Dick-9: Ha! Love it, lexiconically.

Still prefer 7 of 9, however.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saeculum_ob…

Check out the links in the bottom of that article. The ones about the sexually active popes and the banquet of chestnuts are pretty interesting.

ok, another rapist. murder is a new one.

Okay, so we're starting with rape and murder and are only 20% of the way down the list.

That's... heartening. Jesus.

Listen, it doesn't take much research to come up w/ horrible acts by individual popes. That's why it behooves you to cite specific acts. The Catholic Church underwent many reforms, plus many more attempts at reform. Each of those reformers pointed to acts by popes that amount to little more than gossip. Whether true or not, there isn't a way to verify these claims.

Set against this are the many deprivations of the papacy that _can_ be verified. The non-stop decadent orgy of the Avignon Papacy is well-documented, by many disinterested observers. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Please, adopt some historical discipline here.

The Catholic Church was the only consistent political power in Western Europe for several hundred years. It's not surprising that its leaders behaved just as badly as any other medieval head of state.

At least he was never a Nazi who abetted the rape of children.

@5: What? Nah.

8 of 5: What? Spread potentially innacurate gossip and innuendo on an ephemeral digital stream for pure transcient entertainment without rigorous fact-checking? Never! Un-Sloglike! Nope!