May 13, 2005

The Pope's Sins of Omission

By CARLIN ROMANO

Literary tradition holds that Dorothy Parker once aced an Algonquin Round Table contest to knock out the most sensational possible snap headline. Her winner? "Pope Elopes!"

She'd probably still win for pith. Who but historians familiar with the likes of Sergius III (904-11) -- his mistress Marozia the Theophylact bore him an illegitimate son whom she later appointed as John XI (931-36) -- would question the shock value? But international newspapers, if not the usual

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