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Vatican conspiracy theories areconspiracy theories that concern thePope or theRoman Catholic Church. A majority of the theories allege that the Church and its representatives are secretly controlling secular society with a satanic agenda for global domination.
Pope John Paul I died in September 1978, only a month after his election to the papacy. The timing of his death and the Vatican's alleged difficulties with ceremonial and legal death procedures have fostered several conspiracy theories. British authorDavid Yallop wrote extensively about unsolved crimes and conspiracy theories, and in his 1984 bookIn God's Name suggested that John Paul I died because he was about to uncover financial scandals allegedly involving the Vatican.[1] John Cornwell responded to Yallop's charges in 1987 withA Thief In The Night, in which he analyzed the various allegations and denied the conspiracy.[2] According toEugene Kennedy, writing forThe New York Times, Cornwell's book "helps to purge the air of paranoia and of conspiracy theories, showing how the truth, carefully excavated by an able journalist in a refreshing volume, does make us free."[3]
Various theories have been brought forward in regards to the attempt byMehmet Ali Ağca to killPope John Paul II. Those theories have involved theGrey Wolves,[4] the Bulgarian Secret Service,[5] and others.
TheKnow Nothings were an anti-Catholic political group in the United States in the 1840s and '50s who claimed that the Irish and other Roman Catholic immigrants to the United States would be controlled by the Pope for anti-American purposes.[6]
There are several theories about the contents of theVatican Apostolic Archives: some theories claim that they contain secret information about thePriory of Sion, proof that Jesus had a wife and descendants,[7] secret information about thethird secret of the Fatima, the realSpear of Destiny, secret information about theHoly Grail and/or theArk of the Covenant,[8][9][10] a supposedly-realChronovisor machine, and many other secrets. There are also theories that claim that the Vatican has information about theIlluminati,[11] and even secretly contains the world's largest collection of porn.[12]
A 2022 film calledWatch The Water alleged that the Catholic Church createdCOVID-19 and that the virus was actually a modified form of snake venom designed to turn people into demonic hybrids by altering their DNA. The film received over 640,000 views within two days of its release and the claims became a trending topic on Twitter.[13][14]
Pope Francis (1936–2025) met withJD Vance, theVice President of the United States, on 20 April 2025, a day beforehis death, leading to a semi-satirical conspiracy theory that the meeting had somehow resulted in Francis's health rapidly declining or that Vance himself had killed the pontiff.[15] This resulted in the appearance of satiricalmemes, vandalism ofWikipedia pages and other internet humour.[16]