Showtime's new dramatic series "The Borgias" features the infamous Renaissance Italian clan whose lives were so sordid they make the fictional Corleones look like the Waltons. Rodrigo Borgia, the godfather of the real-life "original crime family" (as Showtime calls them), ascended the throne of Peter as Pope Alexander VI, and behaved with unstinting depravity. Christians discouraged over contemporary clerical corruption scandals might be advised to take comfort: the Church has seen far worse -- the Borgia pope's Ballet of Chestnuts, per favore? -- and survived.
Read Full Article »
