They said the shroud of turin was a forgery as well, but nobody ever proved it to be so. When the french weave theory was proven a verifiable scientific fact all we were given as a reply was silence.
the scripture says nobody will know the day or the hour. NOT nobody will know the decade or the year or that it is in fact coming very close.
That having been said the evidence is not conclusive either way. I am not the authority or last word on it, but no one hear has attempted to make a rational argument other than conjecture for these prophesies being forgeries. More to the point some of them have been fairly accurate (amazingly accurate), the count has become a bit obscured (unless God goes by Peters count siting the power to bind and loose and all), and the prophesy does not directly predict the end of the world immediately and instantaneously. It predicts the last Pope which implies the end cannot be far after, but the “The End” of the prophesy does not fall (necessarily) at the end of the papacy. (this of course assumes it is not a forgery which has not been conclusively proven either)
bottom line God will not leave us orphaned. he will be with us until the end of the age. He did not promise the catholic church in america, england, or europe would continue till the end of time however. Every offical authority I know of is saying in fact that the church and these countries are either at odds now or quickly becoming at odds. This cannot end well no matter who is going to be the new Pope.
Lastly it does make a certain amount of sense that this new Pope might take the name of Peter in that his job now (according to the current Pope) will be much like that of the original. The church that is quickly coming will be much smaller. The church is now or soon will be forced out of many of her traditionally owned institutions (weather this is because of finance or persecution can in many cases be seen as the same thing). The simple fact is the world is scary out there. down right hostile to Catholics just now. Are there more hungry lions in our future? according to one cardinal his successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr. Seems like early roman days to me, but who am I to judge. Time will tell.
A last note every place I did look with a few notable exceptions about this prophesy all said that there is not necessarily a direct line between the last named pope and the end. that there may be a gap in there.