MISSING - ONE BENEDICT
We have searched the list of popes, and have reached a startling conclusion - there was no Pope Benedict X. Pope Benedict IX was force out of the papacy by the emperor in 1048, and Benedict XI started his short reign in 1303. In between these two Benedicts, there were a number of popes, but no Pope Benedict X.
There was a man who assumed that title, but he was an anti-pope. He was not a part of the official "Title Deed" of Roman Catholicism, the "unbroken line of popes." How valuable is a title that contains such confusion? It certainly looses much of its validity.
Didn't Benedict XI know that 10 and not 11 comes after 9? By assuming the title of Benedict XI he was giving validity to the supposed papacy of the antipope who called himself Benedict X.
There has until recently been a wide variety of official lists of popes, whose continuity forms the title deed of Rome.
John O'Brien is a respected apologist for Rome. He is the author of a number of books, among them The Faith of Millions (FOM) and What's the Truth about Catholics? (WTC). Quotations are from the original printing of these books, which may have been altered in subsequent printings.
In FOM, O'Brien names Pope No. 137 as John XIV; in WTC as Donus II. O'Brien wrote WTC in 1950, three years after a Vatican news report (1/18/47) that Pope Donus II was found to be "a person who never existed."
In FOM O'Brien also names Pope No. 207 as Martin V and in WTC as John XXII, John XXIII or John XXIV.
In spite of his own uncertainty about who was really pope and when, O'Brien has the gall to say that the popes "constitute a distinguished list of holy and saintly men, linking the Church with Christ and constituting the Title Deed of the Catholic Church - the one true Church of Jesus Christ on earth."
Pope Boniface VIII published an encyclical in 1302. It had all the earmarks of what we should regard as falling within the pale of infallibility. It was addressed to the entire Church, regarded faith and morals and certainly was couched in infallible language.
The Catholic Encyclopedia (Robert Appleton Company, Imprimatur John Cardinal Farley, New York, Copyright 1912) says in Volume XV, page 126, "(Unam Sanctam) lays down dogmatic propositions on . . . the necessity of belonging to (the Church) for the attainment of eternal salvation"
Specifically, they quote the encyclical, "Declaratio quod subesse Romano Pontifici est omni humanae creaturae de necessitate salutis, (It is here stated that for salvation it is necessary that every human creature be subject to the authority of the Roman pontiff)."
Vatican II contradicted this. It said, "Those also can attain to everlasting salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, yet sincerely seek God and, moved by His grace, strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience."
Other situations have surfaced in legitimate Vatican history that tend to negate any claim to divine authenticity. Who can minimize the confusion caused by having the body of Pope Formosus exhumed so that he could be placed on the papal throne and tried for heresy? Not able to answer for himself, his responses were given by a cleric. Formosus was found guilty, and his body thrown into the Tiber.
We will refrain from saying much about the scandals that occurred during John Paul's papacy. The official much to be blamed was Bernard Law, formerly archbishop of Boston. He was honored by saying one of the nine special requiem masses said for John Paul II. Most of American cardinals did not attend, and the Boston abused protested.
Benedict XVI (or is it Benedict XV?) blamed the media for over reacting to the scandal, but this is but an open admission that the public pretended sanctity of the priesthood is more valuable to the pope than the young men who have been marred for life.
John Paul II was famous for his "mea cuplas" which the then Cardinal Ratzinger thought were excessive. But there is a papal crime for which no human will indict, but will be boldly addressed by the Lord and Judge of all at His Great White Throne. That is the crime of influencing a billion precious human souls away from the Gospel truth, and the resulting personal judgment to the Lake of Fire for the unregenerate.
The great ones of the earth, led by our unknowing President, may praise and honor John Paul the Great, but the time will come when the earthly great will wish to be hidden from God's's wrath by the rocks and the mountains, while the "simply trusting" true royalty will join Him in Heaven.
Meantime, Christian friend, evangelize!