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Actor John Goodman has rejoined the cast of forthcoming movie Pope Joan, a movie about an alleged Pope in the middle ages who was secretly a woman. It's kind of like Yentl for shiksas. The film is scheduled to start filming next month. The film looks to be heavy on the sex and pretty short on theology as the Pope's got a steamy love interest in the Vatican. You know, because too much theology might make it not suitable for children. Goodman had walked off set a few months back and after delays and a legal dispute he's finally back...

The story is as enduring as it is dubious: A millennium or so ago in Rome, the pope was riding in a procession when suddenly she–that's right, she–went into labor and had a baby. Nonsense? Europeans in the Middle Ages didn't think so. The story of a pope named Joan, writes historian J.N.D. Kelly in his Oxford Dictionary of Popes, "was accepted without question in Catholic circles for centuries." Only after the Reformation, when Protestants used the story to poke fun at Roman Catholics, did the Vatican begin to deny that one of its Holy Fathers had become an unholy...

The armies of female ordination have just taken over Hollywood and are now set to march onto the Vatican. Coming soon to a movie theater near you is a "historical drama" about "Pope Joan." Shooting is set to begin in August, for a planned 2009 release, says Yahoo. You've heard of Pope Joan, right? Pope Joan is the name of a female pope (also La Papessa) who supposedly reigned for less than three years in the 850s, based on a legend that circulated in the Middle Ages. Pope Joan is regarded by most modern historians and religious scholars as fictitious,...

Tonight, ABC’s “Primetime” will air a segment, “On the Trail of Pope Joan,” that raises questions about the possible existence of Pope Joan.  Catholic League president Bill Donohue weighed in today: “ABC has been busy questioning the divinity of Jesus for years, what with its infamous ‘Search for Jesus’ specials.  In May of this year, it went back to the well again with a ‘20/20’ episode questioning the resurrection of Jesus.  Correspondent Elizabeth Vargas told viewers: ‘Whether the resurrection proclaimed by the disciples was physical, metaphysical, or simply a hallucination—the dreams of grieving followers,’ is not known.  In other words, Christians...

by Fr. William Saunders Other Articles by Fr. William Saunders The Fable of “Pope Joan” 01/13/06 One of the television networks recently ran a program about "Pope Joan." The television show was not very clear about whether this story was true or not. Is it? Diane Sawyer, on December 29, indeed had a "special report" about "Pope Joan," which was broadcast on ABC. Of course, the program was preceded by much commercial hype. The "special report" focused on an interview with Donna Cross who has written a book on this matter. Like The DaVinci Code, her interview wove together bits of...

The bogus story of "Pope Joan" was not the only fiction that ABC and Diane Sawyer tried to hustle on the American public in last night's Primetime (Thursday December 29, 2005). In trying to convey the environment of ninth-century Europe, host Diane Sawyer and a guest, Donna Cross (author of Pope Joan), promulgated the debunked feminist myth that the phrase "rule of thumb" originated from a centuries-old law about wifebeating. The popular hoax purports that a man was once allowed to clobber a woman as long as the club was no wider than his thumb.In her much-acclaimed 1994 book, Who...

Check out the promotional ad for this Thursday evening's (December 29, 2005) episode of ABC's Primetime. The promo is for the story, "On the Trail of Pope Joan" (audiotape on file; emphasis mine): "Diane Sawyer takes you on the trail of a passionate mystery. Just as intriguing as The Da Vinci Code. Chasing down centuries-old clues hidden even inside the Vatican. Could a woman disguised as a man have been Pope? Thursday night. One astonishing Primetime." It doesn't get much uglier than this, folks. Quite simply, there was never a female pope, or "Pope Joan." The tale is a complete...

"As its title reveals, the novel is based on the life of one of the most fascinating, extraordinary women in Western history--Pope Joan, a controversial figure of historical record who, disguised as a man, rose to rule Christianity in the 9th century as the first and only woman to sit on the throne of St. Peter. Brilliant and talented, young Joan rebels against the medieval social strictures forbidding women to learn to read and write. When her older brother is killed during a Viking attack, Joan takes up his cloak and identity, goes to the monastery of Fulda, and is...