Why Pope Benedict XVI May Be One of the Last Two

The election of Cardinal Ratzenberger of Germany to the Primacy of the Roman Catholic Church has not been without controversy - the selection of a new pope rarely is - but to some it is more than a simple political decision for the largest Christian church in the world: it is the fulfillment of prophecy. And to some it is the signal that the End Times, the Apocalypse described in the Revelation of St. John the Divine, is right around the corner. To explain why Benedict XVI is so important to the prophetically savvy, you need to consider the visions of an 12th century Irish monk called St. Malachy. Malachy made several pilgrimages to Rome at the height of the middle Ages, and was reputed to have the gift of prophecy - a talent he shared with his Druidic peers back in Ireland. Malachy's holiness was never in doubt, and he was named Papal legate to the Irish at the height of his career. He is also the first Vatican-recognized saint (although the Irish had plenty of home-grown saints by then - many of them early evangelists like Patrick, Columba, and Brennan, or Celtic gods with a new coat of paint like St. Brigit and St. Anne.) But Malachy's forte was seeing the future, and his most famous prophecies concerned the fate of the Papacy and the Church. On a pilgrimage to Rome he wrote down a list of popes, from Celestine II, who was elected in the year 1130, until the "end of the world". And that brings us to the crux of the matter: according to this Celtic saint's vision, Benedict will be the second-to-last Bishop of Rome to sit in the Holy See. Malachy's pope prophecies tied each successive pontiff to a descriptive name or motto, which, in the fine tradition of most good prophesies, seem maddeningly vague at first but fairly accurate after they happen. John Paul II was known by Malachy as "The Toil of the Sun", and he was born during a solar eclipse in 1918. There can be little argument that the late prelate was one of the hardest working popes in a millennia, helping orchestrate the collapse of Communism and the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, visiting the dictatorship in Cuba, making a historic visit to Jerusalem, visiting a mosque, and opening unprecedented dialogs with the Moslem and Jewish communities. For Ratzenberger, St. Malachy's prophesies call him "the Glory of the Olives", or Gloria Olivae. For centuries the Benedictine Order has clung to this prophesy as a hope that one of their members, one of the oldest of the monastic orders, would be made Pope and start the battle against Satan. The Benedictines have long had the olive branch as their symbol, and are even known as the Olivetan Order within the Church. While Ratzenberger is not, in fact, a Benedictine, he did choose the name of Benedict after the founder of the order. While this may seem a bit of a stretch, far flimsier chains of evidence have been used to justify prophesy. That the prophecies are taken seriously by the Church is clear: in 1958, before the Conclave that would elect Pope John XXIII, Cardinal Spellman of New York hired a boat, filled it with sheep, and sailed up and down the Tiber River, to show that he was Pastor et Nautor, the motto attributed to the next Pope in the prophecies. It didn't work. John XXIII was elected from the diocese of Venice, a city famed for gondolas and canals and maritime trade. According to accepted Catholic doctrine, the Church points out that the prophesies do not explicitly say that there will be no popes between Gloria Olivae and the last one; in an effort to stem the tide of nihilism that flows in the wake of such prophecies, the Church has suggested that there could be a long line of popes between the two. But most scholars of prophecy are not buying it. One reason is that the St. Malachy list seems to be corroborated by lesser-known prophets, including, some say, the infamous Third Prophecy of Fatima. This secret prophecy, given to three children in Spain by a vision of the Virgin Mary at the beginning of the 20th century, was a closely held Vatican secret until a few years ago, when the mystique surrounding it caused a number of prominent Catholics to demand its release. Some went so far as to publish an open letter to JP II in a full page ad of the New York Times. While the pope eventually bowed to the pressure and released the prophecy, he also said that it had already come to pass: it related to his assassination attempt. Prophetic scholars are skeptical. Even if the prophecy was released in its entirety, it still does not fit John Paul II's situation closely enough to be considered fulfilled. Indeed, it relates a tale of a pope and his priests being killed by soldiers in the shadow of a cross, not a single terrorist assassin. St. Malachy ends his list with the following prophesy: "In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock amid many tribulations, after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people. The End." It is interesting to note that during the entire Papacy, no pope has chosen the name of the first Bishop of Rome, Peter the Apostle. This disturbing vision of the end of the papacy is echoed in a vision seen by Pope Pius X in 1909, after an audience. The Pontiff appeared to be in a trance, and when he awakened he was heard to remark: "What I have seen is terrifying! Will I be the one, or will it be a successor? What is certain is that the Pope will leave Rome and, in leaving the Vatican, he will have to pass over the dead bodies of his priests!" While many in the Church claim that the Prophecies of Malachy are forgeries perpetrated by the 16th Century Jesuit order, the matter is in doubt enough to worry even the staunchest skeptic. Are the Last Days upon us? Is Armageddon right around the corner? Is Benedict XVI really the Penultimate Pope?