By Irvin Baxter
Rumors are everywhere!
The talk shows, the Internet, and the prophecy newsletters
are all abuzz with the same question:
Will Pope Francis be the last pope? So, where did all these rumors come from?
Is Pope Francis the False Prophet?
St. Malachy’s Prophecy of the Last Pope
St. Malachy was the Archbishop of Armagh, Ireland. He claimed he experienced a vision while visiting Rome in 1139 AD. He said he saw every pope that would exist from the time of his vision until the last pope. The last pope would be the 112th from the time of his vision. Malachy also stated that God would judge His people and the city of Rome would be destroyed during the reign of the last pope. In Malachy’s vision, a clue was given as to the identity of each pope, including the 112th one. The clue for the 112th pope was “Peter the Roman”.
St. Malachy wrote his vision of the popes down, and it is believed the manuscript was given to Pope Innocent II. The prophecy of the popes was then deposited in the Vatican Secret Archives and forgotten until its rediscovery in 1590. Malachy’s vision was then published in 1595 and has circulated on and off ever since.
It was not until 2005 that Malachy’s prophecies began to attract a lot of attention. Pope John Paul II was on his deathbed. Someone noticed that he was the 110th pope from Malachy’s time. That meant the next pope would be the 111th and then, if Malachy’s prophecy were true, the 112th pope would be the last pope. To some that meant the end of the world would then come.
When John Paul II died on April 2, 2005, articles were written pointing out that the pope who would replace John Paul II would be the 111th pope. An article entitled “Only One More Pope?” was published on April 18, the day before the election of the new pope. In this article, the author, Anvar Alikhany, (Rediff.com) wrote the following: “The next Pope, whose name will be announced shortly, is described in the prophecies as Gloria Olivae, or ‘The glory of the olive.’ What exactly does this clue mean? We cannot tell as yet. Some believe that it means he will come from the Benedictine order, which is symbolized by the olive. Others argue that the olive signifies Israel. As in the case of many prophets and seers, St Malachy’s clues often become clear to us only after the fact.”
Alikhany’s article continued, “As the College of Cardinals works feverishly to elect the successor to Pope John Paul II over the next few days, they will have to wrestle with various criteria — political, organizational, theological and moral. And to make things more complicated, they may also want to make sure that, in order to forestall any further doom saying, whoever they choose has absolutely nothing to do with the words ‘The glory of the olive.’ But with these things you can never really tell: the description often manifests itself only much later.”
On April 19, the very next day after Alikhany’s article, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was elected as the new pope. Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief. After all, there was no such thing as a “Ratzinger olive”. It looked like the St. Malachy prophecy had failed.
However, Ratzinger announced the name under which he would occupy the papacy—Benedict XVI. There is always a reason behind the names that new popes choose to reign under. So, why Benedict?
The original Benedict became the founder of the Benedictine order, one of the most prominent orders in the Roman Catholic Church. And the symbol of the Benedictine order? The olive! Now Malachy’s prophecy seemed more credible than ever!
Benedict XVI was 78 years of age when he began his papacy. Because of his advanced age, it was obvious that his reign as the Bishop of Rome could not last too long. Everyone understood the next pope, according to St. Malachy, would be the last pope. Malachy also said the church would be judged, Rome would be destroyed, and implied that the end of the world would come during this final papacy. The question on everyone’s mind was: How long till the 112th pope?
Pope Benedict Resigns…..