Mysteries of the Vatican!
What is hiding deep in the Vatican Archives? Here are a few items we talked about in our episode this week that the Vatican could be hiding from the world!
The True Face Of Jesus Christ
Jesus was man born in the hot and sandy climate of the Middle East. The long-haired, fair-skinned image of Christ, depicted in paintings and statues all over the world, probably looks very little to what Jesus truly looked like. The image with the darker skin and shorter hair, wide nose and unkept beard is more-likely closer to what Jesus actually looked like. In December 2002, the Popular Mechanics released an article "The Real Face of Jesus" with this picture based on the features of the people who lived in that area. But could the Vatican already have known this information? And even scarier, do they actually know what Jesus looks like because they have a painting in the Vatican Archives of the real Jesus of Nazareth? It is plausible that there could be at least one painting that Jesus sat for. Does the Vatican have this painting? Was Jesus' modeled after Cesare Borgia?
The Chronovisor
Did the Catholic Church invent a form of time travel? Legend of a machine, known as the Chronovisor, was created by the church in order to see into the past. The devise was like a soundless television that one could watch past events unfold. Father Pellegrino Ernetti claimed to develop this device along with world renown scientists. Ernetti claimed to witness the crucifixion of Christ, speeches from Napoleon, and even the lost play Thyestes. Could this photo be an actual picture of Jesus Christ as he suffered on the cross? What happened to this machine? Did he dismantle it after using it or did the Church, knowing how powerful it could be, decide to store it away, deep within the archives of the Vatican?
The Third Secret of Fatima
The Virgin Mary appeared to three young Portuguese shepherds, LĂșcia Santos, and Jacinta and Francisco Marto six times between May and October of 1917. She told the children three secrets. The first secret was a vision of Hell. The second secret was that World War I would end but there would be another war during the reign of Pope Pius XI unless Russia would be consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Popes Pius XII, Paul VI, John Paul II, and Francis have all consecrated Russia to the Immaculate Heart, although Pope Francis was the only Pope to mention Russian specifically by name on March 25, 2022. The Third secret is mired in controversy. In June of 2000 the secret was revealed. LĂșcia wrote of a vision of the Pope, Bishops, and other clergy members climbing a mountain, passing corpses and praying for their souls. Near the top of this mountain, of which a Cross stood, the Pope was gunned downed. So too would everyone else who followed the Pope to the summit. Angels under the cross gathered the blood of the fallen believers and used it to bless the souls of the dead making their way to God. Is this the true third secret? Is this the complete secret? Pope Benedict XVI wasn't convinced. He believed there was nothing revealed nor could this be a prediction of the future. Still others believe that this was not the third secret at all. Could the secret be a prediction of the sexual abuse allegations of priests? Could the secret be that an evil force has found it's way into the Vatican, like in the 1972 letter, Pope Paul VI wrote "...the smoke of Satan has entered the Church of God. There is doubt, uncertainty, problems, unrest, dissatisfaction, confrontation. The Church is no longer trusted?" Will we even truly know what the third secret is or will it be forever locked away in the Vatican Archives?
Check out the "Mysteries of the Vatican" episode of Is This Real? to hear more about these mysteries and more!
-Tony