The Prophesy of St. Malachi

According to Malachi, Benedict the XVI may be the next to the last Pope. Or at least the next to the last Pope that Malachi predicted.

Legend has it that St. Malachi had a vision in the 12th century about the remaining popes, identifying each by a characteristic. Then the prophesy got lost for about 400 years re-emerging around the time of the election of Gregory XVI. A Jesuit scholar in the 17th century declared the prophesy a forgery and a number of critics have pointed out that while the descriptions of the 16th century popes are very accurate, things get much more general after 1590 or so.

However how accurate a three or four word descriptive title may be is more than a little subjective and some folks find the descriptions of the last four popes right on target. In other words the Woo-woo crowd is getting nervous.

John XXIII - Pastor et Nauta (pastor and marine) - prior to his election he was patriarch of Venice, a marine city, home of the gondolas.

Paul VI - Flos florum (flower of flowers) - his arms displayed three lilies.

John Paul I - De medietate Lunae - (of the half of the moon) - Albino Luciani, born in Canale d'Ogardo, diocese of Belluno, (beautiful moon) Elected pope on august 26, his reign lasted about a month, from half a moon to the next half...

John Paul II - De labore Solis - (of the eclipse of the sun, or from the labor of the sun) - Karol Wojtyla was born on May 18, 1920 during a solar eclipse. He also comes from behind the former Iron Curtain. He might also be seen to be the fruit of the intercession of the Woman Clothed with the Sun laboring in Revelation 12 (because of his devotion to the Virgin Mary).

I consider this roughly equivalent to shooting an arrow and then drawing a bull’s eye around where it lands. If you throw out a wide enough net, birthday, birth place, birth family, previous position, you can probably find something to hang these descriptions on so I’m not terribly impressed.

For instance. let me try to apply them to myself.

pastor and marine - my last name is related to fishing, a marine occupation.

flower of flowers - my mother's maiden name was "Flora," flower in Italian and the original family name was "Di Flora," of flowers.

of the half of the moon - I may have been born, got married, been baptised, been confirmed, graduated high school, graduated college, or had some other event in my life occur at the half moon. As a matter of fact I guarantee I could find something or more likely several things.

from the labor of the sun - I come from the east coast where the sun labors to rise.

As for Benedict XVI, the description is Gloria olivae (glory of the olive). How does this relate to Benedict XVI? Well, the Order of Saint Benedict had a branch called The Olivetans.

How would it relate to me? My mother was Italian with olive skin so I could be a "glory of the olive."

Even if you want to believe in the prophesy, a number of people have pointed out that it doesn’t specifically say there are no more popes between Gloria olivae and Peter the Roman, who will lead the Church during the end times and the tribulation, it just may not mention them.

I call that insurance against the next Pope (a) NOT being a man that could be, by any stretch of the imagination, Peter the Roman and (b) there being another pope after that one.

So here’s the deal either (a) it’s really a forgery and we can ignore it, (b) it’s not a forgery but it’s as much nonsense as all other prophesies, (c) it’s true but there are lots of other popes between Gloria olivae and Peter the Roman so there’s no need to panic yet or (d) THERE’S ONLY ONE MORE POPE AFTER BENEDICT, REPENT YE SINNERS BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE, THE END IS NIGH!!!!

Yeah right, excuse me while I get all scared and everything. I vote for (a) or (b).