St. Malachy Was Right About
Something Else
We all know about St. Malachy (I hope), the
12th century Archishop of Armagh, who had a vision in which he saw
all of the Popes that would hold that office in the future. Malachy then authored what would become
known as the Prophecies of the Popes, which consists of 112 cryptic Latin
phrases that describe each future Pope.
Some of Malachy’s descriptions were vague and some were
quite specific. His statements
about the last few popes were particularly accurate. None of his descriptions of the 112 popes
who were to follow Celestine II were wrong. On this basis alone I believe that we
should give the man at least some credibility. Of the last Pope of the Catholic Church,
Malachy wrote:
In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church,
there will sit
Peter the Roman,
who will pasture his sheep in many tribulations, and when these things are
finished, the city of seven hills
(Rome) will be
destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The End.
When a new pope is elected
by the Conclave of Cardinals the first thing they do is formally ask the person
if he wants the job. The second
question they ask is what his new name will be. New Popes always take on a new name to
honor someone they revere. When
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was asked this question, he replied that he wanted to be
called “Saint Francis” in honor of Saint Francis of
Assisi. Saint Francis of
Assisi was born Giovanni di Pietro
Bernardone. “Pietro” is Italian for
“Peter,” Therefore, Malachy’s prophecy about the name of last Pope was fulfilled
when Bergoglio took on this name.
But there is more to the story about the fulfillment of Malachy’s
prophecy about Pope number 112.
Based on many references in
both the Old Testament and the New Testament, the majority of Bible scholars
believe (and rightly so, I might add) that the rapture happens before the
tribulation. The rapture snatches
away all who believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the World, and the
only means of eternal salvation. If
the Pope is still here after the Rapture, then it would mean that he is not a
true believer. Based on what he
said about number 112 on his list, Malachy is saying that the last Pope would
not be a true believer.
After taking office Pope
Francis publicly stated that one does not have to believe in God to be saved and
can make it to heaven by striving for the good (doing good works). Francis also said publicly that winning
people to Christianity was “religious nonsense.” Those statements coming from any
religious leader strike me as high treason.
Malachy was dead-on accurate once again in his prophecy
about Pope 112.
What are the chances
that somebody back in the twelfth century could make accurate predictions
without ever being wrong? Even more
so, how could somebody predict over 900 years ago that the leader of the
Catholic Church at this particular moment in time would not be a Christian? Maybe we should give Malachy a whole lot
of credibility.
If this is the case, the
tribulation is going to start very soon, and just like Revelation says, the city
on seven hills (Rome) is going to be
destroyed. Even more important, the
Rapture of the Church must be even closer.
In fact, it is a lot closer than most of us really think.
Carl Worline