So, should we all muck up FR's bandwidth by posting seven year old articles? If this article was current, it would be one thing, but when people go to the trouble to scrounge up something from seven years ago just to poke a stick at the Catholics on the forum...well..I don't see the logic there.
The Pope Joan rumor, on the other hand, was widely believed for nearly four centuries, from the 1200’s through the late 1500’s. Evidently it did not become a tool for bashing Catholicism until well after the Reformation which began in 1517.
In other words, the history of the rumor is of general interest and is therefore subject to discussion on open threads in the Religion Forum. That the Catholic Church officially debunked the rumor nearly five centuries ago does not negate the interest in the rumor.
Also, the age of the article is immaterial. Many articles on the Religion Forum date back a century, several centuries, two millennia or more.
Discuss the issues all you want, but do NOT make it personal!