“Pope Joan” movie making waves
A movie about a female pope is causing a stir among some in the faith community.
I wonder if it is causing contention because it brings up questions about things people would rather not talk about, ala “The Da Vinci Code.”
The German film is based on a book that was written about a mysterious legend that holds that a woman disguised herself as a man and rose to the rank of pope of the Roman Catholic Church for as long as two years.
It sounds intriguing and far-fetched — and those stories apparently make for the most-talked about movies.
Read more here: “Pope Joan”
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
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Yet the Catholic Encyclopedia gives a good explanation as to why the story can’t be true:
“Between Leo IV and Benedict III, where Martinus Polonus places her, she cannot be inserted, because Leo IV died 17 July 855, and immediately after his death Benedict III was elected by the clergy and people of Rome; but owing to the setting up of an Antipope, in the person of the deposed Cardinal Anastasius, he was not consecrated until 29 September. Coins exist which bear both the image of Benedict III and of Emperor Lothair I, who died 28 September 855; therefore Benedict must have been recognized as Pope before the last-mentioned date. On 7 October 855, Benedict III issued a charter for the Abbey of Corvey. Hincmar, Archbishop of Reims, informed Nicholas I that a messenger whom he had sent to Leo IV learned on his way of the death of this Pope, and therefore handed his petition to Benedict III, who decided it (Hincmar, ep. xl in P.L., CXXXVI, 85). All these witnesses prove the correctness of the dates given in the lives of Leo IV and Benedict III, and there was no interregnum between these two Popes, so that at this place there is no room for the alleged Popess.”