Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites. – 1 Kings 12:31

Today's Scripture Reading (February 8, 2026): 1 Kings 12

The history of the Papacy of the Roman Catholic Church is complicated. There is no doubt that there have been many good and God-honoring men who have been elected to the papacy. I love the story of Gregory I's election as Bishop of Rome. According to the story, Gregory never wanted to be Pope, preferring to remain a monk and lead a life of contemplation and study. When he learned he had been elected Pope, Gregory ran away and tried to hide from his brothers. He was forced back into Rome and made the "Papa" of the Catholic Church, whether he wanted the office or not. Gregory was Pope from 590 to 604 C.E.

Only three Popes have been officially honored with the title "the Great," and chronologically, Gregory is the second to bear it, appearing between Leo (I) the Great (440-461) and Nicholas (I) the Great (858-867). He may not have wanted to be Pope, but Gregory was precisely the man that the church needed as the sixth century closed and the seventh dawned.

I wish that Papal history had given us more Gregorys, but it sometimes seems that for every good Pope, there is a historically bad Pope to balance the scales. One of the bad ones was Pope Benedict IX. Benedict IX was the only Pope who assumed the office three times. He was also possibly the youngest person to be made Pope. We think Benedict was twenty years old when he became Pope, but some reports assert that he was only eleven or twelve. I have grandsons who are turning twelve in a few weeks, and while I am proud of them, I can't imagine either of them as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

Benedict IX became Pope not because he had the experience and aptitude for the position, but because his father bribed the Romans to secure it for him. And Benedict IX quickly disgraced the Chair of Peter. Medieval historian, Ferdinand Gregorovius (1821-1891) argued that "It seemed as if a demon from hell, in the disguise of a priest, occupied the chair of Peter and profaned the sacred mysteries of religion by his insolent courses." To be honest, it sounds like something that a precocious twelve-year-old might do. Pope Victor III (1086-1087), in Dialogues III, says that Benedict IX demeaned the papacy by "his rapes, murders, and other unspeakable acts of violence and sodomy. His life as a pope was so vile, so foul, so execrable, that I shudder to think of it."

Jeroboam built shrines in the northern Kingdom and encouraged his people to worship them as gods. But he supported the practice by ordaining men who were unqualified for the priesthood. These were men who wanted to advance themselves, and to do that, they were willing to pervert the priesthood dedicated to the God who had brought Israel out of Egypt, and to focus the worship of the God of Israel on a pair of golden calves that had been placed in the north and the south of the nation.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 13