That's right, the Conpiracy Theory Threads are back! 

Everyone loves a good conspiracy theory, and I have knowledge of a large number of them to share and discuss with you. Today we'll be looking at the Vatican - a source of many theories - in particular, it's archives and what could be contained within them.

The Facts

- The Vatican's secret archives are located in the heart of Vatican City, containing more than 50 miles of shelves. The oldest documents come from ~700AD. 

- We already know some amazing documents exist within these shelves: a note from Genghis Knah's grandson demanding tribute, letters from Michelangelo and a note carved on bark from Native Americans are just some of these.

- The archives are open to select academics, but no browsing is allowed - this means that you have to known what it is you're looking for and ask for it specifically. So what do they have in there?

The Theories

- Conspiracy theorists believe the Vatican holds all sorts of secret materials ranging from bizarre to disturbingly plausible. Some believe that the archive holds secret infromation about Jesus Christ, which contradict the modern Bible. These could include information about his biological descendents, or a scripture written in his own hand. Others believe that the archives hold documents about the church's involvement in carious wars or banking scandals.

- Why would people believe these things? Well, most of the theories about the Vatican's secret archives come on the shoulders of another conspiracy - eg. those who believe the Catholic Church is attempting to control thet United States would claim that the answers are locked away in the archives. The number of people claiming such things reduced after the public were allowed to access the records, but not entirely.

- It could be argued that the popularity of The Da Cinci Code (in which a centuries old conspiracy is discovered in the archives) led to new interest in the Vatican.

- Regardless if you are a skeptic or believe in the theories, there is no denying that we don't know what is buried in these archives - tours with the press/scholars are limited and no browsing is allowed.

What do you believe? 

I imagine we'd find some very unflattering things about the Second World War, at the very least.

I think you need to learn to spell Radish, I noticed two spelling mistakes in that post :P
Also, surely if the Catholic Church has things they need to cover up instead of storing them there they would simply get rid of their existance?

i bet they have some of the best servers and stuff like that there!

i would say that there is a lot of boring stuff down there - the most of it should originate from medieval inquisition, containing all the judgements for their riot...
but some books/letters could really be crucial to believers when there are more proofs than the apocrypha reveiling more about jesus' origin and his life.

i believe what doesnt kill you makes you stranger.

Pff you just don't know a quality OP when you see one

Oh I'm sure they have a lot of scandals down there. Maybe even other things. But with an archive that big, I doubt a everything would ever be learned from them.

Outside of there cooperation with the US to smuggle Nazis after WW2, I can't imagine what.

Honestly the Vatican tends to get a bad wrap about that.

I imagine they've got a lot of ancient Christian works thrown out of cannon however, that just were too valuable to be destroyed.

Honestly though... this isn't even the best conspiracy about the Vatican lately if you've been following the news. Seems like there is a LOT of political intrigue going on as the roman bishops move to try and reassert more control and contain the power to elect the pope after last time when the current pope had to be settled on to avoid the election of a more "Radical" pope.

The previous frontrunners being an African Priest and a South American Priest..