Fascinating Vatican secrets and mysteries

Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican’s longtime chief exorcist, claimed to have performed over 100,000 exorcisms during his 60-year service. Exorcism remains an active Catholic practice, with global priests attending annual Vatican training workshops.

Historical research suggests Vatican-linked travel documents helped Nazi fugitives escape postwar Europe to South America. Scholar Gerald Steinacher argues this was driven by fears of Soviet influence, though the Vatican has never officially commented on these allegations.

Journalist Gerald Posner alleges Vatican financial adviser Bernardino Nogara enabled investments in companies retaining assets from Jewish Holocaust victims’ insurance policies. As an investor, not insurer, the Vatican avoided responsibility for returning profits gained through this scheme.

The Vatican Bank (IOR) has faced repeated controversies, including claims of receiving funds funneled from Nazi-era church taxes. Billions reportedly passed through the IOR discreetly, with little public transparency about accounts or beneficiaries.

In 2012, leaked private documents of Pope Benedict XVI exposed internal Vatican corruption and allegations of blackmail involving clergy. The leaks, released in “His Holiness,” contributed to intense pressure preceding Benedict’s historic 2013 resignation.

The Apostolic Penitentiary is a once-secret tribunal, revealed publicly in 2009, handling grave sins requiring direct papal absolution, such as attempted papal assassination or breaking confession secrecy.

In 897, Pope Stephen VI tried deceased Pope Formosus in the Cadaver Synod. His corpse was exhumed, dressed, judged guilty, stripped of honors, mutilated, and thrown into the Tiber, nullifying his papal acts.