Pope Apologizes for Atrocities Committed Against Section One by the Roman Catholic Church

Pope John Paul II, on a rare visit to Section, apologized for past crimes the Roman Catholic Church committed against Section One. The Pope visited Section on Tuesday, and spoke of healing past grievances between Section One and the Roman Catholic Church in his speech. “We have a long history with Section One, and wish to make amends for previous historical acts which caused friction between our great institutions,” the Pope said to the crowd of operatives in Com. The Pope then referred to the Crusades, when Pope John VIII in 878 issued the “Indulgence for Fighting the Heathen,” which states that men who fight against pagans or unbelievers shall be absolved of sins and receive eternal life. This of course caused friction with Section One, whose missions in 1096 were overrun by thousands of foreigners who answered the call to arms and journeyed to the Holy Land, interfering with missions and not following appropriate Section protocol when raping, pillaging, and murdering Arabs and Turks. Another point of contention between the Roman Catholic Church and Section One for which the Pope expressed regret was the Spanish Inquisition. In 1478, Pope Sixtus IV appointed ecclesiastical inquisitors to help “purify the people of Spain.” By allowing such a tribunal, the Church had effectively made Section miss out on committing over 2,000 tortures and murders. Operatives were also amazed by the Pope’s admission of the Roman Catholic Church’s possible influence in the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572. When Rome’s first daughter of the Church, France, interfered with Section’s directives and slayed 80,000 Huguenots, they dumped the bodies in rivers which in turn became so polluted that it was impossible to fish for months afterward. Section has always maintained that this interference led to complications that would never have occurred if Section had been allowed to cancel the heretics in their own standard hygienic manner. The Pope ended his speech with an uplifting message for the operatives, telling them that if they committed acts of violence for Section One, their sins would be absolved. “Remember, operatives,” said the Pope, “only individuals can commit sins, not institutions.”

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