Pope Alexander VI

[MrsFrozen]

What is the Church's view on this pope? From everything I've read, he seems to be a pretty distasteful character. Is he a legitimate pope? Did he do anything good? How could someone be a real pope and commit mortal sins? I'm very confused about this!

I should add that when I say, "How could someone be a real pope and commit mortal sins?" I mean that mortal sins cut you off from the Church, right? I realize that popes are human, but how could you represent Christ when you are rejecting Him at the same time?

[Adeodatus]

For a life of Pope Alexander VI from the Catholic Encyclopedia, see [url="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01289a.htm"]this article.[/url]

Is Alexander VI a distasteful character? Well, I suppose that depends pretty much on your tastes! Certainly he was notorious, and after his ordination to the priesthood he took a mistress, who became the mother of his four known children. His family, the Borgias, were renown for their nepotism. That's how Alexander VI himself rose to such prominence, aided by the fact that his maternal uncle (who had also been Pope) favoured him.

Is he a legitimate pope? There were accusations that he had procured the papacy by simony, but no evidence. In any case, it was a legal election. Yes, he is certainly a legitimate pope.

Did he do anything good? Absolutely. He dispensed proper justice to the Romans, he secured the papal states, he stopped intolerant actions against Jews, and after the murder of his son, he underwent a change of heart and began the reform of the Church "in her head and in her members".

Mortal sins do NOT cut you off from the Church. And for the record, even excommunication does NOT cut you off from the Church. Mortal sins cut you off from the life of charity, from the love of God, and thus, from being in a state of grace. An excommunication cuts you off from the sacramental life of the Church.

So a pope, like any other Catholic, can possibly commit mortal sins and remain a Catholic. Judgement is passed only at death, and so long as you are alive you have the chance to repent and receive God's mercy and forgiveness. So a pope, so long as he is alive, still has the chance to repent of his sins.

How do you represent Christ when you are rejecting Him at the same time? Good question. This same question is true of all of us Christians when we sin. That's why we need God's grace and mercy. But while sin is a terrible thing in Catholics, it is even worse in the Church's clergy because it takes on the added dimension of a scandal. I do not think Pope Alexander VI showed forth Christ by his own sins, but in the way he repented, and confessed, and died with the consolation of the sacraments, he showed the triumph of God's grace in a human being. Pope Alexander VI shows us that despite the awfulness of sin and its magnitude, the power of God is far greater. Just think about the life of St Augustine, for example.