By Silvia Casabianca
VOXXI
VOXXI
Is the Vatican about to welcome its last pope? (Photo credit: Shutterstock photo)
Two black cardinals are among the favorites to succeed Pope Benedict XVI after the pontiff surprised the world on Monday by announcing his resignation effective February 28.
Now, the discussion revolves around who the next pope will be. Two possible Pope candidates—Francis Arinze from Nigeria and Peter Turkson from Ghana. If the College of Cardinals elects one of them by Easter, it would be the first time in history that a black priest will sit on the Cathedra Romana, the Pope’s throne located at the Basilica of Sr. John Lateran.
But whoever is elected, they might also be the last pope in the history of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church, if we’re to believe Malachy’s prophecies.
Malachy’s Papal Prophecies
St. Malachy
Even though some consider his prophecies a 16th century forgery, and the Catholic Church does not accept them as authentic, St. Malachy’s Papal Prophecies have still a good number of believers.
St. Malachy was born in 1094 at Armagh, Ireland. He died as he himself predicted, on November 2, 1148 at Clairvaux, France, and was canonized the first Irish Saint in the Catholic Church by Pope Clement III in 1190.
We are told that while traveling to Rome to meet with Pope Innocent II, Malachy experienced a revealing vision regarding the next 112 popes.
However, in the book The Prophecies of St. Malachy by Thomas A. Nelson, the author assures that Malachy’s original paper listed only 111 popes and that the 112th pope was added after the 1820 publication of the prophecies.
Interpretation of Malachy’s prophecies
The list of popes to which the prophecies refer starts with Pope Celestine II, elected in 1130. According to this list, Benedict XVI would be pope number 111.
Apparently, Malachy’s vision was recorded in the form of cryptic phrases in Latin, one for each of the popes in the vision.
The interpretation of each of the phrases has been based on correspondence between the aphorism in the prophecy and each popes’ birthplaces, choice of personal arms and events occurring during their pontificates.
For example, interpreters see a connection between the current Pope Benedict XVI, which in the prophecy appears as “The Glory of the Olive,” his name chosen after St. Benedict of Nursia, founder of the Benedictine Order. The order’s coat of arms includes an olive twig and one of the congregations that branched from the order is known as the Olivetans (after the Mount of the Olives in the New Testament).
But of course interpreters can find any phrase fitting more than one explanation.
The manuscript containing Malachy’s prophecies is said to have been lost or deposited in the Roman Archive and rediscovered in 1590 when it was published.
Will the next pope be the last pope? Is Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation a sign of the end of the Catholic Church? (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
The last pope?
With a stretch, Malachy’s prophecies on the popes seem to have been accurate regarding the characteristics of each of the 111 popes.
The last of these prophecies reads:
“In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock amid many tribulations, after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people. The End.”
Was he predicting that after the 112th pope—the last pope—came the end of times?
Believers in the prophecies express if not fear of apocalypse, which does not seem likely it was what the saint was predicting, but the end of the church as we know it, or at least, the end of the tradition of electing a pope as the head of the Catholic church.
Would the next pope dare to adopt the name of Peter?
So far, popes have avoided using the name Peter, mostly out of respect for the founder of the church, but probably also to prevent any alarm among parishioners.
Also attributed to Malachy is the prophecy that the last pope will be black, but interpreters say it could refer to black as in evil nature and not necessarily to skin color.
With or without prophecies of being the last pope, the next pope won’t have an easy task ahead of him. He will have to face a church that has lost its traditional grip in the world since it has been seriously affected by scandal and subsequent desertion in its ranks.
It’s a church that is rooted in the past, opposes contraception and denies women the possibility to become priests and demands celibacy. A church that hasn’t yet adjusted to the 21st century.
Nostradamus prophecies and even Fatima revelations are cited also as predicting the end of times or at least the end of popes, depending on the interpretation. However, Nostradamus prophecies are periodically adjusted to fit the times and have lost credibility.
We are just past the apocalyptic predictions associated with the Mayan calendar. Will the Malachy’s prophecies on the pope be just another doomsday theory to pass us by?
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