Religion & Beliefs: October 2007 Archives

Have you ever wondered how Popes get the top job? Do you think you have what it takes to be a pontiff? Well now you can find out thanks to the Vatican Board Game, which is an accurate simulation of the papal election process, and was developed to reveal the mysterious inner workings of The Roman Catholic Church.

The brain behind the board game, Stephen Haliczer, is one of the world’s leading early modern historians, appearing earlier this year on the four-part PBS docudrama, Secret Files of the Inquisition. Since we have papal aspirations ourselves (we just need to change those pesky rules that don’t let chicks become popettes), we called Haliczer and asked him for some tips. Turns out Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown should’ve done the same thing, since Haliczer says his book Angels and Demons, which is set against the backdrop of a papal election, is riddled with factual inaccuracies, though he does concede that is “a great read.”

DM: What did Dan Brown get wrong?

Haliczer: For example, Dan Brown tells us that the papal election turns on four specific candidates. He says these are the four candidates for which the cardinals can cast their votes. Well that’s not the case, they can vote for any cardinal they want. There’s no specific number of candidates or specific candidates. The press identified as many as fifteen possible candidates before the election of 2005, and Dan Brown’s telling us there are only four actual candidates, that’s completely untrue.

DM: Why did you create the game?

Haliczer: The Vatican board game really is an effort to dispel some of the mythology surrounding the Catholic Church. In popular culture there’s not only a great deal of curiosity about the inner workings of the Catholic Church, there’s also a great deal of confusion because of the secretive nature of some of its deliberations and processes.

DM: It does seem so much is done behind closed doors, which in a democratic society is not necessarily seen as a very good thing?

Haliczer: But the church is not a democratic society. Ironically, at the very apex it is, because you do have an election for the supreme leader, but otherwise it’s not democratic it’s hierarchical like an old fashioned monarchy.

DM: So in understanding how it all works, do you think people will have more or less respect for the institution?

Haliczer: I think if they play the game they’ll understand a great deal more about it, and they’ll see that the process involves a careful nurturing of talent over a long period of time. In other words the cardinals that do emerge as possible papal material are cardinals that are seasoned. They have a distinguished record in a pastoral sense as archbishops. For example Pope Benedict XVI, as Archbishop of Munich, was very widely respected in his role as pastoral leader. And then they have experience in two very important areas, serving in episcopal organizations like bishops conferences and synods on the one hand, and serving the central administration of the church, the curia. My game reflects that.

DM: I think from the outside, that’s where some of the criticism lies; It’s not the Mother Teresa types, who have seriously served the poor, that get to be pope, it’s the people that are good at playing politics.

Haliczer: You’ll probably find it curious but I don’t like to use the word politics. There is a political dimension to it, but I think it’s more a matter of service and experience, that’s what one finds, and that’s what’s reflected in my game, and in the reality. My game is based on a deep study of the careers of dozens of leading cardinals.

In an interview with Parade magazine, comedian Jerry Seinfeld talked about, among many other things, the benefits of his youthful flirtation with Scientology. "I last really studied, oh, it's almost 30 years ago. Believe it or not...it's extremely intellectual and clinical in its approach to problem solving, which really appealed to me. I actually got to it from my auto mechanics teacher in high school, who was into it, and he was telling me about it. In my early years of stand-up, it was very helpful. I took a couple of courses. One of them was in communication, and I learned some things about communication that really got my act going."

Unlike Scientology's high profile members such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta, Seinfeld had but a brief interlude with the controversial church. And despite a small jab in the episode of Seinfeld spent lost in the parking garage, he doesn't seem to have had any hard feelings either, unlike the guys at South Park, who vented in their controversial episode, Trapped in the Closet. What may be more revealing however is the perhaps unconscious connection Seinfeld made when talking about the church during an interview to promote the new animated film Bee Movie (in theaters Nov 2). Could it have been the hive minded similarities?

In her book, The Scandal of Scientology, author Paulette Cooper reveals how the cult-like religion founded by sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard, targeted celebrities. "Their celebrity chasing goes back to around 1955 when Hubbard invited his followers to write and tell him which celebrity they wanted," writes Cooper in a chapter entitled Children and Celebrities. According to the book, the list of celebs Hubbard hoped to attract included numerous comedians such as Ed Sullivan, Ernest Hemingway, Danny Kaye, Liberace, James Stewart, Bob Hope, Walt Disney, Milton Berle and Groucho Marx. The church opened a Celebrity Center in 1969 to cater to the needs of their A-list disciples.

Much of the criticism leveled at the church lies in the numerous reports of difficulties members experience when trying to leave the fold. "Even worse than what happens to an outsider who tries to attack Scientology is what happens to a Scientologist who turns against or displeases the group," says Paulette in a chapter entitled, The Suppressives. Fortunately for Seinfeld, he doesn't seem to have had any problems severing ties with Scientology; Cooper was not so fortunate. After publishing her book in 1971, the author, who was born in the Auschwitz concentration camp, was the subject of an organized campaign of harassment and litigation which was codenamed Operation Freakout and was exposed by the FBI after a raid on Scientology offices in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. in 1977.

Though out of print now, Paulette's book is highly collectible, with second hand copies selling for up to $115 on Amazon.com. The full text is also available on the internet.

"And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.” Revelation 17:10, 11.

Will Pope John Paul II come back to us, resurrected as an instrument of the Devil as the Book of Revelations plays out? That’s what The World’s Last Chance Ministry claim will come to pass in their latest video, a sequel to last year’s You Tube hit Prophecy of the Century.

The original Prophecy of the Century was produced in response to the fiery apparition of Pope John Paul II that appeared in a bonfire in Poland on the second anniversary of his death. The images appeared in many newspapers and broadcast news reports, and caused hysteria among believers. To put this in perspective however, many holy visions have appeared to the faithful, including that of the Virgin Mary, which appeared on a toasted cheese sandwich, which was subsequently sold to an online casino on eBay for $28,000 dollars after generating 1.7 million web hits. But we digress.

The first video claims that it is prophesied that The Beast of Revelation 17 will come from within the Roman Catholic Church. Furthermore they claim that Pope John Paul II is Revelation’s Seventh King, being the seventh Pope after the Holy See was given sovereignty over the Vatican City by the Italian government in the 1929 Lateran Treaty, which effectively made the popes kings of their newly sovereign domain. That makes current Pope Benedict XVI the seventh king. And, according to Revelation “the eighth king is going to be one of the previous seven kings.” Fueled by the vision in the flames, the World’s Last Chance Ministry therefore hypothesizes that Pope John Paul II in the prime candidate to be this eighth king, and “beast that was, and is not.”

"Just think of the sensational excitement generated by the flicker of the image of Pope John Paul II waving in the bonfire lit in Southern Poland. Then imagine what will be the response of the world when we behold the exact impersonation of John Paul II 'resurrected,'" said Dahlia Doss of The World's Last Chance Ministry. In their sequel, the newly released Prophecy of the Century Part II, the ministry sights as evidence the fact that Pope John Paul II was buried in a lead-lined, trapezoidal, vampire-like coffin (the trapezoid also being a sign of the occult). They also claim an insignia on the coffin consisted of an upside down Satanic cross, and the letter M, which the church claimed was for Mary, but the World’s Last Chance claim was in fact a Masonic symbol.

"Revelation 17 proves that the end is nearer than we imagine. From all the apocalyptic prophecies nothing is as clear as this study in revealing that the Second Coming of our beloved Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ will take place in a matter few years from now. And that the next pope, John Paul II impersonated, will also be the final pope before the Second Coming of Christ," concludes Doss. Gripping stuff. We can’t wait for the Hollywood blockbuster movie version and feel Anthony Hopkins would be a good choice for the lead Pope/Beast role. Just don't cast Tom Hanks in this religious epic; he may have triumphed against the Opus Dei dorks in the Da Vinci Code, but he's way too wimpy to save the world from Satan.

On October 25th the Vatican Secret Archives are releasing a 300-page volume entitled Processus contra Templario (Latin for "Trial against the Templars"), which includes a reproduction of a key document known as The Chinon Parchment, which formally absolves the Knights Templar of heresy. The Chinon Parchment had been “misplaced” by the Vatican for many years, and was rediscovered by Professor Barbara Frale, a medievalist at the Vatican’s Secret Archives in 2001.

"The parchment was cataloged incorrectly at some point in history. At first I couldn't believe my eyes…This was the document that a lot of historians were looking for,” says Frale in an interview with the UK’s Daily Mail. “There was an archiving error, an error in how the document was described," Frale elaborated in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from her home in Viterbo, north of Rome. "More than an error, it was a little sketchy."

The Templar Knights, or the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon to give them their full name, were born out of the free for all that was the First Crusade, a holy war launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II in an effort to unite the Christian world behind the Roman Catholic Church. With his Deus Vult (God wills it!) rallying cry in their ears, his coalition of willing Christians from all walks of life piled into the Middle East to seize the Muslim held Holy Lands. Many peasant crusaders also began persecuting Jews throughout Europe at this frenzied time, blaming them for the crucifixion of Jesus, in what was later called the First Holocaust.

Founded by French knight Hugues de Payens shortly after the Christian conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, the Templar Knights’ mission was to ensure the safe passage of the mass of European pilgrims heading east. They were named after the headquarters they were given by King Baldwin II of Jerusalem on Temple Mount, which is said to be the site of the Temple of Solomon. This location was, in part, what gave rise to the various legends (as portrayed in the book Da Vinci Code) that the Templars were guardians of hallowed relics such as The Holy Grail and The Ark of Covenant (which proved to be as elusive as WMDs). It has also been theorized that they found manuscripts that revealed that Jesus was a man rather than a deity, who preached a form of spirituality that was in line with Judaic and Egyptian traditions, which directly contradicted Roman Catholic doctrine.

After the Templars were endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church in 1129 the organization’s size and wealth increased dramatically. They were the charity du jour amongst the European nobility, who joined their ranks and swelled their coffers, and were given further papal protection in a 1139 order which excepted them from local laws and taxes. The Templars ventured into banking and financial management; issuing an early form of traveler's checks to nobility who didn’t want to tempt thieves by traveling to the Holy Lands with their wealth in their pockets. The Templars would also manage the estates of the nobility while they were away, and thus they became the world's first multinational, full-service financial institution. By developing such an infrastructure, the Templars amassed unprecedented power and wealth above sovereign laws (thanks to those handy papal orders), which ultimately lead to the organization's downfall.

In 1187 Jerusalem was captured by Saladin, the Muslim Sultan of Egypt who was widely admired, even in the Christian world, for his chivalry, a concept the Templar Knights brought back to Europe. After more than a century of skirmishes, the Templars lost their final foothold in the Holy Lands in 1303, and with it their fundamental purpose. Their infrastructure in Europe remained, and as the continent’s leading bankers they loaned King Philip IV of France money for his war with England –– money the spendthrift monarch had no hope of repaying. Seizing on rumor and innuendo centered around the monastic military order's slightly bizarre initiation rituals, which included spitting on a cross, on Friday October 13th, 1307 the King issued orders to arrest Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay and his fellow knights. Charged with heresy, among other things, they were tortured, and false confessions were extorted. The enterprising King charged the order for the privilege of board while their knights were imprisoned. Under pressure from Philip, the vulnerable Pope Clement V, who just a couple of years later fled a hostile Rome and set up court in Avignon, issued an order instructing Christian monarchs to arrest the Templars and seize their assets. A further papal order officially disbanded the organization, whose reputation was irrevocably tarnished, in 1312.

On March 8th 1314 de Molay was burnt at the stake in Paris. Legend has it that he cursed the King and Pope as he died in the flames, saying they would both meet him soon before God. As it turned out, Pope Clement and King Philip both died within a year, on April 20th and November 29th 1314 respectively. However, in the Chinon Parchment dated August 17–20, 1308, Pope Clement V recognized that the Templars were not guilty of the heresies they were charged with, and secretly pardoned the knights and their leader de Moley, “restoring him to unity with the Church and reinstating him to communion of the faithful and sacraments of the Church."

“Simply put, the pope recognized that they were not heretics but guilty of many other minor crimes -- such as abuses, violence and sinful acts within the order," says Frale in a Telegraph article. “For 700 years we have believed that the Templars died as cursed men, and this absolves them.”

Only 799 copies of Processus contra Templario will be sold, with the 800th copy going to Pope Benedict XVI. The book carries a hefty $8,377 price tag, and is expected to be bought mostly by academic institutions. "This is a milestone because it is the first time that these documents are being released by the Vatican, which gives a stamp of authority to the entire project," says Frale. "Nothing before this offered scholars original documents of the trials of the Templars."