MEDIA MATTERS
ABC News airs 'female
pope' claim
Catholics say 'Joan' a myth used historically to ridicule
church
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Posted: December 29, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
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© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
Donna Woolfolk Cross' novel 'Pope Joan'
Similar to its take on the controversial "Da Vinci Code," ABC News
"Primetime" gives credence to the claim that a woman disguised as a
man served as pope in medieval Rome.
Titled "On the Trail of Pope Joan," an ABC promo says, "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."
But the media-watchdog weblog Newsbusters points to research by
scholars hundreds of years ago that debunked the claim and cites
recent books that have repudiated it further.
Catholic Church records have no indication of a pope by any of the
names ascribed to her, and there are no gaps in the history.
Another problem, scholars say, is there was no mention of such a
pope in any historical account until the 13th century, about 400
years after her presumed reign.
In the book "The Myth of Pope Joan," first published in 1988,
French author Alain Boureau traces the origin of the story of a
woman named Joan who disguised herself to enter the male preserve
of Catholic scholarship, rose to the papacy and then died giving
birth two years later.
Boreau points out the church itself subscribed to the story until
the 16th century, when Rome distanced itself from "Joan" after
Protestant reformers used it to discredit the Catholic
Church.
In 1996, however, New York writer Donna Woolfolk Cross's historical
novel "Pope Joan" was released and a movie based on the book
currently is in production.
The book, which became a best-seller in Germany, suggests the
church engaged in a 400-year cover-up that prevented Joan from
becoming one of history's most famous women.
But Catholic writer Philip Jenkins, in his book "The New
Anti-Catholicism, calls the "Pope Joan legend" a "venerable staple
of the anti-Catholic mythology."
"Though it has not the slightest foundation," he writes, "from the
sixteenth century through the nineteenth, the tale was beloved by
Protestants, since it testified to Catholic stupidity. ..." Today,
he says, "Pope Joan enjoys a lively presence on the Web, where
feminist anti-Catholics celebrate her existence much as did
seventeenth-century Calvinists."
The posting on the Newsbusters site said: "That a major network
like ABC would lend credibility to such a vicious anti-Catholic
smear is deplorable."
As WorldNetDaily reported in 2003, ABC News broadcast a special,
based partly on the novel "The Da Vinci Code," which examined
whether Jesus married Mary Magdalene.
Reporter Elizabeth Vargas, now a co-anchor for "ABC World News
Tonight," said the show was being put together "as respectfully as
we can," but it drew criticism from religious leaders, including
Joseph De Feo of the New York-based Catholic League for Religious
and Civil Rights.
De Feo noted most of the people interviewed in the program believe
the theory either is plausible or are convinced it's true.
"The facts themselves scream out that this is a crackpot theory,"
De Feo said.
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