Weird Stuff About The Catholic Church We Can't Ignore Anymore

With an area of about 110 acres and a population of around 1,000 people, Vatican City is the smallest country in the world, contained fully inside the city of Rome, but its small physical size belies its somewhat outsized influence and power. As the home of the Holy See, the jurisdiction of the pope, Vatican City is the center of leadership for the Catholic Church, the world's oldest and largest continuously operating religious institution. As the home of St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, and the Vatican Museums, Vatican City is also a major cultural center. It's kind of a big deal. And as the heart of the world's largest religious denomination, it's theoretically a sacred and holy place, where, like, God is present and stuff.

It's no wonder that the claims of the Catholic Church have gotten seriously tangled over the years. With a centuries-long history that, according to some estimations, adds up to nearly two millennia of goings-on, there's a lot of doctrinal statements, events, and historical missteps to comb through. As critics of the church often maintain, the church's stance on a variety of issues has sometimes become so obscured that they can only call it what it is: a lie.

Saints are, in theory, the best of the best. The road from being just a normal, everyday, and eventually forgotten person to having a personalized feast day is a long one, and while this wasn't always the case, it's now the Roman Catholic papacy that has the sole right to bestow sainthood on new candidates. (Early on in the church's history, even bishops could make new saints.)

Exorcisms might seem the stuff of horror movies, but every Catholic diocese actually has an appointed exorcist, although their identity is supposed to be a heavily guarded secret. And while you might think exorcists don't get a lot of work, according to research published on The Atlantic, about 70% of Americans believe the devil is real, while 50% think demonic possession doesn't only happen in movies.

It's possible to write an entire book about why Dan Brown and "The Da Vinci Code" is so polarizing, but for now, let's talk about a single part: Opus Dei. Brown's version of Opus Dei features a shadowy organization that employs a murderous monk to do the actual dirty work, and it doesn't put the group — which is absolutely real — in a good light. There's no evidence that anything about the monk is true, but if Brown had done a little more digging, he would have found a lot more shady stuff that's actual fact.