Founded in 1611 by Pope Paul V, the Vatican
Secret Archives are an ultra-secure repository for the Church’s oldest, most valuable documents. Access has always been limited; even today,
only Vatican officials and qualified academics are allowed inside, and only then with a letter
of recommendation. And since browsing isn’t permitted, they
also need to list precisely which documents they need — even without knowing exactly
what’s in there. Naturally, anything this secretive is bound
to give rise to rumors, especially when it involves the Vatican. And while the occasional exhibition has revealed
some of the hidden material, most of it remains in the shadows. That said, here are 10 diabolical theories
as to what we might be missing. 10. The World’s Largest Porn Collection Copenhagen’s Museum Erotica claims the Vatican
has the largest porn collection in the world. Other high-profile figures, including William
F. Buckley, Jr. and the academic Camille Paglia, have said the same. As plausible as it might sound, however, there’s
apparently very little truth to the rumor. At least, the Kinsey Institute didn’t find
any when they perused the Vatican’s holdings on microfilm. Then again, the Vatican is unlikely to have
made copies of everything – and even more unlikely to allow the Kinsey Institute access,
having already turned them down in the past. This is of course one of the world’s most
secure private collections we’re talking about. In any case, a number of other eyewitnesses
claim to have seen thousands of erotic volumes. Either way, there’s been a long tradition
of erotic “art” at the Vatican. In the 16th century, for instance, one of
Raphael’s students, Giulio Romano, was commissioned to paint a series of 16 frescoes in Cardinal
Bibbiena’s private bathroom – each depicting a unique sexual position in graphic detail. Naturally, etched copies of the paintings
were leaked, circulating around Rome in a pamphlet called I Modi — a sort of renaissance
porn mag. When the Vatican jailed the creator, it only
heightened their appeal. Even today, the original paintings are kept
hidden from public view, but times have of course changed anyway. Nowadays the Holy See gets most of its porn
from the internet. 9. The Essene Gospel of Peace On a locked shelf in 1923, the academic and
bishop Edmond Bordeaux Szekely found an ancient Aramaic manuscript. This, he claimed, contained the teachings
of the Essenes, a Jewish mystical sect who lived entirely apart from society. The Essenes were mentioned by several ancient
historians, including Philo, Pliny and Josephus, and were known for their communistic style
of living. But what’s interesting is their total absence
from the New Testament, leading some to believe they were actually the ones who had written
it, and that Jesus was himself an Essene. There are plenty of parallels between the
two groups to back this up, including the importance of baptism and prophecy, and a
shared emphasis on charity and goodwill. The Essenes also showed an aversion to Old
Testament-style animal sacrifices, preferring to offer vegetables instead. This latter point was of particular interest
to Szekely, who claimed the Essenes were vegetarians by the order of Christ. Unfortunately, nobody else ever saw the manuscript. And it’s doubtful even Szekely did either,
since there’s no record of his visit to the Archives. Also, given that he was a pretty radical vegetarian
activist himself, most think he made it all up to lend an air of divine credibility to
his cause. On the other hand, it’s not entirely clear
why he would, considering all the evidence that Jesus actually preached a plant-based
diet. 8. Details of Jesus’s Bloodline The idea that Jesus was married with kids
is a recurrent meme among the Dan Brown crowd, and not without justification. Practically nothing is known about Christ’s
life between his childhood and his early 30s, just a few years before he was crucified. Naturally, it’s possible, even probable,
that he started a family during that time, and this raises questions of lineage. According to some theorists, the specific
details of his bloodline are hidden away in the Vatican Archives. After all, if anyone alive today was found
to be the direct descendant of Jesus Christ (and therefore God), the implications for
the Church would be huge. At the very least the Pope would be rendered
useless as humanity’s go-between. It’s a compelling theory but in reality
things aren’t so simple. Whatever information the Vatican may or may
not have about the earliest descendants of Christ, there would be far too many of them
to keep tabs on today. In fact, almost everyone would be included;
that’s just the way human ancestry works in an ever-growing population. Tracing your heritage back just 20 generations,
for instance, would turn up 600,000-1,000,000 biological forebears. Tracing it back 120 generations (to 1000 BC),
would turn up everyone in the world. So, in other words, not only would most of
us be related to Jesus, we’d all be related to King David, King Solomon, and Zoroaster
the Iranian prophet. That certainly makes the Adam and Eve story
more plausible. 7. The Grand Grimoire The Grand Grimoire is one of the few items
on this list that’s actually known to exist — although who wrote it and when is less
certain. It may have been discovered in the tomb of
King Solomon in 1750 or it may have been written much later. In any case, the grimoire is said to contain
a ritual for summoning Lucifuge Rofocale, the Prime Minister of Hell, among other denizens
of the underworld. Apparently, the summoner also has to give
up their soul in the process – a necromantic procedure that 19th century occultist A.E. Waite said only a “dangerous maniac or an
irreclaimable criminal” would be qualified to carry out to the full. Grimoires have proliferated throughout history,
but none have had so wide an appeal as this one, thought to be “the most atrocious of
its type.” A French translation, “Le Dragon Rouge,”
made it all the way to the Caribbean, where it’s said to be still in use. 6. The Third Secret of Fátima In 1917, three shepherd children from Fátima,
Portugal received three prophetic visions of the Virgin Mary. Known as the “Three Secrets of Fátima,”
the first and second concerned the nature of Hell and the rise of Communist Russia. Wars, famine, persecution, and the spread
of Russia’s “errors throughout the world,” the Virgin said, would all come to pass if
her calls went unheeded. These first two secrets were published in
1941; however, the third secret was not. Instead, it was sealed in an envelope and
given to the Bishop of Leiria, who placed it, unopened, in the Vatican Secret Archives. In 1959, the envelope was brought before Pope
John XXIII; however, after some deliberation, he chose not to look inside. It wasn’t until 1965 that anyone actually
read the prophecy, and even then Pope Paul VI refused to make it public. Pope John Paul II was next to read it — following
an assassination attempt in 1981 — but he also continued to keep it a secret. He did, however, immediately consecrate the
Earth to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, perhaps hinting at the gravity of its content. Finally, in 2000, John Paul II revealed what
the prophecy said: there was to be an apocalyptic battle between good and evil, and the pope
would figure centrally within it. A description of the vision can now be read
online, but some refuse to believe that it’s complete. Even Pope Benedict XVI implied in 2010 that
the real Third Secret of Fátima has yet to be revealed (although the Vatican denies that’s
what he meant). 5. Extraterrestrial Artifacts The Vatican might appear to be focused on
the past, but they’re actually kind of progressive – at least when it comes to science and
technology. In particular, they’re quite open to the
possibility of extraterrestrial life, even holding conferences on astrobiology and using
the Vatican Observatory to find Earth-like planets beyond our own. And actually this might not be as recent a
development as it seems. Allegedly, the Church has known about alien
civilizations for centuries. Long before the Roswell incident, they’re
said to have been gathering ET remains and artifacts, as well as technical documents
for engineering alien weaponry. While there’s pretty much zero evidence
to back this claim up, the purpose of the Vatican Archives has long been to hide knowledge
the world isn’t ready for. They demonstrated that much by withholding
the Third Secret of Fátima for so many years. Furthermore, according to the extraterrestrial
cover-up theory, the Archives aren’t the only facility of the kind. Supposedly, the Great Pyramid at Giza served
essentially the same function, hiding alien artifacts and earth-shattering revelations
from the people of the ancient world. This, the theorists claim, is why Napoleon
and Hitler both headed straight there after spending time at the Vatican. 4. The Chronovisor Father Pellegrino Ernetti, who died in 1992,
claimed to have seen the ancient Roman senator Cicero deliver a speech in 63 BC. He was, apparently, just as powerful an orator
as they say. And that wasn’t the only thing he’d seen. He and his team, he claimed, had seen Napoleon
giving speeches too, as well as Jesus at the Last Supper, and even the crucifixion. Using a device called the Chronovisor, they
could view any event that they wished — just as if they were watching TV. According to Ernetti, the device was co-designed
with top scientists Enrico Fermi (who developed the first nuclear reactor) and Wernher von
Braun (the first space rockets) and it could also record images. Hence, in 1972, a “photo of Christ” emerged
in the Italian magazine La Domenica del Corriere. And Ernetti also produced a transcript of
the lost play Thyestes in the original Latin. Naturally, there were doubts. The alleged transcript of the play could hardly
be verified after all, and, as it turned out, the “photo of Christ” was from a postcard
of a plaster cast crucifix in a church. But the photo never actually came from Ernetti
himself and he certainly never claimed it was real. The Chronovisor he designed wasn’t capable
of close-ups, he said, nor anywhere near as much detail as the photo showed. The real evidence, says Ernetti’s friend
François Brune, was destroyed when Pope Pius XII and Benito Mussolini decided it posed
a threat to society. They especially feared it meant an end to
all secrets, whether political, economic, military, or religious, not to mention personal. Ernetti shut down the Chronovisor project
and entrusted the plans to notaries in Switzerland and Japan. However, as Brune himself admits, it’s quite
possible that the Vatican still uses the original. 3. The Devil As the Vatican’s most senior exorcist, Father
Gabriele Amorth knew how to recognize a demon. Before his death in 2016, he’d conducted
literally tens of thousands of exorcisms, and had frequently spoken to the Devil. “Satan is pure spirit,” he told The Exorcist
director William Friedkin, although “he sometimes appears as a raging animal.” Often called upon to expel the demon from
possessed individuals, Amorth used Pope Paul V’s 1614 ritual to do the job — stoically
commanding the Devil to leave under some of the tensest, most frightening circumstances. So it made shocking headlines in 2010 when
Amorth claimed Satan was hiding in the Vatican. He wasn’t speaking figuratively. In his view, the scandals and corruption that
have beset the Church in recent times are all attributable to the Devil. Even Pope Paul VI said something similar in
1972, lamenting that “from somewhere or other, the smoke of Satan has entered the
temple of God.” 2. Proof that Jesus Wasn’t Crucified The story of Christ’s crucifixion lies at
the heart of Catholic doctrine. Take that away, and you’ve got a whole bunch
of meaningless symbols. According to Michael Baigent, however, none
of it really happened – at least, not the way the Bible says it did. Unlike some, Baigent isn’t denying that
Jesus ever existed – far from it. In fact, he says the prophet probably lived
long after his supposed death in 33 AD. Allegedly, Jesus escaped execution by striking
a deal with Pontius Pilate – the man who sentenced him to death. It was in Rome’s interest to keep Jesus
alive despite the pressure to kill him, Baigent says, because he instructed his followers
to pay tax. The best solution for all was to fake the
crucifixion. By simulating a rapid death with hashish,
opium and belladonna, the prophet’s enemies would be satisfied and Christ could be taken
down from the cross before sustaining mortal wounds. The drugs may have been administered via the
“vinegar-soaked sponge,” lifted to his mouth on a reed ostensibly to quench his thirst. Baigent doesn’t have any proof, of course,
but he says that it does exist. Supposedly, an important document was unearthed
by the French priest Berenger Sauniere at his church in Rennes-le-Chateau. Shortly afterward, the documents disappeared
and Sauniere became immensely rich, which suggests to Baigent that the Vatican paid
him off and hid the document away. However, there remains an intriguing clue
inside Sauniere’s church. Unlike in other churches, Station XIV of the
Cross (depicting Jesus’s placement in the tomb by his disciples) shows a night sky with
a full moon, indicating that Passover has begun. Since Jews are forbidden from handling the
dead during Passover, the disciples carrying Jesus in this image can only be understood
to be removing him from the tomb alive, not interring his corpse inside. 1. Proof that Pope Pius XII Helped Hitler Pope Pius XII is commonly referred to as “Hitler’s
Pope” for his role in supporting the Nazis. However, while it is true that he never openly
condemned them, the Vatican is adamant that he was always against them. According to them, he circulated pamphlets
in Germany condemning Nazism from a Christian perspective, and saved more than 800,000 Jews
from extermination in eastern Europe. His meetings with the German leadership, they
insist, were not to collaborate with Hitler but to hold him to account. Anyway, from the Nazi perspective, Pius XII
is said to have been a “Jew loving” enemy who they wanted to kidnap and imprison in
Liechtenstein. All things considered, it seems Pope Pius
XII may well have been victim to a persistent and fanciful smear. Except for two points: One, the Vatican has
so far refused to release crucial documents on their Holocaust-era activities; and two,
those who have already seen them say the pope definitely helped Hitler to power. John Cornwell, a respected academic and Catholic,
is one of them. Although initially hoping to exonerate the
pope (one of the only reasons he was allowed to view the documents in the first place),
he found a damning indictment instead. Not only did the pope hate Jews, linking them
to filth and refusing to help them – he also deliberately undermined Catholic resistance
to Hitler. He was also against blacks, calling them rapists
and child abusers despite having proof to the contrary. Evidently, Pius XII had much in common with
Hitler – not least of all his ideological commitment to absolute power and autocratic
control. Worst of all, says Cornwell, is that he refused
to speak out even after discovering the plans for the Holocaust. And by this time, Nazis were rounding up Jews
in Rome, and delegates from all over the world were urging the pope to act. Whether Pope Pius XII really supported the
Third Reich and its Final Solution is debatable. According to some, he may have wanted to remain
neutral in order to protect the Church. But the fact remains that in those days the
pope was by far the most influential man in Europe. If anyone had the power to stop Hitler, it
was him.
