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Thursday, May 3, 2007

Holy Father

Pope Alexander VI had six illegitmate kids. It's no secret, and he wasn't the only one...

Obviously I'm not out to denigrate any of the Pontiffs (we should write a "you're tops" for some of them) but you have to admit that the thought of the Pope's kids running around the Vatican is pretty humorous.

I've gone to the trusted source of humanity's collective knowledge (google+wikipedia) and in my surface level research have realized that some of the Pope's descendents still seem to be around.

This raises interesting questions:
-Could the descendents of Pope Alexander VI ask the Roman Catholic Church for back-dated child support payments?
-Would it have accrued interest since the Middle Ages?
-Would the Holy See require a DNA test to authenticate the charge?

As they have the bodies of previous Pontiffs interred in St Peter's you could, technically, check out the legitimacy (or perhaps the illegitimacy?) of the claim. I'm thinking of creating a website, where you can cross-reference your genetic data with that of any Supreme Pontiff from history.

Maybe something along the lines of www.thepopeisnotjustmyspiritualfather.com?

If you're Roman Catholic, please don't write angry weblog posts defaming me (ok, you can if you really want to) but please realize I speak in jest. Christian history is hilarious.

2 comments:

Simon Elliott said...

Wasn't one of the Popes a woman? Probably not this Alex VI. Given the 6 and 6 parallels, it's probably a good thing he wasn't Alex XXIV - he wouldn't have had much time left for Papal duties.

Anonymous said...

Pope Joan?