9: The Vatican Bank The Catholic Church would prefer if you did
not know about their ultra-secret bank but word has gotten out and Forbes even published
an article about it.
Let's start with the scandals.
The Vatican’s bank has been caught up in so many financial scandals over the years
it's impossible to keep track.
In the most recent scandal, Italian prosecutors detained the former head of the Vatican bank,
Ettore Gotti Tedeschi.
They searched his home, tore apart his office, and accused him of criminal behavior.
It wasn't until this most recent embarrassing incident that the Pope finally agreed to comply
with international standards on finance.
Otherwise it was too tempting and easy to abuse the money.
The Vatican’s bank is actually called the Institute for Works of Religion.
So, even if you came across the name, you likely wouldn't know it was a bank.And that’s
probably on purpose.
It makes you think of a library where everyone is reading religious books or something.
It was originally founded in 1942, and the purpose was to safeguard cash and property
for religion and charity.
According to Forbes Magazine, the only cash that the bank accepts is from top church officials
and some of the most powerful people in the world.
The bank is run by a single president, with five Cardinals overseeing daily operations.
But because pretty much everything else about the bank is kept secret, it's impossible to
know what exactly they're doing or just how much money the Vatican Bank has in its possession.
For this reason the Vatican Bank has been accused of being a tax haven.
The Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi published a book in which he accused the Vatican Bank
of corruption, bribery, money laundering, and a complete lack of interest in following
financial rules.
8: Aliens in Stone In India, archaeologists have discovered something
that no mainstream authority wants you to know about.
While researching rock paintings that go back 10,000 years, experts with the State Department
of Archaeology found what appeared to be depictions of aliens and unidentified flying objects.
The rock paintings are located in the middle of nowhere, about 100 miles (130 km) from
the nearest city.
And while it's impossible to say what the depictions really do represent, conspiracy
theorists would like you to think it is proof the ancient people who lived in this part
of India had direct contact with aliens.
The figures that they painted look like tiny, misshapen humans.
To us today the images are quite creepy.
But what’s even creepier is the legend attached to the paintings.
The locals say there are stories passed down from their ancestors speaking of a small race
of people called the Rohela, which translates roughly to the “small sized ones.”
They allegedly landed their ships from the sky, took away one or two people from a village,
and never came back with them.
The paintings in the caves are supposed to represent the visitors coming down and abducting
people.
It is more likely that these images represent the gods and the people as the ancients imagined
them and like many other ancient religions, looked to the cosmos and the heavens in their
everyday life.
7: The Illuminati The Illuminati began in the 18th century,
in Bavaria, Germany.
A professor of law at the Catholic University of Ingolstadt, Adam Weishaupt, wished to start
an enlightenment movement.
He wanted to create societal change driven by science and reason instead of just religion.
He hated that universities were controlled by the Jesuits, who were notorious for their
tendency to censor almost everything they didn't like, and so Adam went rogue.
He set up a secret reading group in 1776.
He and all the other students who were like-minded in the ways of science began meeting.
In private they discussed things that their religious university leaders would never have
let them speak about in public.
They became known as the Illuminati (because they were enlightened by their knowledge and
quest for progress).
And this is where everything gets really wild: the ideas and secrecy spread to include a
large number of influential men, including princes, writers, high-ranking bureaucrats,
and more.
They followed a complex code of recruitment and used secret code names like Spartacus
and Tiberius, and even invited Benjamin Franklin to join their society.
Today, most people think of the Illuminati as a secret group that controls the world.
But in reality, the Illuminati was a group of intellectuals who were determined to discuss
academic and philosophical ideals without the influence and censorship of the Catholic
Church.
And while people think the illuminati are still functioning today, the truth is that
the Illuminati order ceased to exist after being outlawed in 1785.
By 1788, they disappeared.
Perhaps they are gone forever or maybe they morphed into something else??
What do you think?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
6: The Pillaged Spiro Mounds In 1933, in eastern Oklahoma a group of men
searching for gold came across a clay structure.
They hit it open with a pickaxe which turned out to be a burial chamber.
It was so well-sealed that when the pickaxe broke through the clay wall, air hissed out
for the first time in 500 years.
Naturally, the gold prospectors broke their way into the tomb, having no idea what they
had just discovered.
It turned out to be a Native American burial mound.
Not only did it contain skeletons but also thousands of pearl and shell beads, pieces
of copper treasure, piles of colorful blankets and ceremonial robes, and copper chest plates.
It was basically full to the brim with treasure.
According to Eric Singleton, curator of ethnology at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage
Museum, nothing like it had ever been found in North America at that time, and was considered
to be the western equivalent of the discovery of King Tut’s Tomb.
It became known as a Spiro Mound, with plenty more being discovered in the following years.
But as for this one, every last artifact from within the grave was taken out and quickly
sold and shipped across the globe.
The treasures can now be seen in over 65 museums across the planet, with researchers saying
that even almost 100 years later, this was the worst looting of an archaeological site
on US soil.
The long forgotten Spiro settlement could have changed the way we look at Native American
history and archaeology in the United States, but it was never really given a chance.
And now for number 5, but first wanted to give a big shout out to William francis Collett
and Momodou Ceesay
Thanks so much for supporting Origins Explained!
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5: The Index Librorum Prohibitorum The Index Librorum Prohibitorum is an ancient
list of books that were banned by the church.
Not just books, but any kind of literary work.
Anything that was deemed heretical or detrimental to morality was put in this register.
Any text added to the register would be banned, and all Catholics were forbidden from reading
anything included in the list.
Forbidding books goes all the way back to the 9th century.
Burning Harry Potter books in huge piles isn't anything new.
In the 9th century, the index of prohibited books contained all kinds of works from the
most intellectual people in Europe.
In the 1600s, works by all the most famous philosophers were banned, and even editions
and translations of the Bible that the church didn't agree with.
The register continued to be updated until its 20th edition was published in 1948.
Then in 1966, Pope Paul VI abolished the index.
But the abolishment of the index wasn't simply because the church didn't want to stop banning
things.
It was because by the 1960s, they would have had to ban almost anything and everything
that was being put to print outside of approved versions of the Bible.
The access to information and the written word took on a life of its own and could not
be controlled.
4: Santa Muerte Deep in the heart of Mexico, there is a bizarre
cult dedicated to the Saint of Death.
Her name is Santa Muerte, and she’s become the preferred deity to those who feel as though
they have been abandoned by the wildly powerful, ultra-rich churches of the world.
She is worshipped by criminals, addicts, human traffickers, the destitute, and the dying.
Worshipping Santa Muerte has exploded in popularity in recent years, even having a prominent role
in the festivities of the Day of the Dead on November 1 and 2.
Some call her the Bony Lady, some say she can grant wishes in exchange for offerings,
and some say it's all just a cover for Satanic activities!
But according to Mr. Santana, a man who has been devoted to Santa Muerte all his life,
it has nothing to do with the devil.
Instead, Santa Muerte is fulfilling God’s orders, giving people what they need and allowing
them peace as they finish their life on Earth.
Andrew Chestnut, the man who wrote a book on the newish cult, says it's the fastest
growing religion anywhere in the Americas.
So far, Santa Muerte has roped in at least 12 million followers across the globe, mainly
in the last decade.
What does the Vatican think about 12 million people following the Saint of Death?
Let's just say they don't like it very much.
The Catholic Church has already denounced Santa Muerte, and so too have all the Catholic
Bishops in the United States.
But no one else seems to care, especially not the saint’s followers.
3: Modern Exorcisms There is one person out there that the Vatican
really does not want you to know about.
His name is Gabriele Amorth, and he died at the age of 91.
But it's not his exceptionally long life that's so interesting, but rather the fact that he
performed at least 160,000 exorcisms on behalf of the church.
You might be shocked that exorcisms are even real, never mind the sheer number that the
church apparently authorizes.
Gabriele had originally entered the church back in 1954.
It then took him until 1990 to become the chief exorcist for the Vatican.
He also founded the International Exorcist’s Association, which he oversaw all the way
until he retired in the year 2000.
Amazingly, the association has 250 active exorcists working throughout 30 countries.
In 2013, it became known that Gabriele Amorth himself had performed more than anyone else,
that incredible number of 160,000 I mentioned earlier.
But does an exorcism truly mean in the modern era?
It's probably what you think it is.
An exorcism involves ritual prayer in order to cast out demons that are possessing people.
It's probably a little less dramatic than what you've seen in the movie The Exorcist,
but it's the same basic idea.
Next time you think of exorcisms as something that happened back in the days of medieval
Europe, remember there is an organization associated with the Catholic Church out there
right now still performing them- ridding people of their demons.
2: The Magdalene Movement Between 1837 and 1992, the Donnybrook Laundry
served as a workhouse for “fallen women.”
The Magdalene Movement included many of these workhouses, where for over 200 years, women
in Ireland were sent as punishment for being sexually active outside of marriage.
These women included mothers who bore children out of wedlock, women who flirted too much
with their neighbors, and other women who were declared “fast” or unfit for polite
society.
They were single and had no where else to go really.
These women were forced into slave labor under strict supervision of the nuns that ran the
workhouses.
These nuns would not so much look after the women sent to the institution, but make sure
they were continuously punished with the intent to redeem themselves through labor.
Remember idle hands are the devil's work.
Sometimes, women would enter the workhouses and would be left to languish inside the institution
for their entire lives.
Once they were there, they were trapped.
These institutions were known as Magdalene laundries.
Conditions in the laundries were often more like prisons, with women subjected to beatings,
hard labor, vows of silence, head shaving, a diet of bread and water, and other forms
of cruelty.
Many of these women were essentially imprisoned for having bad luck, a bad life, and no male
able to take care of them.
The Irish public wasn’t aware of the depth of the cruelties until The Sisters of Our
Lady Charity sold their land in Donnybrook and petitioned to have the graves there moved.
What was found in the cemetery was horrifying.
There were scores of unmarked graves that included nameless women and infants.
The Irish public was furious when they learned about this.
The incidents became known as the Magdalene Movement.
The Magdalene Movement erupted in the middle of the 18th century as a way for the Catholic
Church and the Protestant church to keep their subjects in line.
The churches of the time feared that prostitution was becoming too prevalent in larger cities
and were concerned that more and more women would be tempted into the profession.
Hence, they were sent to the laundries to be put to work.
1: The Church’s Secret Time Machine In an interesting turn of events, there is
a rumor going around that there is a time machine hidden in the Vatican!
According to legend, it's called the Chronovisor.
This magical piece of machinery was allegedly created by Father Pellegrino Ernetti who used
it to go back in time to observe the crucifixion of Jesus Christ 2000 years ago.
It's important to state for the record that there is no proof the Chronovisor exists.
After all, it does seem a little bizarre that the Catholic Church was able to create a time
machine when no one else could.
Ernetti confided in a Vatican Priest, claiming that he had help from 12 scientists who created
a machine that would validate the teachings of the Bible by going back in time.
The priest wrote a book claiming that Ernetti said he worked with Fermi who won the Nobel
Prize in Physics in 1938 and Von Vraun, a former Nazi who moved to the US to work at
NASA.
Ernetti described the time machine like a television that caught echoes from the past
floating in space.
Until his death, he claimed the machine had been hidden away by the Vatican to keep it
from falling into the wrong hands.
For now it remains just one more mystery held in the Vatican.
Thanks for watching!