SINSATIONAL: Bogus “Bishop” Ralph Napierski slips a fast one by Sergio Cardinal Sebastiani yesterday.AFP/Getty Images
A bogus bishop nearly sneaked into the closed-door Vatican meeting of
the world’s cardinals yesterday as they prepared to choose the next
pope.
“Bishop Ralph Napierski” got past a checkpoint of Swiss
Guards and was photographed shaking hands with Sergio Cardinal
Sebastiani in the cobblestone square to the left of St. Peter’s
Basilica.
But Napierski never made it inside the Pope Paul VI
Audience Hall, where more than 140 cardinals from around the world were
having their first formal meeting since the resignation of Pope Emeritus
Benedict XVI.
Well, his cassock was several
inches too short. His crucifix looked odd. His purple sash was obviously
a scarf. And instead of wearing a zucchetto — the familiar
ecclesiastical skullcap of bishops — he had a black, brimmed fedora.
Before
he was hustled out of the area near St. Peter’s Square by Swiss Guards,
Napierski told reporters that he was “Basilius” of the Italian Orthodox
Church — which doesn’t exist.
He added that he was a founder of
the Corpus Dei order — another imaginary group — and he complained that
Catholic bishops had “made a mistake by moving priests” who were accused
of sexual abuse from parish to parish.
Napierski, believed to be
an Italian living in Germany, has a bizarre Web site in which he said he
was “a slave and apostle like St. Paul” and came from “a tribe of the
Roman Catholic Church” that is fighting “heresy and false movements”
inside the church.
Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said he had no information about the incident.
Vatican
officials said 107 of the 115 cardinals eligible to vote for pope
attended yesterday’s meeting, but no date for the papal conclave will be
set until all are in attendance.