Curiosity
fake bishop At Vatican: Man Poses As Bishop, Attends Meeting
fake bishop At Vatican: Man Poses As Bishop, Attends Meeting
Most people would presume the Vatican is one of the world’s most secure places. That, however, may not be exactly true as one fake bishop proved when he infiltrated a meeting of Catholic cardinals who were about to discuss the election of the next Pope, reports CNN.
The ‘bishop’, who is actually an Italian named Ralph Napierski living in Germany, managed to get by the revered Swiss Guards while dressed in fake robes and part-way into the meeting itself.
His happiness at infiltrating the meeting, however, was short-lived as a couple of Swiss Guards soon realized he couldn’t be who he said he was. After all, his cassock wasn’t the designated length, his sash was the wrong color and his crucifix just didn’t look right.
The fake bishop was summarily escorted out of the building and handed over to authorities.
It now seems Ralph Napierski is nothing more than the owner of several websites that can probably politely be described as of the ‘bizarre’ variety. On one of them, Corpus Dei, he even calls himself Bishop Ralph Napierski. According to German authorities, however, he’s categorically not.
In fact, they say he’s nothing more than a man who has a history of posing as a priest and is known in Germany as “something of a trouble maker”.
“He does not work with any of our institutions in any way,” Berlin Catholic diocese spokesman Matthias Kopp told Bild Zietung, a German daily tabloid, according to Spiegel Online. “Napierski is ‘self-aggrandizing,’ frequently pens angry letters, and preaches about sex, the paper reports. … Kopp told the paper that his behavior was ‘unacceptable.’ ”
On The Web:
Fake bishop crashes top secret Pope meeting
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4824375/Fake-bishop-crashes-cardinal-meeting.html
Fake bishop busted and booted from Vatican
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/03/05/fake-bishop-busted-and-booted-from-vatican/?hpt=hp_c3