Friday, March 5, 2010

And it's not Fr. Maciel nor the Legionaries of Christ!

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Gender: Male
Religion: Roman Catholic
Race or Ethnicity: Hispanic
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Religion

He has become almost a mythical character, the subject of legends and traditions.

His manners were agreeable and his appearance fascinating.

Like many other priests of the day, his morals were far from blameless.

He cannot be regarded in any sense as a great man. His career shows no great political ideas, and none of his actions indicate genius. 

It was clear to all he regarded the Church as an instrument of worldly schemes with no thought of its religious aspect. The condition of his subjects was deplorable.

His greed for money and his essentially vicious nature led him to commit a great number of crimes.

The one pleasing aspect of his life is his patronage of the arts

He  gave away temporal estates to his children as though they belonged to him.

He served under five popes and acquired much administrative experience, influence and wealth, although no great power.

He was economical in his habits; although on occasion he displayed great splendor and lived in a fine palace.

His two dominant passions were greed of gold and love of women.

He was devotedly fond of the children whom his mistresses bore him.

His riotous mode of life called down upon him a very severe reprimand from the Pope.

Of his many mistresses the one for whom his passion lasted longest was a certain Italian lady, wife of three successive husbands.

She bore him four children whom he openly acknowledged as his own.

His other children were of uncertain parentage.

He lavished vast sums on his children and loaded them with every honor. His daughter lived with his mistress, who bore him a daughter.

His name?

Rodrigo de Borja (Pope Alexander VI)

Born: 1-Jan-1431
Birthplace: Játiva, Spain
Died: 18-Aug-1503
Location of death: Rome, Italy
Cause of death: unspecified
Remains: Buried, Iglesia de Santiago y Montserrat, Rome, Italy


And the Church goes on. God writing straight on crooked lines?


Background details from NNDB  

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I didn't notice any "staight lines" in your long list of crooked accomplishments. And who ever said the Church would not go on because of Maciel and the Legion?

but even if you had a list of "straight lines" that God wrote with this "crooked pope," this post suffers from a lack of logic that I believe most schoolchildren can pick out. Or do you think we shouldn't make too much fuss over an arsonist because his "crooked lines" employ firemen (and women) who get to feed their families?

Anonymous said...

Seems like you're trying to say maciel's perversions and abuses are no big deal because similar things have happened before.

You're minimizing his crimes and their effects on people. This hurts people, and it's a sign of being in denial.

Get help. Seriously.