Fake bishop tries to sneak into Vatican meeting

Proving that there’s no limits to how far some are willing to go for a stunt – a man dressed in fake ecclesiastical robes was escorted out of a closed-door Vatican meeting this week.

It appears that the man, whose real name is Ralph Napierski, introduced himself as
‘Basilius’, a member of the (non-existent) "Italian Orthodox Church".

The high-level meeting was comprised of Catholic cardinals, and before he was discovered, he told reporters Catholic bishops had "made a mistake by moving priests" who were accused of paedophilia around different parishes.

Guards escorted him out after noticing that his robes weren’t quite right. He was wearing a purple scarf around his waist that was similar to the sashes worn by senior Catholic prelates, and he shook hands and chatted with priests and cardinals arriving at the meeting.

They realised an imposter was in their midst because his purple sash was too short and he was wearing a black fedora.

Roman Catholic cardinals from around the world have started a week of closed-door meetings before choosing a successor to Pope Benedict XVI. During the talks they will decide the opening date for the conclave where the new pontiff is elected.

Napierski claims on his blog he is a founder of the Corpus Dei Catholic order, and that he invented "a system to enable persons to control computers with the power of thoughts".