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by Fr. William Saunders Other Articles by Fr. William Saunders The Fable of “Pope Joan” 01/13/06 One of the television networks recently ran a program about "Pope Joan." The television show was not very clear about whether this story was true or not. Is it? Diane Sawyer, on December 29, indeed had a "special report" about "Pope Joan," which was broadcast on ABC. Of course, the program was preceded by much commercial hype. The "special report" focused on an interview with Donna Cross who has written a book on this matter. Like The DaVinci Code, her interview wove together bits of...

....Those pictures are accurate – circa 2002. The so-called “gulag,” as Illinois Senator Dick Durban has referred to Gitmo, was in operation for just four months, from January to April of 2002. At that time we were still trying to figure out what to do with these terrorists. Today Camp X-Ray, as the infamous section of Gitmo has been called, is abandoned and overgrown. So why are so many news outlets showing us photos that are more than three years old, when newer, accurate photos are available? Well, for one it makes for more interesting photos, but the truth is...

STORIES ABOUT spat-upon Vietnam veterans are like mercury: Smash one and six more appear. It's hard to say where they come from. For a book I wrote in 1998 I looked back to the time when the spit was supposedly flying, the late 1960s and early 1970s. I found nothing. No news reports or even claims that someone was being spat on. What I did find is that around 1980, scores of Vietnam-generation men were saying they were greeted by spitters when they came home from Vietnam. There is an element of urban legend in the stories in that their...

Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri is an Indian-born scientist who currently chairs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He's also an unabashed environmental activist, a role he acts out as head, since 2001, of the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI). This organization sponsors in thousands of India's schools the Green Olympiad movement, which is a competition designed to test and enhance the knowledge of Indian schoolchildren about environmental issues and whose winners will be invited to participate in Terraquiz, the only environmental quiz show on Indian national television. Well, thank God for small favors. At least there aren't two environmental...

Introduction In Part 1 of "Cracking the Anti-Catholic Code" we examined the background of The Da Vinci Code phenomenon, focusing on the Gnostic ideas that author Dan Brown utilizes in his best-selling novel (now at 4.5 million copies sold and still selling strong). This second part of Envoy magazine’s special Planet Envoy critique of the best-selling novel examines Brown’s depictions of early Christianity, especially his claims about Jesus Christ, the Emperor Constantine, the supposed reliance of early Christianity on pagan beliefs and rituals, and the Council of Nicaea. As we will see, Brown not only plays fast and loose with...