Joe Rogan has come out absolutely swinging against The Vatican.
The podcast host and UFC commentator said it's a place that is 'filled with paedophiles and stolen art'.
During a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, he opened up about his views on the tiny country contained within Italy.
Advert
He told his guests Francis Foster and Konstantin Kisin about how there are some scandals in the world that don't seem to get as much attention as others.
"Even the outrage about things you should be outraged about, like Jeffery Epstein, that outrage was balanced. Right? Sort of. Right?" he questioned.
"But what about the Catholic church?"
Advert
He added: "Like why isn’t everybody really freaking out about - I was just in Italy and one of the things that’s nuts is the Vatican is a country.
"It’s a country filled with pedophiles. It’s a country filled with pedophiles and stolen art.
"It’s a small, like hundred yard - like what is it? A hundred acres, I think. Yeah. It’s a hundred acre rather, country inside of a city filled with pedophiles."
Kisin said Rogan could get sued for libel if he made those claims in the UK because he would have to prove the Vatican is 'filled with paedophiles'.
Advert
Rogan replied with: "You can kind of prove that."
There have been several investigations done around the world into the Catholic Church that have uncovered decades' worth of horrific incidents of child sexual abuse.
The Vatican defrocked a whopping 848 priests between 2004 to 2014 for raping or molesting children.
Advert
A further 2,572 priests were sanctioned with lesser penalties.
During The Joe Rogan Experience episode, the men were shocked to discover the age of consent in the Vatican used to be just 12 years old.
Kisin said: "I hope that's not true."
Rogan said: "Oh my God, it's true...The Vatican city’s equal age of consent being raised from 12 to 18, following the announcement of an overall the Catholic church criminal code by Pope Francis.
Advert
Pope Francis, who has been the head of the Catholic Church since 2013, amended the code to increase the age of consent from 12 to 18 years old.
The age of consent had been in place since 1889. But it also stipulated that if the teen had 'a relationship of dependence (like teacher/student/ etc.)' then the age of consent was 15 years old.
Topics: Joe Rogan
Stewart Perrie