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| Sunday, 12 June 2005 |
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Prophesy: Is this the penultimate pope? When Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez announced on April 19, 2005 from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Dean of the College of Cardinals and Prefect of the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith, formerly the Office of the Inquisition was elected the 265th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and will be known by the new name Benedict XVI, one of the prophecies of St Malachy came true. The name Malachy comes from the Old Testament. It is the name of a book written by Prophet Malachy after the Jews returned from exile calling them to change their ways. St Malachy was born in Armagh, Ireland in 1094. In 1119 he was ordained a priest. In 1123 he was elected Abbot of Bangor. In 1132 he was consecrated Bishop of Connor and died in 1148 after he was elected Primate of Armagh, Ireland. The barely known prophesies by which St Malachy undertook to list in advance the successors of the Vicars of Christ began with Pope Celestine in 1143. He did not just come right out and name them which of course would deny prophesy of its charm and pre-empt from the Conclave of Cardinals their grave responsibility of electing future popes but chose instead to reveal the successor of St. Peter under symbolic titles, set down in Latin. For example, St Malachy's prediction for Pope Celestine 11 was "Ex Castro Tiberis "meaning "From a castle on the Tiber". Celestine II before he became Pope was Cardinal Guido de Castello, a native of Tuscany. St. Malachy's prophecy was a reference to the family name. On and on for 900 years St. Malachy put down the symbolic titles of future Popes and coming to recent times his prediction of Pope Leo XIII, the former Cardinal Gioacchino Pecci, who was elevated to the See of Peter in 1878 and whose pontificate is considered to be one of the most brilliant, was "Lumen in Coelo" meaning "A light in the sky." For Pope John Paul II, St. Malachy's prediction was "DeLabore Solis" meaning "From the toil of the sun." Pope John Paul as a young man during the German occupation of Poland in World War II was forced to work in a stone quarry. St. Malachy's prediction to succeed Pope John Paul II was "Gloria Olivae" meaning "The glory of the Olive." The olive is the symbol of the Order of Benedictines founded by St. Benedict of Nursia, Italy, in 529, disgusted with the sensualism of life in Rome, and now we have the new pope taking the name Benedict XVI. Curiously St. Malachy predicts Pope Benedict XVI will be followed by "Petrus Romanus" meaning "Peter the Roman" a name never taken by any of the previous 265 popes because it resembles strikingly the first pope Peter the Apostle. After Peter the Roman 900 years of prophecy come to an end. As to what happens after that the answer perhaps lies in Mathew chapter 24, verses 4 and 5. Shortly before Christ was crucified, assembled in the upper room of the Cenacle, the apostles asked Christ what would be the sign of His coming and the end of the world. Christ watchful guardian of the deposit of faith entrusted to her by Christ rightly condemned. I expect Pope Benedict XVI to introduce a theological sea change and reform the reforms. The attempt to portray the Last Supper as a friendly and cheerful gathering has given rise to sacrilegious convival meetings that are a scandal and a sorrow to the Church involving as they do improper matter for consecration, arbitrary ritual, illegitimate consecrations, non-religious places of worship and irreligious ways of behaving. The Last Supper was a tragic event not a cheerful meal. I pray and hope that Pope Benedict XVI who has a towering intellect will return the Church back to its perdurable foundations. But I am all too familiar with the writings of the new pope not to know that his election is the first scene of a play in many acts and final judgment of his pontificate must await the last scene. As he noted recently "the essential things in history begin always with the small more convinced communities." Allow me to conclude with a epilogue. I attach no moral value to relativism. It is a fad and like all fads mortal. But relativism is a heresay as in the past like the Arian, Manichean, Albigensian but it is different in the sense it is deadly because it is a wholesale assault upon the fundamentals of Catholicism. Relativism means to destroy. We know the Catholic Church cannot be destroyed because that would make Christ a liar. But what we do not know is the extent of the area over which it will survive. Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson was a son of the Archbishop of Canterbury and in Anglican Orders before he was converted to Catholicism. In his book "The Lord of the World" he presents a picture of the Catholic Church reduced to a little wondering band returning as it were to its origins what Pope Benedict XVI described as small more convinced communities. The danger of relativism is that those who profess the doctrine call themselves catholics eventhough they cheerfully deny the presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, deny the Incarnation, deny the Assumption, deny Revelation and nourish the silly vagaries of radical pluralism and secularism and the vulgar nonsense of reform. Ralativism is indifferent to rational thought and self contradiction. It merely affirms. It advances like a beast counting on strength alone. This indeed will be the cause of its final defeat. - Ephrem Fernando
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