Please notice the Crucifix that Pope John Paul II is holding up to the people, at left. Study it closely, and you will realize that it is not a Traditional Crucifix, as we show below. Rather, this Crucifix is known as a "Bent Cross". But, what does that mean? For the answer to that question, let us turn to a Roman Catholic author, Piers Compton, writing in his book, "The Broken Cross: Hidden Hand In the Vatican", Channel Islands, Neville Spearman, 1981.

This Bent Crucifix is "... a sinister symbol, used by Satanists in the sixth century, that had been revived at the time of Vatican Two. This was a bent or broken cross, on which was displayed a repulsive and distorted figure of Christ, which the black magicians and sorcerers of the Middle Ages had made use of to represent the Biblical term 'Mark of the Beast'. Yet, not only Paul VI, but his successors, the two John-Pauls, carried that object and held it up to be revered by crowds, who had not the slightest idea that it stood for anti-Christ." (p. 72) On page 56 Compton prints a picture of the current Pope, John Paul II, holding this bent or broken cross, just as we have shown, at left.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, we have printed the Traditional Crucifix, to the right. As you can see, the cross here is not bent in any way, top or bottom. Further, the picture of Jesus Christ is a full figure without any kind of distortion or disfiguration! The Traditional Roman Catholic Crucifix is very, very different from the "Bent Cross", above.

We Protestants have always objected to the Traditional Crucifix, because it holds Jesus Christ up to continual shame, which is forbidden in Hebrews 6:6. Indeed, this is the basis upon which we Protestants object to the entire Mass, but that is the subject of another article.