A man posing as a bishop has just been exposed and escorted off the premises in a courtyard at the Vatican in Rome on March 4, 2013.
The imposter has been identified as “Ralph Napierski” who was reportedly visiting the Vatican from Germany, to infiltrate into a meeting held by the College of Cardinals, just prior to the conclave to be begun in a couple of days to help elect the next Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.
Napierski turns out to be the author of a blog called thecorpusdei, where he claims to be a bishop who had started his own Roman Catholic order of “Corpus Dei,” a take on the legitimate order of “Opus Dei.”
Also, Napierski describes himself as “a slave and apostle like St. Paul.”
The phony bishop was seen by the Vatican’s Swiss Guards posing with several cardinals, including Cardinal Sergio Sebiastiana, and having pictures taken with them by an assistant, who was part of his small entourage.
Dressed in a cassock that was perhaps a little too short and ill-fitting, a bishop’s purple sash that was nothing but an ordinary scarf and the most glaring error of all, a black fedora, instead of a skullcap. The bold Napierski was taken off the premises – though no charges have been filed against him as of yet!
On February 28, the 85-year-old Pope Benedict XVI, the former Cardinal Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger of Germany, had abdicated from his duties as Pope to begin his retirement due to advanced age and not being able to keep up with the demands of the Church.
Is it the celebrity, the money (in donations, that is), the power of getting the inside scoop on what’s happening in the College of Cardinals just prior to the conclave to elect the next Pope of the Roman Catholic Church?
Napierski has also stated that he was a member of the non-existant “Italian Orthodox Church,” and that the Catholic Church had made “grave errors” by allowing priests accused of child abuse to move around different parishes, reports The Telegraph.
Looks like a ridiculous stunt pulled by a delusional religious zealot who likes to pass himself off as a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church.
No word yet if Ralph Napierski is a legitimate “ordained priest” but one thing’s for certain – his blog will now have to be changed and he will have to find a new religion! Takes all kinds… But it’s the clothes that done him in!
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