[rwfromkansas]

For all the things that I believe is wrong with the RCC, they have had one thing right at least.....males only in leadership!

Pope Joan is nothing but fiction.

[Aquinasfan]

For all the things that I believe is wrong with the RCC, they have had one thing right at least.....males only in leadership!

FYI, the reason for male priests is that the priests act in the person of Christ when administering the sacraments. This is why Pope John Paul II said that the authority to allow female priests doesn't belong to the Church. Christ chose only men as his Apostles.

[tanknetter]

Pope Joan is nothing but fiction.

Yes, and no ... imho. I was curious so I watched the show last night. It presented absolutely no scholarly evidence that Pope Joan existed, and the pro-Joan "experts" it relied on did little but discredit the case ABC/Sawyer were trying to make.

What I did come away with was a reinforcement of my own belief that while there was no "Pope Joan", at some point back in the 11th or 12th century the Church itself thought the myth was true (this was pointed out by one of the countering experts ABC/Sawyer used to present the 'con' argument) ... and as a result took actions that helped perpetuate the myth down into the modern era.

Which is understandable, considering all of the intrigue and scandal that swirled around the Papacy at about that time.