Guest Post: Chronovisor

 This article first appeared on Today in Alternate History.

May 2, 1972 - World Learns of the Existence of the Chronovisor

Tthe Italian weekly news magazine La Domenica del Corriere published photographs of Christ's crucifixion in a sensationally controversial article titled "A Machine That Photographs The Past Has Finally Been Invented."

Within hours the world learned the existence of a functional time-viewer in the Vatican. Initial skepticism was swept away by recorded footage of the the final days of Jesus that was transmitted on terrestrial television later that eventful summer. This shocker triggered the release of further revelations. It was widely reported that Papal authorities supposedly held the device in a privatized cell within the Palace of the Government protected around the clock by Swiss Guards.

Built in the 1950s, The Chronovisor was reportedly a large cabinet with a cathode ray tube for viewing the received events and a series of buttons, levers, and other controls for selecting the time and the location to be viewed. It could also locate and track specific individuals. Development had been led by the Italian Benedictine monk Pellegrino Ernetti and the Nobel peace prize winning Italian physicist Enrico Fermi with assistance from famous rocket scientist Wernher von Braun. He had been able to contribute key technical lessons from his involvement in the failed development of Die Glocke a decade earlier.

Skepticism over its existence was replaced with a new cynicism after Ernetti warned of the emergence of the "most fearsome dictatorship the world has ever seen." This could only be by the Papal Authorities, and it was surmised that rogue elements in the Roman Catholic Church had been developing a secret agenda ever since the Second Vatican Council. That agenda would validate the teachings of the Bible in order to reverse the sharp decline in global faith since World War 2.

Oddly enough, one of the many implications of the whole affair was to draw attention to the role of Roman authorities in the Crucifixion. Combined with the acute problems of security in the Vatican City, the Papal Authorities were forced to relocate to Rio de Janeiro with a new enclave built in the shadow of the Art Deco statue Christ the Redeemer. This move had the consequential effect of rooting the Roman Catholic Church more deeply into the southern hemisphere, leading to a succession of Latin and African popes.

In 2002, Father François Brune would publish Petite Renaissance, a wide-ranging study of ecclesial transformation. Nevertheless, by the time of his death seventeen years later, no further recordings had been released, and the existence of the Chronovisor remained a mystery. Investigators routinely pleaded for access, hoping to solve murders and disappearances such as that of Amelia Earhart.

Author's Note:

In reality, the existence or functionality of the chronovisor has never been confirmed. The alleged existence has fueled a whole series of conspiracy theories but is widely debunked as an elaborate hoax.
OTL Father Pellegrino Ernetti six years after the Vatican issued a decree in which it warned that "anyone using, an instrument of such characteristics would be excommunicated" said, "Pope Pius XII forbade us to disclose any details about this device because the machine was very dangerous. It can restrain the freedom of man."