Reply by Mike Steil

Could Pope Francis Be St. Malachy’s “Petrus Romanus”

Archbishop Vigano, in a letter to Father Thomas G. Weinandy, who had written an essay entitled “Vatican II and the Work of the Spirit,” for Inside the Vatican, had written: “For the pope, even as pope, will effectively be the leader of a segment of the Church that through its doctrine, moral teaching, and ecclesial structure, is for all practical purposes schismatic.”

Archbishop Vigano’s words are so similar to what I had written in an article on the prophecies of St. Malachy concerning future popes—specifically, what he had written about the last pope in his long list that some researchers claim to have started as early as the 12th century.

Until the advent of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Francis I, or as he has become known as the “All Merciful One,” I had always assumed that the last pope that St. Malachy mentions, who it is also assumed IS THE LAST POPE, since it is the last entry—was also to be a good and holy pope.

For those who are unaware of the accuracy of the prophecies, a small example would be what was said about Pope Benedict XVI. Along with what St. Malachy says in his prophecy of “Gloria Olivae” the second to the last prophecy, translated as The Glory of the Olive, we know that St. Benedict’s order was known as the “Olivetans.” Although Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was not of the Benedictine Order he did take that as his namesake. In addition, the name Benedict means “Blessing” which taken together means “The Blessing of the Olive.”

So, from there we proceed to the last prophecy, which unlike St. Malachy’s other ones is more than a single line. In fact, it is by far the longest of the prophecies which seems to give it special importance: "In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock among many tribulations; after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people."(Some readers may see the Fatima prophecy in the destruction of Rome, or at least the ruins that Sr. Lucia was mentioning as a vision of the cleric dressed in white amongst the dead and dying, blessing them as he walked, before being cut down himself.)

First of all, this Pope obviously would be named Peter II according to the standard reading of the prophecy. In all the history of the popes, not one has ever taken the name of Peter, as the first Pope St. Peter. In addition, before the advent of Jorge Mario Bergoglio to the papacy, I had always assumed this to be a pope who could be counted on to shepherd the Catholic Church through the worst that could happen to Her, as per the description given. But after witnessing the shenanigans and worse from Pope Francis, I had my doubts that this was, in fact, the same person, or at the very most I had seriously misinterpreted the person that St. Malachy was describing.

The moniker of Petrus Romanus, or “Peter the Roman” penned by St. Malachy needed to fit somehow. This was verified by news reports that Jorge Mario Bergoglio was of Italian lineage. Thus, he would qualify as a Roman. Other information came out that his namesake, St. Francis’ real name being Francesco di Pietro di Bernardone—Pietro di Bernardone translated into English means Peter of Rome. Thus, Pope Francis could qualify to be “Peter the Roman.”\

Still, there was something terribly disconcerting in the description given by St. Malachy. How could this present occupant of the Holy See, who seems to be anything but, be the one, “who will feed his flock among many tribulations?” Then it dawned on me—this pope is feeding HIS flock. The sheep who will, in fact, listen to his ravings and scandalous remarks with itching ears, “For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears.”(2 Tim. 4:3) Those poor souls who delight in his ramblings of “Kum by yah” togetherness, a false ecumenism, and mercy without conversion or repentance; Francis being the one person who can seemingly give absolution from the pangs of guilt that wrack the minds of sinful, lost, unrepentant souls.

Through subsequent research I also came across others who seemed to agree with my assessment. St. Francis of Assisi, ironically, since that is his namesake, prophesied, "There will be an uncanonically elected Pope who will cause a great schism, there will be diverse thoughts preached which will cause many, even those in the different orders to doubt, yea, even agree with those heretics which will cause my Order to divide, then will there be such universal dissensions and persecutions that if those days were not shortened even the elect would be lost." (emphasis added.)

How much better a description of Pope Francis and the present turmoil in the Catholic Church can there be than what the visionary Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerick describes:

I saw that many pastors allowed themselves to be taken up with ideas that were dangerous to the Church. They were building a great, strange, and extravagant Church. Everyone was to be admitted in it in order to be united and have equal rights: Evangelicals, Catholics sects of every description. Such was to be the new Church…But God had other designs…

I see that when the Second Coming of Christ approaches, a bad priest will do much harm to the Church. When the time of the reign of Antichrist is near, a false religion will appear which will be opposed to the unity of God and His Church. This will cause the greatest schism the world has ever known. The nearer the time of the end, the more the darkness of Satan will spread on earth, the greater will be the number of the children of corruption, and the number of the just will correspondingly diminish…