "The Pope cannot make a mistake."
• The Church cannot escape from the clutches of the laity unless priests first escape from the clutches of their wives. Therefore, celibacy.
• Chief reason for maintaining celibacy discipline: a celibate priest owed total allegiance not to wife and children but to the institution.

157. Victor III 1086-1087

• Had to admit that throughout Italy clerics from bishops down, without shame or concealment, were married, lived with their wives openly and generally provided for their offspring in their wills.

158. Urban II 1088-1099

• Heretics were to be tortured and killed.
• 1095 condemned clerical marriages and sold priests' wives into slavery.

159. Paschall II 1099-1118

• Quoting a forged letter of St. Andrew: whoever does not agree with the Apostolic See is without a doubt a heretic.
• Agreed to waive cannons and let sons of priests be ordained, otherwise no candidates would have been available.

161. Callistis II 1119-1124

• First Lateran: All clerical marriages were invalid. Celibacy was proclaimed to be the strongest spiritual reality — against centuries of tradition contrariwise.

169. Alexander III 1159-1181

• The ideal marriage is a marriage without sex: Model Joseph and Mary.
• For a marriage to be dissoluble, only consent need be present.
• For a marriage to be absolutely indissoluble, consent and (inherently) sinful coupling must be the case.
• Yet the chief end of marriage is procreating.
• Also, a man on his own initiative could divorce wife.

170. Lucius III 1181-1185

• Decided that all differences among Catholics must be grave sins because they deny the pope's authority by which underpins the entire system.

174. Celestine III 1191-1198

• A marriage between Christians can be dissolved if one of the parties chooses to become a heretic.
• Pronounced a heretic by Adrian VI.

175. Innocent III 1198-1216

• Lord of the World.
• Turned Rome in a clerical state.
• Social teaching contradicts Bible: princely power usurps God and therefore is bad. Priestly rule comes from God and therefore is good.
• Basic Manichaeism.
• Put England and France under interdict.
• Condemned the Magna Carta as contrary to moral law.
• Called himself Universal Bishop, a title repudiated by early popes.
• Passes more laws than preceding 50 popes — and he was subject to none of them.
• 4th Lateran Council (1215) passed his decrees without dissension.
• Killed hundreds of thousands in south of France (Albigensian Heretics)
• Shed more blood than any other pop to date.
• "Every cleric must obey the pope, even if he commands what is evil, for no one may judge the pope."
• Declared self "Foundation of All Christianity"
• Called for the Crusades against Albigensians: first time a war against fellow Christians, replaced conversion with extermination and waged the bloodiest campaign of the Middle Ages, killing more Christians than Diocletian.
• Those who not take Jesus literally and limit their speech to yes and no are heretics and worthy of death.

177. Gregory IX 1227-1241

• Canonized Francis of Assisi with reservation.
• It is the duty of every Catholic to persecute heretics.
• Established the Inquisition: Heretics, i.e., all who are opposed to any paper pronouncement, civil authorities to take care of burning.
• Inquisitors could make no mistake or do no wrong as infallible representatives of an infallible pope.

179. Innocent IV 1243-1254

• Described self as Praesentia Corporalis Christi, the bodily presence of Christ.
• Therefore, anyone who does not respect him is a heretic.
• Conceded that any papal utterance that is heretical or tends to divide the church is not to be obeyed.

185. Adrian V 1276 11 July to 18 August 1276

• Not a bishop. Not a priest. A lawful pope.

191. Celestine V 1294

• A hermit named Peter of Monroe.
• Elected at instigation of Gaetini, later Boniface VIII
• Acted like Jesus, on a donkey, giving away church possessions to unworthy people, i.e., the poor.
• Allowed for no simony.
• Heeded the Holy Spirit (aka Gaetini) telling him to resign.
• Resigned after telling Cardinals to live in poverty and send mistresses to nunneries.

192. Boniface VIII 1294-1303

• Dante called him The Black Beast and assigned him to the 8th circle of Hell with his head in a rock fissure.
• Had a married woman and her daughter as mistresses.
• Locked up resigned Celestine V who died of starvation and neglect.
• Destroyed The Palestrina.
• Wrote Unam Sanctam: There is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church outside of which there is no salvation or remission of sins. "We declare, announce and define that it is altogether necessary for salvation for every creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff."
• Gave final form to the heresy of paper power: ";Every human being must do as the pope tells him."

193. Benedict XI 1303-1304

• Absolved Philip of France for any blame of sacrilege done to Boniface VIII.

194. Clement V 1305-1314

• Moved to Avignon to appease Philip of France.
• Canonized Celestine V as St. Peter Monroe.

195. John XXII 1316-1334

• Allowed priests to keep their mistresses on the payment of a tax.
• Excommunicated 1 patriarch, 5 archbishops, 30 bishops, 146 abbots all for not paying taxes to pope.
• Had a fee schedule for absolutions for all crimes: from murder to incest to sodomy.
• Cum Inter Nonnullus: to say that Christ and the apostles had no property is a perversion of scripture.
• Taught heresy: souls of saints do not see God until the resurrection of the body and no one is in hell until the same.
• Burned the poorest of Christ's poor (144 OFMs) for their poverty.

197. Clement VI 1342-1352

• Would make an ass a bishop for a price.
• Honored Bacchus and Venus.
• Legitimized all his children.
• Made Curia into most efficient financial machine in history to date.

201. Urban VI 1378-1389

• Spiteful and vile-tempered, an alcoholic.
• "I can do anything I like, absolutely anything I like."

202. Boniface IX 1389-1404

• A murderer and probably greatest simoniac in history.

209. Pius II 1458-1464

• Rome is the only city run by bastards.

211. Sixtus IV 1471-1484

• Several sons called "The Pope's Nephews"
• First to license brothels of Rome.
• Taxed priests with mistresses.
• First to apply indulgences to dead, therefore a near infinite source of revenue.
• Filth, gluttony, avarice, and sloth.

213. Alexander VI 1492-82123

• Reputed to have committed first murder at 12.
• Callistus II, his uncle.
• "The Tiberius of Christian Rome";-Gibbons.
• 10 known illegitimate children including Caesar and Lucrezia.
• Incest with his daughter, her mother, and her grandmother.
• Freed murderers for a consideration.
• Appointed cardinals for a flat fee, then poisoned them to increase turn over, receiving all their property in the meantime.
• Financed Copernicus.
• Died by an accidental poisoning by Caesar, his son.

215. Julius II 82123-1513

• Always carried a stick to hit anyone who disagreed with him.
• Patron of arts: Michelangelo.
• Abiding passion: war. A military strategist.
• Against Canon Law: clothed self in armor.
• Against advice of cardinals, tore down St. Peter's to build a larger one (and the root cause of the Reformation: taxation to rebuild).

216. Leo X 1513-1521

• A grand entertainer.
• Typically had killed his opposition.
• Sold safe-passage to`Paradise in Germany, opening the door for Martin Luther, to pay for rebuilding of St. Peter's — itself which caused the break-up of the church.
• Condemned Luther for daring to say that burning heretics was against the law of God.

217. Adrian VI 1522-1523

• Confessed at the Diet of Nuremburg in 1552 that all evils in the church proceeded from the Roman Curia.
• "If by the Roman Church you mean its head or pontiff, it is beyond question that he can err even in matters touching the faith. He does this when he teaches heresy by his own judgment or decretal. In truth, many Roman pontiffs were heretics. The last of them was Pope John XXII (1316-1334)."

219. Paul III 1534-1549

• Built his tomb in asp of St. Peter's that included a naked Justice (later clothed by Pius IX) modeled by his sister Giulia, mistress of Alexander VI.
• Council of Trent: the beginning of a religious cold war. "This Council, desired and brought about by pious men in order to reunite the church which was trying to break apart, thus, on the contrary, so confirmed the schism and hardened attitudes as to make disagreements unresolvable." (P. Paulo Sarpi)
• Set-up the Roman Inquisition.
• Enjoyed stifling freedom of thought — introduced the Index of Forbidden Books.
• Allowed American Indian Chiefs to choose as "first wife" whichever one they remembered as being first.

222. Paul IV 1555-1559

• "If his mother had foreseen his career, she would have strangled him at birth."
• 1557 Cum Apostolatus Officio claimed to be Pontifix Maximus, God's representative on earth. Therefore, Pope has unlimited power.
• Hated all women with an inflexible theological ferocity: "the soul of a women is not potent enough to be a man."
• Took on Elizabeth I of England and sealed the fate of English Catholics with his arrogance.
• Thought up idea of Roman Inquisition when Cardinal.
• Cum Nimis Absurdum — a landmark in anti-Semitic history: Christ killers were by nature slaves and should be treated as such. He put Jews of Rome into a ghetto with only one entrance.

224. Pius V 1566-1572

• Expelled all prostitutes from Rome.
• Allowed no taverns in Rome.
• Abolished bull fighting except in Spain.
• Encouraged disobedience to Elizabeth I: Regnans in Excelsis (25 Feb 1520) — the Queen is a usurper. No one is bound to obey her... English Catholics who did were traitors.
• Canonized 250 years later.
• Silenced Galileo for his Copernican beliefs.
• (Infallibly) asserted that the sun revolves around the earth.
• Allowed American Indian Chiefs to choose as "first wife" whichever was baptized first.

225. Gregory XIII 1572-1585

• Joyfully commemorated St. Bartholomew Massacre when thousands of Huguenot Protestants died.
• The guilt of Jews in rejecting and crucifying Christ only grows deeper with successive generations, entailing perpetual slavery.
• Gave a blanket dispensation to married converted slaves to remarry.
• Not homicide to kill an embryo of less than 40 days since it was hot human.

226. Sixtus V 1585-1590

• Pretended impending demise to get elected.
• Asserted temporal jurisdiction over all kings and princes.
• Declared that he, the Pope, was the only proper person to decide the question of an authentic Bible for the Church. Aeternus Ille stated that only his bible could be used or else excommunication.
• All abortions for whatever reason were homicide and were penalized by excommunication reserved to the Pope.

230. Clement VIII 1592-1605

• Attacked the Edict of Nantes (1598) because it gave equality of citizenship to all, regardless of their religion.
• Permitted a Catholic prince to marry a Protestant princess "for the common good" without making clear how something contrary to divine law and intrinsically evil could be permitted for any good, common or otherwise.

234. Urban VIII 1623-1644

• Forced Galileo to recant his heretical views.
• Stated that Galileo had given rise to the greatest scandal in Christendom.

235. Innocent X 1644-1655

• Condemned the Peace of Westplahia of 1648 which gave equal rights to all citizens regardless of their religion that of the sovereign.

239. Innocent XI 1676-1689

• To have sex purely for`pleasure is a sin.

242. Clement XI 1700-1721

• In Coena Domini: the Pope has dominion over the entire Christian world, religious and secular (and has never been explicitly abandoned by the Vatican).
• Unigenitus (1713) condemned Jansenism, specifically:
• -reading of Sacred Scripture was for everyone.
• -reading Sacred Scripture on Sunday.
• -Christians should read Sacred Scripture.
• -fear of an unjust ought not to keep us from during our duty.
• Believed that discussion leads not to truth to further falsehood or, at best, a little truth and great falsehood.
• Ex Illa Die (1715): every missionary in China had to swear detestation for the Chinese rites and promise never to tolerate them (reversed by Sacred Congregation of Propaganda in 1939).

243. Innocent XIII 1721-1724

• Openly acknowledged his illegitimate children.
• Summis Desiderantes Affectibus (1484): affirmed as fact witchcraft, thereby breaking previous long held church tradition that it was just craziness. Wrote The Witches' Hammer, a book that lead to more misery and death than any other.

246. Benedict XIV 1740-1758

• The pope is the principal priest in the whole church who can take any local church from the jurisdiction of its bishop whenever he wishes.
• A child baptized against parents' will and contrary to cannon law was none the less Christian and had to live as one — or else be a heretic and receive dire penalties as such.

250. Pius VII 1800-1823

• Sacred Inquisition for "the blasphemy, immorality, disrespectful attitude towards the church, non-participation in its festivals, neglect of it is fasts and especially abandonment of the true faith."

251. Leo XII 1823-1829

• Forbade Jews small pox vaccination during epidemic because it was against the natural law.

252. Pius VIII 1829-1830

• Whoever head a word of blame against the Holy Office and did not report it was as guilty as the offender and to be treated as such.

253. Gregory XVI 1831-1846

• Mirari Vos (1832):
• -Liberty of conscience — a mad opinion.
• -religious liberty was said to flow from "the most fetid fount of indifferentism"
• -condemned freedom of workshop, press, assembly and education as a filthy sewer full of "heretical vomit."
• Sixtus V censures on abortion were to be treated as if never written.

254. Pius IX 1846-1878

• 1870: swore to Victor Emmanuel that he was being blinded to the past rather than grounded in the present, being convinced that his future would be like his past.
• Asked to be head of Italian Federation and declined — he wanted to hold onto absolute monarchy without interference from anyone.
• Excommunicated Victor Emmanuel four times.
• Forbade Catholics to engage in democratic process in Italy either as elector or candidate.
• Continued to turn political issues into matters of religion.
• Vatican I: 532 Bishops. Read Pastor Aeternus followed by roll call with most ferocious storm breaking over Rome with thunder at each Placet. 2 non placets (Riccio of Cajazzo in Naples and Fitzgerald of Littlerock AK), 140 absented themselves as a non placet would offend pope. 305 Placet comprised of titular bishops/Vatican Officials. Therefore, the Curia finally won. Theologians were silenced. "This was not so much a religious as a political statement. About to lose his states, the pope was determined to be absolute monarch ..."
• Quanta Cura in 1864: Freedom of religion is equated with the liberty of death.
• 1863 British Prime Minister offered safe passage and protection on Malta. Vatican aide approached Rufus King to grant P. IX asylum in USA with 2 destroyers sent to Civita Vecchia.
• Reaffirmed Adam and Eve as first parents who passed on original sin in face of scientific evidence to the contrary.
• Mary was immaculate from the first moment of conception, therefore, all human beings are full human beings at conception; therefore, no abortion, no contraception.
• Syllabus of Errors.
• Ineffabilis Deus proclaimed the Immaculate Conception of the BVM
• But, Gregory the Great proclaimed that Christ alone was conceived without sin, as was the tradition till 12th century as with the Greek and Russian Orthodox Church. Duns Scotus: Mary was immunized against original sin before she was born by the foreseen events of Christ. He proclaimed this dogma on his own thereby going against Anselm, Bernard, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas who all denied Mary's immaculate conception and Irenaeus, Jerome, Chrysostom, who in common with Paul and Peter, never even thought about it.
• Contradicted basic catholic principles: — The gospels provide the basis for belief. — For dogmatic proclamation, it needs the entire episcopate in Council or in their general teaching representing the faith in their churches. — That Catholicism cannot treat in this cavalier fashion a tradition dating from patristic thesis.

255. Leo XIII 1878-1903

• The church as a right to monopoly of religion in any Catholic state. Therefore, error must not be granted
• freedom to spread itself. Freedom and truth are incompatible. Trust must be enforced by the state at the Church's command whenever possible. Each state must profess the true faith as its official policy and tolerate the least possible liberty of conscience for the least possible length of time.
• It is always urgent, indeed, the chief preoccupation, to think best how to serve the interests of Catholicism. In every election, Catholics are obliged to vote for those "who pledge themselves to the Catholic cause and never prefer to them anyone hostile to the Catholic religion...which is the only true religion."

256. Pius X 1903-1914

• Lamentabili (1907) condemned "Modernism"
• -The Church's interpretation of Sacred Scripture is not subject to the more accurate judgment and correction of exegetes.
• -The Church has the right to pass judgment on assertions of science.
• -The exegete must not put aside preconceived opinions about the supernatural origin of Sacred Scripture and may not interpret it the same as any other merely human document.
• -The narrations of John are properly history, not mystical contemplation.
• Catholic exegetes express the true sense of Sacred Scripture than heterodox exegetes.
• -The organic constitution of the Church is immutable and not subject to perpetual evolution.
• Silenced Lagrange in Scripture.
• Silenced Duchesne in History. Set-up a Council of Vigilance in every diocese.
• Suspected Angelo Roncolli (to be John XXIII) as a Modernist.

258. Pius XI 1922-1939

• 1922 dissolved a valid, binding, naturally undissolvable marriage.
• Dissolved the marriage between a Protestant and Jew.
• Dissolved the marriage between a Protestant and Pagan.
• Got Mussolini to pledge that civil divorce would be outlawed in Italy.
• Dissolved marriages between Christians and non-Christians against a 200 year decision by the Holy Office that the pope could not do this (Petrine Privilege)

259. Pius XII 1939-1958

• Said nothing when 3/4 of Italian Jews lost their livelihood at end of 1949.
• Said nothing about Nazi atrocities against Jews.
• Said nothing when Vichy France deported 5000 Jewish children for extermination.
• "There was one in the world whose witness Hitler feared, since many of his armies were Catholic. That one man did not speak. In the face of that Winston Churchill was to call the 'probably the greatest and most horrible single crime ever committed in the whole history of the world' — he chose to stay neutral."
• Said nothing when Jews were taken from Rome, Florence, Venice, Ferrara, Genoa, and Fueme.

260. John XXIII 1958-1963

• God is greater than the Church.
• God had a purpose for the whole world as well the Church.
• How can the church help God in His plan that goes beyond the church? He distinguished between the Church for a few and The Kingdom for all.
• The papacy is not the only teacher of the world. To say it is would be blasphemy. Since the Church does not express God fully in the world, the papacy must be the best of listeners and learners. The Church must listen to the world.
• At Venice: Think of your archbishop not as a politician, but as a pastor.
• He had no other role than that of pastor.
• He had the greatest and only meaningful authority: that of love and service.
• Called Vatican II: The church was in need of Christ's compassion — even extended it to ex-priests bared from work in Italy due to 1929 Concordat.
• Personified Horace: Nothing prevents one from telling the truth with a mind on one's face.
• Pacem in Terris: Everyone's right to worship God in accordance with the dictates of his own/her own conscience and to profess his/her religion in private and in public.
• Made the Roman Church truly Catholic.
• Least bigoted and most truly Catholic Pope in history.

261. Paul VI 1963-1978

• 1965: "Jews were predestined to receive the Messiah and had been waiting for him for thousands of years. When Christ comes, the Jewish people not only did not recognize him, they oppose him, slander him, and finally kill him."
• By reserving for himself the decision on birth control, he returned the Church to the basic stance of Vatican I: he as the only bishop.
• Humanae Vitae: divided the Church, ending Vatican II, having chosen to go alone without counciliar advise. He also showed Pope was wrong to many priests who came to terms with celibacy and their own sexuality and left.

263. John Paul II 1978

• Sternest pope in living memory.
• A Platonist: truth is eternal and unchangeable.
• Priests: Be non-political, yet he is political.
• Revised cannon law (1983) without collegial approval and consultation.
• 1979: Silenced Hans Kung.
• Like Gregory VII and Pius IX, he is content with nothing less than total submission, even on matters that are hotly contested.
• Hunthausssen (Seattle): Pope is Bishop of Seattle as Benedict XIV was Bishop of World.

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