Shit they make up as they go along

Pope John Paul II, who is as specifically as miraculously hailed for fostering Catholic-Jewish relations and remembering the Holocaust, has been beatified yesterday. For this, the remains of Pope Innocent XI had been removed from their place and moved to a less conspicious place.

Now the Holy Sea is trying to deal with its first and so far only pop star, the Internet is a-twitter with speculation about the reason why precisely THIS pope had to make way for for the many pilgrims who are likely to come to visit John Paul II's remains.

One theory quotes a book from 2002, saying that Innocent might have been fallen from grace because the Odescalchi family had financed the campaigns of William of Orange  who, at the Battle of the Boyne, defeated his father-in-law James II and forever removed Catholicism from the British throne.

What a clever supposition! So Innocent XI, né Benedetto Odescalchi, the saviour of the Occident, who was beatified himself in 1956, was removed in 2011 from his burial site because a book from 2002 had revealed that his family had been involved in some political shenanigans with an outcome that proved to be unfortunate for the Catholic world.

Give me a break!

And of course Innocent had a "frosty relationship" with France. What an astute observation. That was because the valiant Sun King, when Pope Innocent XI had called for a European Alliance alliance preceding the Battle of Vienna 1683, had to not only declined to join, but used the opportunity to raid cities in Alsace and other parts of South Germany.

At this point, I'd like to recall my entries Starhemberg, Lorraine, Sobieski, A City and A Battle and John Paul II -- Hailed and Reviled for the Wrong Reasons and How does one improve one's relationships with the Jews? Let me count the ways....