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The pope delivers his final audience in St. Peter's Square as he prepares to stand down.
ROME— Church bells are sounding the alarm for doomsayers and conspiracy theorists here as cardinals convene to elect a new leader for the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.
According to an ancient prediction, this next pope will be the last.
That theory dates back more than 900 years to when Malachy O’Morgair, the 12th century Archbishop of Ireland, had a vision.
Legend has it that St. Malachy, as he is now known, had a strange dream while on a visit to Rome. He “saw” all the names of the future popes – complete with identifying characteristics – who would rule the church until the end of time.
Malachy’s “Prophecy of the Popes,” as his vision is called, named Benedict XVI as the 111th – and penultimate – pope. The vision ended with the 112th pope.
Clairvoyant or crazy?
In his book, “Life of St. Malachy,” St. Bernard of Clairvaux wrote that Malachy was respected as a clairvoyant who predicted the exact day and hour of his own death. At least one 20th century pope, Pius X, was convinced Malachy’s vision was divine, according to Rafael Merry del Val, his biographer.
But theologians and clerics argue there was never an authentic written manuscript. Malachy’s list was curiously discovered in 1590 in the Vatican archives, hundreds of years later.
“There is no historical foundation at all to St. Malachy’s list,” said Roberto Rusconi, professor of the History of Christianity at Rome’s University. “Malachy’s gift was to make other people believe in his predictions.”
Others have taken hold of Malachy’s list and compared it with history.
The first pope, according to the list, would be “from a castle on the Tiber” – for believers, that was clearly Pope Celestine II who was born on the shores of the Tiber River.
Pope Benedict was apparently described as “glory of the olives” and doomsayers point to his choice of the name Benedict, since the founder of the Benedictine Order was also known as Olivetans.
And in Malachy’s vision, the last pope – who will soon be elected – is described this way: “in extreme persecution, the seat of the Holy Roman Church will be occupied by Peter the Roman…”
While none of the Italian Cardinals are called Peter, one favorite to become Pope is Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana.
Alessandro Di Meo / EPA file
Lighting strikes the basilica of St.Peter's dome in Vatican City during a storm on Feb.11, 2013, the same day Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation.
Nostradamus: a comet and a lightning bolt
If that was not enough to send shivers down a few spines, Nostradamus, the 16th century French astrologer and seer, predicted much the same as Malachy.
Nostradamus, a mild-mannered healer, was content to mix potions until the Italian-born French queen, Catherine de Medici, raised his profile from physician to prophet.
Nostradamus warned that the next-to-last pope would “flee Rome in December when the great comet is seen in the daytime.”
Taking into account the calendar months were different hundreds of years ago, Nostradamus wasn’t so far off. The Comet ISON, with its 40,000 mile-long tail, has been visible the past couple months as Benedict prepared to abdicate and leave Rome for his temporary home in Castel Gandolfo.
And for those well-versed in the language of brimstone and fire, the signs could not have been more transparent when just hours after Benedict announced he would abdicate, a bolt of lightning struck St. Peter’s Basilica, the very heart of Christianity. A few days later a shower of meteorites fell and devastated a village in Russia.
Cynics shrugged all this off as natural phenomena, while the doomsayers suffered from one more dose of existential angst.
In St. Paul Outside the Walls, another major cathedral in Rome, medallions line the walls with the names of every pope and the dates of his papacy. Legend says that when all the medallions are full, the world will finally end. On the walls of St. Paul’s, there are still some empty spaces.
Perhaps the end isn’t so near.
Related:
Riots, revenge and royal rigging: A history of controversial conclaves
Will Catholics embrace change? The view from one parish in Rome
Leave a Comment:
Anyone who actually believes that any of these "seers or prophets" are real and their "predictions" are accurate, please send me your cash and I will be happy to take care of it for you since you will no longer need it.
Seems to have caught your interest...
Well hate of another group of peoples, many do speak about the end of the world...for whom?! Human Beings or the world as a whole...while the end may one day come for human beings, that does not mean the world will end...the world will keep on keeping on with out our stupidity
The people of the world don't need more Popes - they already have me.
Sincerely,
Barrack Obama
Barack Obama is by far a greater leader than any Pope has ever been. Plus, Barack Obama was elected by the people and the Pope is elected by pedophiles.
Dang Ray, I bet a million fags voted for B.O. and I'll bet zero voted for the pope...Next...
He will probably be pope when I die... so Yeah... It will be my last pope before my world ends so I'll give this one to him.
The pope will take it from you even before you die, if it's worth more than a dime.
Rome is the center of Catholicism; not the center of Christianity. To state otherwise is to assume that Lutherans, Baptists, Presbyterians, etc. pay homage to Rome & the pope.
Yeah, because being the foundation of Christianity and THE Christian church for the majority of its existence isn't a big deal...
By foundation of Chrisitanity, I assume you mean the sect that won the power struggle right?
The foundation of Christianity were preachers in Northern Africa who started a religion based off the words of a rabbi who had recently been executed by the Romans.
PS That's over four hundred years before any church that can be considered the Catholic Church was ever born
Will the next pope
smoke dope?
David Peel and The Lower East Side seem to think so!
For a dollar, I will tell you your future. Guaranteed to be true, or money back.
I predict you are a dollar poorer.
Way to make us Catholics look as crazy as all of the cults running around like chicken little crying the end of the world.
Not trying to be funny here...can anybody spell N-U-C-L-E-A-R---W-A-R...?..?..?..
Hell it could come tomorrow..I always say is when your dead you'll never know it:
Hurry and give all your belonging to the church before the End come....They Screw the people in the year 1000 saying it was the End of the world and all those fools gave everything away only to wake up the next day to find they are still here. And if you believe this your a dam fool also....
Perhaps the doomsayers should consult the Mayan calendar. It has been right on the end of the world, well, except for that one time in December.
It's what people know about themselves inside is what makes them afraid...The weather was nice today and the church was full...It was good to see...Praise the Lord Jesus...
This is what passes for news at MSNBC, reciting 1000 year old prediction's by psychic priests. And just where does Nostradamus fit in here? You are on your way out MSNBC.
I don't know about Nostradamus, but it sounds like a plan. The Church of England, for example has the Archbishop of Canterbury as its head. It would be a way to eliminate the idiotic doctrine of Papal infallibility which is a dogma that was only adopted in 1870 during the First Vatican Council!
This article has it all wrong. The dream was interpted by the chambermaid rolling over in her sleep and waking the good Cardinal. LOL
I thought it odd that Benedict said in a departure speech to 'pray for me and the next pope'. Not 'pray for the church' or 'pray for the people'. I've never been one to buy into these fringe theories, but lately - just so many things coming together. Makes me wonder.
Yep.
Samantha-1783461, you are guilty of selective bible quotes to make an erroneous point. Jesus quite clearly said in Luke 18:19, "Why callest thou me good? none is good SAVE ONE, that is, God." Quite clearly Jesus did not claim to be God in the flesh. Jesus, if he even existed (no proof of that), was a mere mortal like the rest of us.
" A little knowledge is a dangerous thing " ... the author of that surely had you in mind Raynman !!
to everyone....i feel so sad with everyone putting others down....we all are human and no one is good or perfect...nor do we know all....wisdom is from god and our minds cannot compensate the mind of god....we believe what we believe!!!! that is our free will.....we should respect each other and not judge!!!!!!!!! all religions have faults, but we all are trying for the same end!!!!!!!! god made us all different with different minds and ways and different purposes in our lives....i believe in the lord and am glad jesus died for my sins, so that i may have life through him....faith keeps me happy and at peace.....and when one has true faith in the lord , those "good works" come natually in one's life. and as for the bible, i use it as my guide for life...yes, it was written by man, but inspired by god......there is so much one can learn from it....our government was founded on it, but sadly, we want to take god out of almost everything....i am sorry if i said something to offend someone, but i had to also speak what god wants me to say....may all have a good day and may our lord bless us all!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Cynics shrugged all this off as natural phenomena..."
It IS natural phenomena. Natural phenomena that Nostradamus foresaw would correlate with the next to last pope "fleeing" Rome.
And if the next Pope goes on a pastoral tour - something most Popes in the last 2 centuries have done - will that be counted as "fleeing Rome"? Probably, the gullible believers will shoehorn in anything that even vaguely fits the "prophecy", and ignore anything that doesn't.
I finished reading the book "The Heavens are Empty" today. The church stood still when the Nazis were killing untold millions! They held their breath while monsters were with our babies!!They have no compassion for the poor with their untold millions! Yet they expect us to support this rag-tag outfit. Go to work and earn your living??
I never have understood why someone needed another human to tell him how to pray to God. God hears all prayers, regardless of who you are. The man who becomes pope is no better nor worse than any other man - he just has more political pull.
Ridiculous story by a ridiculous media network.
I predicted the end of the world years ago, and I'm sticking to it: when I die, it all dies with me.
I hate to say it, but the Catholic Church has been through the worst it will ever go through, and it still stands.
It survived the discovery of Aristotle's Physics, it survived Martin Luther, and it survived the dominance of secular nations in the west (particularly when two countries founded on secular principles, the US and the Soviet Union, became the dominant powers in the world)