Vatican conspiracy theories Vatican conspiracy theories Vatican conspiracy theories are conspiracy theories that concern the Pope and/or the Roman Catholic Church. A majority of the theories allege that the Church and its representatives are secretly controlling secular society with a Satanic agenda for global domination. Pope John Paul I died in September 1978, only a month after his election to the papacy. The timing of his death and the Vatican's alleged difficulties with ceremonial and legal death procedures have fostered several conspiracy theories. British author David Yallop wrote extensively about unsolved crimes and conspiracy theories, and in his 1984 book "In God's Name"
Social teachings of the papacy Social teachings of the papacy Social teachings of the papacy gives a succinct review of salient features in the papal social encyclicals beginning with "Rerum novarum", the groundbreaking encyclical of Pope Leo XIII in 1891, and going to the present time. Pope Leo XIII, amidst the Industrial Revolution and concerns about the deteriorating working and living conditions of urban workers wrote the first social encyclical of modern times, "Rerum novarum" ("Of new things"), in 1891, under the influence of the German Bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel Freiherr von Ketteler. This 1891 encyclical set the tone for the Catholic Church's social teaching to