Papal history a mix of saints, rakehells

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 20, 1995 by Colman McCarthy

As the world's most visible relgious leader, Pope John Paul II, who visited America earlier this month, has no choice but to be awash in the equally visible political and social issues of the day. His opinions on such secular disputes as population control, abortion and capital punishment have been expressed as forcefully as his teachings on in-house wrangles celibacy, women's ordination, ecumenism

Supporters revere John Paul for doctrinal firmness. Critics see him as a stubborn dogmatist. Whatever the judgment, John Paul's taste for mixing it up is well within the traditions and history of the papacy.

Compared with the policies and behavior of many of the 262 popes who ruled the church before him, the current vicar of Christ - a.k.a. the bishop of Rome, successor of Peter, primate of Italy, patriarch of the West, servant of the servants of God, pastor of pastors, supreme pontiff, for starters - appears to be a model of evenhandedness.

Among the papacy's 23 Johns, 16 Gregorys, 15 Benedicts, 14 Clements, 13 Leos, 13 Innocents, 12 Piuses, seven Urbans, six Pauls and one Peter have been an assortment of rakehells only God could love as well as saints and mystics only Satan would scorn. In addition to 20 centuries of popes going back to Peter, the impetuous fisherman from Bethsaida in Galilee, the church has endured 39 antipopes. Some were self-appointed, others installed by one unholy Roman emperor or another feuding with the real pope. Few lasted long. Most had violent ends.

Critics of Catholicism point to the dishonor roll of morally fallible popes as proof that the church is just one more corrupt institution, different only because it can smokily hide its sins in incense.

Who was the most sinister pope? The non-halo is customarily awarded to Alexander VI (1492-1503). A Borgian, he bribed his way onto the papal throne, pocketed money from sale of indulgences, appointed one of his four illegitimate children a cardinal at age 18 and had a bent for burning people at stakes.

Ten years later came Leo X, one of whose sainted advisers was Niccolo Machiavelli. Elected at a youthful 38, he dedicated himself to partying: "Let us enjoy the papacy which God has seen fit to bestow upon us." To pay for the revelry, Leo the bacchanalian borrowed from Roman bankers at 40 percent and then sold seats in the College of Cardinals to pay the loans.

Looking on from the Germanic north as Fr. Martin Luther, about to make his name by damning the degeneracies of the Roman-led church. Pope Leo fired back by excommunicating Luther in 1520. The Reformation is still under way.

Citing the bad popes as proof of the church's inferiority can be turned around. In college, one of my Jesuit theology professors, a papal scholar on the side, would spin tales of un-Christlike vicars of Christ and argue that this was proof the church had divine protection. How else could it have survived in an unbroken line of 263 leaders back to Peter?

If the church has withstood corruption from within, it has also done well surviving crime from without. At least 30 popes have been martyred for the faith. More than 10 have been rubbed out, including Benedict VI (973-74) who was strangled by a priest contracted by an antipope and John XII (955-64), elected pope at age 18 and killed at 27. His death was allegedly at the hand of an enraged husband of a woman having an affair with the pope.

John, Paul II nearly joined the list of murdered pontiffs when a gunman fired away in St. Peter's Square in May 1981. After recovering, the pope went to the prison to forgive the attacker, an act of reconciliation that remains one of the shining moments of this papacy.

Other memorable moments are present, too, as they are in the lives of the 262 saints and sinners back to Peter, "the rock" on which Christ said "I will build my church." Where will John Paul II fit in? Check with historians a few centuries from now, perhaps during the reign of John Paul XVII, for the full story.