Posted on 12/28/2005 10:48:42 AM PST by infoguy
Check out the promotional ad for this Thursday evening's (December 29, 2005) episode of ABC's Primetime. The promo is for the story, "On the Trail of Pope Joan" (audiotape on file; emphasis mine):
"Diane Sawyer takes you on the trail of a passionate mystery. Just as intriguing as The Da Vinci Code. Chasing down centuries-old clues hidden even inside the Vatican. Could a woman disguised as a man have been Pope? Thursday night. One astonishing Primetime."
It doesn't get much uglier than this, folks. Quite simply, there was never a female pope, or "Pope Joan." The tale is a complete fabrication dating back to the 13th century - nearly 400 years after the reported "reign" of the so-called "Joan." For reliable summaries of the bogus tale, see this and this. Scholars debunked the fable hundreds of years ago, and recent books (this and this, for example) have further repudiated it.
Over the centuries, the "Pope Joan" story has been used as a slanderous tool to tarnish the Catholic Church and degrade Catholics. In his acclaimed 2003 book The New Anti-Catholicism, Philip Jenkins writes, "The Pope Joan legend is a venerable staple of the anti-Catholic mythology" (page 89). Jenkins adds,
"Though it has not the slightest foundation ... [f]rom the sixteenth century through the nineteenth, the tale was beloved by Protestants, since it testified to Catholic stupidity ... [Today] Pope Joan enjoys a lively presence on the Web, where feminist anti-Catholics celebrate her existence much as did seventeenth-century Calvinists" (page 89).
That a major network like ABC would lend credibility to such a vicious anti-Catholic smear is deplorable.
What could be worse? Donna Woolfolk Cross' novel, Pope Joan, seeks to advance the stature and validity of the fictional character, and a movie of this book is currently in production. Yikes.
This was already a film with Liv Ulman in 1972.
Just as intriguing as The Da Vinci Code
-- and just as phony!
Unfortunately, the Catholic leadership is too timid or apathetic to mount a campaign to defend themselves and their Church. Really pathetic if you think about it.
Hollywood couldn't get away with slandering Judaism this way. Jewish leaders demand apologies -- and get them.
?!? It's just a myth about a woman pope, not killing children. So what if there was a woman pope? It wouldn't be the end of the world and it wouldn't have any affect whatsoever on Christian beliefs.
Not saying I believe it, and apparently there has been plenty of information to refute it, but all in all it's not that big a deal
>> The Catholic Church has some interesting history to say the very least. <<
But a lot less juicy.
Since the pope only has "authority" over Catholics, what do you care ehat non-Catholics think? If a silly legend about an alleged female Pope 1100 years ago can undermine the current Pope's "authority" then I'd start looking for another religion quick.
It's not just Hollywood. Right here on FR last week there was a poster with a tagline that said she was a "Jew that breeds like a Catholic."
Not the worst thing to say about a Catholic - even though it's totally untrue. Hassidic Jews have more kids than Catholics.
Can you imagine the uproar during Rosh Hashana or Yom Kippur if someone had a parallel tagline about Jews?
A quick read of most religious threads on this site reveals the ugliness flows both ways. It is unfortunate and unnecessary. It just makes everyone look bad.
Actually, in context the tagline sounds like a salute to Catholics. Because it is clearly a statement of pride in having a number of offspring, and it's a salute to Catholics for approaching life the same way.
So what if Mary Mapes and Dan Rather can fabricate documents about President Bush. Big deal. The truth is irrelevant.
I read about Pope Joan years ago, can't remember where
According to the story I read, "he" was discovered as a "she" when she went into labor during a processional
John Anglicus was a ninth century Englishman. He travelled to Athens where he gained a reputation for his knowledge of the sciences. Eventually he came to lecture at the Trivium in Rome where his fame grew even larger. He became a Cardinal, and when Pope Leo IV died in 853 A.D., he was unanimously elected pope.
As Pope John VIII he ruled for two years, until 855 A.D. However, while riding one day from St. Peter's to the Lateran, he had to stop by the side of the road and, to the astonishment of everyone, gave birth to a child. It turned out that Pope John VIII was really a woman. In other words, Pope John was really Pope Joan.
Engraving of Pope Joan from an 18th Century polemic, "A Present for a Papist." Note the infant at her feet. According to legend, upon discovering the Pope's true gender, the people of Rome tied her feet together and dragged her behind a horse while stoning her, until she died. Another legend has it that she was sent to a faraway convent to repent her sins and that the child she bore grew up to become the Bishop of Ostia.
It is not known whether the story of Pope Joan is true. The first known reference to her occurs in the thirteenth century, 350 years after her supposed reign. Around this time her image also began to appear as the High Priestess card in the Tarot deck.
The Catholic Church at first seemed to accept the reality of Pope Joan. Marginal notes in a fifteenth century document refer to a statue called "The Woman Pope with Her Child" that was supposedly erected near the Lateran. There was also a rumor that for some years the chairs used during papal consecrations had holes in their seats, so that an official check of the pope's gender could be performed.
During the Reformation in the sixteenth century, the Catholic Church began to deny the existence of Pope Joan. However, at the same time, Protestant writers insisted on her reality, primarily because the existence of a female pope was a convenient piece of anti-Catholic propaganda.
Modern scholars have been unable to resolve the historicity of Pope Joan.
While the public has not seen the program, NBC is promoting "The Book of Daniel" as a serious drama about Christian people and the Christian faith. The main character is Daniel Webster, a drug-addicted Episcopal priest whose wife depends heavily on her mid-day martinis.
Webster regularly sees and talks with a very unconventional white-robed, bearded Jesus. The Webster family is rounded out by a 23-year-old homosexual Republican son, a 16-year-old daughter who is a drug dealer, and a 16-year-old adopted son who is having sex with the bishop's daughter. At the office, his lesbian secretary is sleeping with his sister-in-law.
NBC and the mainstream media call it "edgy," "challenging" and "courageous." The series is written by Jack Kenny, a practicing homosexual who describes himself as being "in Catholic recovery," and is interested in Buddhist teachings about reincarnation and isn't sure exactly how he defines God and/or Jesus. "I don't necessarily know that all the myth surrounding him (Jesus) is true," he said.
Would the alphabet media group try this will Islam? Hecccckkk NO! you gotta be a Christian of any stripe to be besmirched by the MSM and the ACLU.
You are comparing apples and oranges, friend.
Patrick Madrid is a freeper. Do you know his tagname? I have always enjoyed his writings.
God bless.
Although the myth of Pope Joan is just that - a myth, one original usurper of Christendom was a woman, namely the Empress Theodora. She may be the figure upon whom the fictional Pope Joan was based. Her own official biographer Procopius wrote his Secret History to ensure that she [and Justinian] be known for their crimes.
http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/library-procopius/secrethistory-2.htm
LOL....I very recently heard a supposedly true story that took place in a Catholic Elementary School...The student's were provided their paper, crayons, markers, etc. and given the assignment of drawing their interpretation of the Nativity.
Most of the results were relatively prototypical manger scenes, to include one boy's who depicted the Christ child, Mary, Joseph, livestock, angels and the three kings...with the conpicuous addition of an obviously obese, and seemingly incongruous male off to one side of the drawing.
As the nun walked about the class she noted the figure and asked the boy who the extra figure was, he looked at her as if she should already know, then answered, "It's Round John Virgin!"
Its not like the Vatican hasn't had its real scandals over the centuries. A lot of those Popes and Cardinals weren't saints.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.