A Vatican Expert Thinks the Pope Will Quit This Month, Fulfilling 900-Year-Old Doomsday Prophecy

Lisa Maree Williams. Getty Images.

What a year it's been for everybody. But especially for Pope "The Cool One" Francis. He's seen his churches across the globe have to shut their doors due the pandemic. His own staff edited a video to remove the part where he called sweet, blessed, life-giving whiskey "the real holy water." He launched the career of a Brazilian Instagram model by liking her post.

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Not to mention the usual assortment of scandals, lawsuits and other nastiness. Ever since that time awhile back where a chunk of plaster fell from the ceiling as he said there is no Hell, things have gone all to … well, Hell. In a way that makes Notre Dame Cathedral burning last year look like a night of beers around a firepit.

And now, if some Vatican experts are correct, these next few weeks could be the end of his career. And if a 12th century Irish priest is correct, the end of the papacy.

Express UK - After all his overseas visits were cancelled due to the pandemic, the Pope is set to make what will be his first trip in more than a year …in March 2021. 

But some do not expect it to happen. 

Francis took over the papacy in 2013, following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI – a controversial move and the first of its kind in more than five centuries.

And a source close to the Church claimed he could do the same thing.

Austen Ivereigh, the former Director for Public Affairs of the previous Archbishop of Westminster – Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor – claimed: “I don’t think there’s ever been any doubt that he will resign in 2020." …

The prospect of his resignation will no doubt leave some concerned as it could apparently fulfill a 900-year-old prophecy made by 12th-century Archbishop Saint Malachy. 

In 1139, Malachy left Ireland for Rome to give an account of his affairs, where he reportedly received a strange vision about the future, including the names of 112 future Popes. 

His prediction concerning the 111th pope, Pope Benedict XVI, was "Gloria Olivae," which means "the glory of the Olive".

The Order of Saint Benedict is also known as the Olivetans, which many claim makes Malachy's prophecies correct.  

But his prediction for the 112th and "final" Pope was more concerning.

It read: "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.”

The father of the current pope was Pietro, or Peter, and was from Italy even though the family moved to Argentina. …

First published by Benedictine monk Arnold de Wyon in 1595, questions surround why the descriptions of the popes up to 1590 are far more accurate than those after.

Historians generally conclude that the alleged prophecy is a fabrication written shortly before publication and attributed to Malachy.

I have to confess I'm not familiar with Archbishop Saint Malachy's work. I'm ashamed to say my knowledge of saints is fairly limited. And the ones I'm an expert on are limited to St. Nicholas and St. Francis, for the obvious reason they both give you an excuse to enjoy a bottle of that "holy water" His Holiness was talking about. For all I know, Malachy was the prophecy equivalent of that buddy of yours who claims to have a foolproof system for betting college basketball, but you notice he still goes to work five days a week. 

That said, he did sound eerily accurate with that business of Benedict XVI. Again, I don't know, but I imagine that in Ireland of the 1100s that the phrase "glory of the Olive" wasn't always coming up. Their equivalent of "That's what I'm talkin' about!" or something. So while that's not exactly Davey Day Trader levels of uncannily accurate predictions, it is something for St. Malachy to hang his halo on. 

So yeah, as much as I appreciate the skeptics saying this prophecy was published centuries after Malachy's death and not surprisingly way more accurate about past events than it was about the future, color me nervous over this one. Maybe this Arnold De Wyon was just saying this for the 1595 version of clickbait. Making him the Benedictine Buzzfeed. 

But it just feels like this would be the most fitting ending to the whole dystopian rip in space and time that has been 2020. The second pope in a row hands in his two weeks notice, after a 500-year streak of them dying on the job. The seven-hilled city falls. The Judge comes to do some harsh judging. The great cosmic Simon Cowell. No more popes. No more church. No more anything. The End. If it does happen, at least we can't say nobody saw it coming.