Aw; give him a break.
He was just a man, after all.
Pope Stephen VI (896–897), who had his predecessor Pope Formosus exhumed, tried, de-fingered, briefly reburied, and thrown in the Tiber.[1]
Pope John XII (955–964), who gave land to a mistress, murdered several people, and was killed by a man who caught him in bed with his wife.
Pope Benedict IX (1032–1044, 1045, 1047–1048), who "sold" the Papacy
Pope Boniface VIII (1294–1303), who is lampooned in Dante's Divine Comedy
Pope Urban VI (1378–1389), who complained that he did not hear enough screaming when Cardinals who had conspired against him were tortured.[2]
Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503), a Borgia, who was guilty of nepotism and whose unattended corpse swelled until it could barely fit in a coffin.[3]
Pope Leo X (1513–1521), a spendthrift member of the Medici family who once spent 1/7 of his predecessors' reserves on a single ceremony[4]
Pope Clement VII (1523–1534), also a Medici, whose power-politicking with France, Spain, and Germany got Rome sacked.
What? You mean there have been bad popes?
You astound me, Homie.
Here’s a joke for you:
There were a couple of merchants who were friends, one a Catholic the other a Jew, and they were in constant discussions as to the superior nature of their chosen religions. At the time—around the 13th century—Christianity was on the rise, and the Jewish merchant was constantly amazed at the stream of conversions. The two friends attempted to convert each other, but neither could succeed. When on one occasion the Jewish man was planning a trip to Rome for business, he told his Catholic friend in a bit of a joking way that if what he found in Rome could convince him of the superiority of the Catholic church, he would convert. Upon hearing this, the Catholic man was fraught with fear, as the Rome of that period was as corrupt as could be. Bishops and Priests were selling dispensations and indulgences, while themselves participating in drunken debauchery and whoring. However, the Catholic merchant said nothing about this to his friend, hoping that he might not observe such things during his trip.
The Jewish merchant made his trip, and upon his return came to his friend and stated that he would convert to the Catholic Religion. His friend was perplexed, and asked what had been the determining factor. The Jew then went on to describe the worst excesses of a corrupt era. The Catholic man was shocked at what he heard, and asked his friend why he would want to convert in the face of such corruption. The Jewish man said, “Only through divine intervention could the Church survive the depredations of such corrupt men.”