Interesting yet intriguing!

 This is the story of St Malachy, a bishop, who'd the exceptional quality of perceiving things or events

of the future. Akin to Nostradamus - the man who saw tomorrow! In 1139, while on a visit to Rome he

went into a trance and had a vision of all the popes till the end of time. Accordingly, he'd then predicted 

that there would be 112 more popes.

 He'd described each of the popes with great accuracy summing up each one with a graphic Latin phrase. Let me go through a few of them to qualify this statement:-

      (a) Pope Benedict XV      Religio Depopulata meaning 'religion laid waste'.

                                              (He'd become Pope in 1914 and during his reign, World War I and

                                               the Russian revolution took place).

      (b) Pope Paul VI              Flos Florum meaning 'flower of flowers'.

                                              (His coat of arms featured three iris blossoms and he was the Pope

                                               from 1963 to '78).

      (c) Pope John Paul I         De Mediete Lunae meaning 'of the half moon'.

                                              (He died a month into his papacy - was Pope from one half moon to the 

                                               other!) 

      (d) Pope John Paul II        De Labore Solis meaning 'of the eclipse of the sun'.

                                              (He was born during a solar eclipse).

      (e) Pope Benedict XVI     Gloria Olivae meaning 'the glory of the olive'.

                                              (He's a Benedictine, an order symbolised by the olive!) 

  

  Which brings me to the present - Pope Benedict XVI, who'd be resigning by the end of this month,

is the 111th Pope and whoever is elected the Pope in the next few weeks will be the 112th and final pope, according to the prophecy. St Malachy refers to him as 'Petrus Romanus' or Peter the Roman and adds, "In extreme persecution, the seat of the Holy Roman Church will be occupied by Peter the Roman, who'll lead his sheep through many tribulations and during the papacy of this final pope, Rome and the church will be wiped out! To quote his ominous words, 'The City of Seven Hills shall be destroyed and the dreadful Judge shall judge the people". 

 The consequential questions that automatically arise are:-

     (a) Who's Peter the Roman among the current papal candidates?

     (b) What are the tribulations that the people will be led through?

     (c) What will be the events that would lead to the ultimate 'destruction'?

     (d) And who's the 'dreadful Judge'?

 Strange? But remember, truth is stranger than fiction! 

Tailpiece.

 We've heard of a lot of doomsday predictions and the Mayan prophecy is still fresh in our minds. Should we, then, laugh this off too? Pretty interesting yet intriguing!

PS.

I must admit that I've taken the help of the 'Opinion' column of the latest Outlook while compiling this piece.