The most shocking Catholic Church scandals -

There has been a fair share of religious scandals over the years. This is particularly true for the largest Christian church in the world: the Catholic Church. But while many of these scandals only surfaced in the last few decades, the Church does have a controversial history dating back centuries.

Browse through the following gallery and learn more about these Catholic Church scandals.

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Pope Alexander VI’s supposed fetishes -

Not only did this Pope apparently like to watch horses having sex as entertainment, but he also became associated with a party in 1501 known as the Banquet of Chestnuts, or the Joust of Whores.

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Pope Alexander VI’s supposed fetishes -

He is said to have gotten 50 women to strip, and then chestnuts were thrown on the floor, “forcing the women to grovel around their feet like swine,” according to historian Tony Perrotet.

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Pope Alexander VI’s supposed fetishes -

And to make the party even more interesting, Pope Alexander VI reportedly offered prizes to the man who could have sex with the most women.

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Persecuting Muslims for 300 years -

The Crusades lasted from 1095 to 1291. The original idea was to seize Jerusalem from Islamic rule, which pretty much turned into a 300-year-long bloodbath.

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Persecuting Muslims for 300 years -

It is estimated that the horror journey towards the Holy Land claimed about 1.7 million lives. But it was not just Muslims who were slayed at the service of the Catholic Church. It is believed that only one in 20 Crusaders actually survived to see Jerusalem.

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Persecuting Jews for 300 years -

Muslims were not the only ones persecuted during the Crusades. Jewish people also fell victims of Crusaders. Some were forced to convert, others killed.

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The atrocities committed by Pope Boniface VIII -

Pope Boniface VIII, the head of the Catholic Church between 1294 and 1303, appears to have been anything but holy. There are quite a few accounts of him abusing numerous women and children. So much so that he was posthumously accused of heresy and sodomy.

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The atrocities committed by Pope Boniface VIII -

He is even depicted in Dante’s ‘Inferno’ as worthy of a spot in hell. Not to mention that he demolished the entire city of Palestrina, killing about 6,000 people.

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Witch hunts -

The book ‘Malleus Maleficarum’ ('Hammer of Witches') was written in 1487, after Pope Innocent VIII declared that witches were real. Since then, millions of women have been persecuted and killed for allegedly being witches.

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Witch hunts -

It is estimated that 40,000 to 50,000 people were burned at the stake (mostly women), but it has been suggested that the number is much higher, as not all executions were made in the public arena.

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Witch hunts -

The massacre triggered by the book continued for centuries, with famous cases such as the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. Some documents point to 1793 as the last recorded execution, which took place in Poland. But witch hunting is still very real in some parts of the world, particularly in some African countries.

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Getting rid of the Knights Templar -

The Catholic military order founded in 1118 was instrumental during the Crusades and indeed in serving the Church. But King Philip IV of France pressured the Church to get rid of them because he owed debts to the order.

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Getting rid of the Knights Templar -

In 1307, Pope Clement V started persecuting Templars. By 1312 he had enough heresy confessions to disband the order. Many were then burned at the stake.

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Burning Joan of Arc at the stake -

…for dressing like a man. Yes, the famous French heroine helped fight the English out of the country, but she was also persecuted by the Catholic Church.

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Burning Joan of Arc at the stake -

The 19-year-old was eventually tried by the Church and accused of over 70 crimes, including wearing men's clothes. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in 1431, only to be considered a martyr a few years later and canonized in 1920 by the very same Church that killed her.

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Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust -

For many years, Pope Pius XII has been criticized for ignoring eye witness reports of the mass executions of Jewish people by the Nazis.

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Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust -

While there have been contradictory claims, new evidence unveiled in 2020 by the Vatican suggests that in September 1942 the pope’s assistant received an eyewitness report of Jews being persecuted in Warsaw.

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Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust -

And a month earlier, in August 1942, Ukrainian Archbishop Andrzej Szeptycki also told the Vatican that Jews were being persecuted in the Lvov ghetto.

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Killing William Tyndale for making a Bible for the masses -

The English scholar was burned at the stake by the Church for translating the Bible into English so that everyone could read it.

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Killing William Tyndale for making a Bible for the masses -

Needless to say, the Catholic Church didn’t like the idea of a vernacular Bible being distributed among lay people. Both Tyndale and copies of the book were burned.

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Burning John Wycliffe 43 years after his death -

A contributor to Protestantism, Wycliffe believed the Catholic Church should give up its possessions. He too was involved in the first English translation of the Bible.

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Burning John Wycliffe 43 years after his death -

In 1415 (31 years after his death), Wycliffe was declared a heretic. Over a period of 12 years, Wycliffe’s books were burned, and then so was his exhumed body.

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Imprisoning Galileo because of...science -

Galileo Galilei suggested the Earth moves around the sun, and that the star was the center of the universe. He was arrested for heresy, denounced his beliefs, and was imprisoned until his death.

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Murdering a thinker for challenging the Church -

Czech theologian and philosopher Jan Hus had this crazy idea that because the Church was run by humans, it was inherently flawed. The Catholic Church was not a fan of critics, so in 1415 they arrested Hus, accused him of heresy, and burned him at the stake.

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Getting paid to absolve sins -

The concept of indulgence has been around for a while in the Church. But what is it, really? “An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven.”

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Getting paid to absolve sins -

During the rule of Pope Leo X (1513-1521), it was common practice for people to pay to get their sins absolved. Some went as far as selling absolution for future sins. This was one of the reasons why Martin Luther began the Protestant Reformation.

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Covering up numerous sexual abuse cases -

For many years, numerous cases of sexual abuse, including of minors, have been covered up by the Catholic Church.

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Covering up numerous sexual abuse cases -

It was not until 2019 that Pope Francis publicly acknowledged it and declared war on sexual abusers in the Church.

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Covering up numerous sexual abuse cases -

While not being a predominantly Catholic country, it is estimated that there have been at least 17,200 victims in the US alone, according to a 2011 report.

Sources: (Ranker) (The Wall Street Journal) (NBC) (The Smart Set)

See also: Celebrities who converted to new religions

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