Is it true that the next Pope is supposed to be the last?

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AmandaB

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I am wondering, because it seems that a saint predicted this and I am wondering if the Vatican agrees? Some say the last Pope is supposed to be “the evil one” and I am wondering if this was part of the prediction? And if it is, then how in the world are they going to choose a Pope knowing he’s supposed to be evil???:confused:
 
If you’re referring to the so-called Prophecy of St. Malachy, your question doesn’t belong in the Scripture forum, because it’s not scripture. 🙂

Second, it’s not actually by St. Malachy. It was a custom of the Middle Ages and Renaissance to write political articles or histories or fantasies in the form of prophecies by people like Merlin, Tam Lin, kings, saints, and so forth. Some were meant to be believed; some weren’t.

The “Prophecy of St. Malachy” was apparently written up by some Irish priest or monk guys living in Rome. Since St. Malachy lived hundreds of years before them, they could use him to write a big chronological history poem about the previous popes of the kind the Irish love, with lots of kennings and references and fun stuff like that. Then they tacked on some future prophecies, all very vague; but if I recall correctly, the first one was either a description of their current pope, or a political “prediction” about the guy whom they supported as the next Pope.

Since the thing was written in Latin and was entertaining, it got a bit circulation. Since the future “prophecy” stanzas were vague and there were tons of them, they could be made to apply to pretty much anybody. (Especially if you altered verses, as apparently did happen in some cases.)

So at this point, we have reached the verse about “Glory of the Olives”, which is supposed to apply to Pope Benedict XVI. Whoever had been elected, it would have been made to apply to him, too. I remember people talking about how it applied to Cardinal Arinze. 🙂

But since even poetic Irish guys eventually get tired of writing stanza after stanza, the next verse says the next pope will be Peter, because the world will end. 🙂 But of course, every pope is Peter, so it’s not all that great a prophecy! 🙂

I wouldn’t lose any sleep about it. If even Jesus Christ didn’t know the day or the hour, I doubt a bunch of poetry-writing Irish priests hanging around Rome and drinking vino would have been let in on the date of the end of the world. There will be popes and rumors of popes, no doubt. 🙂 But none of the other fun fake prophecies could accurately predict the end of the world, either.
 
There is a room at the Vatican where there are portraits of all the Popes, set near the ceiling in a line. There is one empty portrait for the last Pope in one corner.

His name will be Peter Romanus according to the legend.

Someone on the forum showed how Laternus which is greek for a Roman adds up to six hundred and sixty six.

Strange but true…
 
The frieze of portraits of the popes is at St. Paul Outside the Walls. There’s still plenty of room for portraits. It’s a big place.

UPDATE: The Roman church wiki says that there are 8 spaces left.

None of the portraits are ancient, though, since they had to be redone from copies after the big fire. So it’s likely that they’ll just redo the portrait medallions in a smaller size or start another band of friezes, and then there’ll be tons of space.
 
“I wouldn’t lose any sleep about it. If even Jesus Christ didn’t know the day or the hour, I doubt a bunch of poetry-writing Irish priests hanging around Rome and drinking vino would have been let in on the date of the end of the world.”
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lol! That was funny!🙂
 
The prophecy doesn’t say the last Pope will be evil but that he will be a very noble hero. Some of the prophecy fulfillments that follow the time the prophecy was supposed to be written are very interesting. I don’t think the Vatican has made any official declaration about it, and even if it did, it wouldn’t say outright that it’s true. It would simply say that it’s not a danger against the faith to believe in it.
 
I can’t cite the source, but I have read that prophecy was a hoax, a medieval college prank type thing

I am not saying it is so, only that I read it was…and I wouldn’t be surprised
 
So, the Vatican hasn’t said anything about it? I’m wondering if they have ever mentioned it.
 
Mintaka said:
The frieze of portraits of the popes is at St. Paul Outside the Walls. There’s still plenty of room for portraits. It’s a big place.

UPDATE: The Roman church wiki says that there are 8 spaces left.

None of the portraits are ancient, though, since they had to be redone from copies after the big fire. So it’s likely that they’ll just redo the portrait medallions in a smaller size or start another band of friezes, and then there’ll be tons of space.
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Popes

here is a wikipedia page…

I did see the room with the portraits in a TV special. It was on comcast cable, and probably on the History Channel.

I’ll look on YouTube and see if anyone has posted a copyof that program yet. It will turn up eventually…
I found this part of a program on it, but I’m still looking for the rest…

Prophecy of the future Popes
 
Decoding the past

This is the whole program. The part about the popes begins at 7:25 minutes.

Its a very entertaining production, but not to be taken completely seriously. 😉
 
I have read that the Saint Malachy prophecies, re the pope, were “discovered” at the time of a papal election. The description of the preceding popes is quite accurate, the description of the next pope fits one of the candidates very well, the descriptions of the later popes is quite vague and ambiguous.
 
AmandaB said:
I am wondering, because it seems that a saint predicted this and I am wondering if the Vatican agrees? Some say the last Pope is supposed to be “the evil one” and I am wondering if this was part of the prediction? And if it is, then how in the world are they going to choose a Pope knowing he’s supposed to be evil???:confused:
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My theological opinion, as someone who has studied and written Catholic eschatology for many years, is that the prophecy of St. Malachy is genuine prophecy (regardless of who actually wrote it). The prophecies of the last several popes were an accurate description of the pontificate of each.

However, the fact that there is only one more Pope on the list does not imply that there will be only one more Pope. The next Pope is merely the last on the list, not the last Pope ever.
 
geometer said:
There is a room at the Vatican where there are portraits of all the Popes, set near the ceiling in a line. There is one empty portrait for the last Pope in one corner.

His name will be Peter Romanus according to the legend.

Someone on the forum showed how Laternus which is greek for a Roman adds up to six hundred and sixty six.

Strange but true…
Click to expand...
Strange but completely false urban legand. There is plenty of room for more popes portraits, there is no reservation for a ‘Peter Romanus’, laternus is not Greek for Roman and even if it was the numeric value of Laternus is 110.
 
geometer said:
There is a room at the Vatican where there are portraits of all the Popes, set near the ceiling in a line. There is one empty portrait for the last Pope in one corner.

His name will be Peter Romanus according to the legend.

Someone on the forum showed how Laternus which is greek for a Roman adds up to six hundred and sixty six.

Strange but true…
Click to expand...
666 refers to the age of the Antichrist when he rises to power.

666 months, or 55 and a half years.

I just thought of something funny:
Guess how old President Obama will be at the end of his second term?

55 years old. Hmm. . .

(Just kidding. Although anything is a possibility and stranger things have happened, I don’t think Obama is the Antichrist.)
 
Mintaka said:
So at this point, we have reached the verse about “Glory of the Olives”, which is supposed to apply to Pope Benedict XVI. Whoever had been elected, it would have been made to apply to him, too. I remember people talking about how it applied to Cardinal Arinze. 🙂
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If I remember correctly, the connection is:
Joseph Ratzinger chose Benedict as his papal name
The order of Benedictines have a sub-group called Olivettists (who have a monastery on the mount of Olives I think)
Therefore Benedict= Glory of the Olives.

Tenuous at best, Benedict XVI wasn’t even a Benedictine, let alone an Olivettist. If he was at least Italian or Greek I could understand, but there are no olives growing in Bavaria.
 
kamalayka9 said:
The people who don’t believe the Book of Revelation was inspired by God say stuff like that.
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I beg to differ I am Catholic and just had a scripture class on this…The book of Revelation was written in code during a time of persecutions

Ask a priest
 
I first heard of Malachy’s prophecy in conjunction with the conclave which elected Pope John XXIII. The prophecy for that one was “Shepherd and Fisherman”. It did fit since he was bishop of Venice.

However, there was a story circulated that Cardinal Spellman spent the week before the conclave being rowed up and down the Tiber in a boat full of sheep. 😃
 
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