Petrus Romanus?

Deus, in adjutorium meum intende. Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me.

   World Net Daily is one of my favorite internet sites. However, the anti-Catholic slant makes me grit my teeth sometimes. I read the touted Petrus Romanus, citing prophecies leading up to the last Pope. It starts out saying that it is not anti-Catholic, and proceeds throughout the book to show that it is.

   Prophecies about the popes delivered by St. Malachy in the 12th century, beginning with Celestine II "to the end of the world," have been of interest to Catholic and non-Catholic alike. His prophesies did not name the popes, but gave symbolic titles - in Latin. The succeeding popes have given the curious more meat by their choices of papal coats of arms, seeming to validate the symbolic names. If one wants to satisfy curiosity, read The Prophecies of St. Malachy, a smallish paperback published by Tan Books and Publishers.  It's available on Amazon, also.

   It could indeed be true that Pope Francis is the last Pope, since Malachy's prophecies end with this one. He gave the name, Petrus Romanus, and writes, "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." But one might be skeptical, since we "know not the day nor the hour." World Net Daily sees the final pope as one who is more anti-Christ than representative of Christ, his being part of the tribulation rather than one to care for the flock through the persecutions and trials. We have indeed had "bad" popes, and we can't know yet the legacy of Pope Francis. We hope, we pray, we trust entirely in the Holy Ghost to remain with the Church, no matter the sins of its children of high or low degree.

   World Net Daily goes to great lengths to match Francis to Petrus Romanus. The article I read today talks about Francis being Roman (the old meaning) because, though born in Latin America he had Italian (old Rome meaning) parents. Then WND finds it interesting that he chose Francis as his name, for St. Francis of Assisi, who was Roman (the old meaning), although Italy was Italy then and Rome was an Italian city, not the Roman Empire and Francis was not from Rome. The stretch continues. Francis was named Giovanni (John) di Pietro di Bernardone. So - since Pietro (Peter) is in his name, he is  Peter the Roman. Yikes! di Pietro means son of Peter (from or of Peter), perhaps a grandfather, since his father's name was Bernardone (di Bernardone - from Bernardone). Bernardone was a trader and  a lot of his business was with France.  Giovanni learned to speak French as a young child. People started calling him, il francesco, the little Frenchman. The name stuck and he took that as his name in religion, Francis.

   Since Pope Francis admired St. Francis and his service to the poor and his own vow of poverty, he chose that as his papal name. God also called St. Francis to "rebuild my church;" which then, as now, was falling into spiritual, as well as physical, decay. Where does "Peter the Roman" come in without a lot of mental gymnastics?  I note that while WND displays some of the popes' coats of arms, and their probable connections to the prophesies, Pope Francis' coat of arms is not one of them.  I understand there is a new book, The Last Pope, advertised by WND, which shows more of the coats of arms and their "meanings" according to Malachy's prophesies.

   Pope Francis' coat of arms has the usual miter, keys of the kingdom given to Peter and the stole of authority to bind and to loose. The background is blue. In the center is the symbol for Christ, IHS (also the Jesuit logo, as Francis is a Jesuit), with the cross of Christ's passion, surrounded by the sun's rays of resurrection. The left lower half has a star for the Virgin Mary. On the right is a cluster of grapes symbolizing St. Joseph, patron of the universal Church. These three symbols are for Francis' devotion to the Holy Family. The motto, in Latin, is "miserando atque eligendo," meaning, by having mercy, by choosing him.  These words are taken from a homily of Bede the Venerable on the call of St. Matthew. "Jesus saw the tax collector and by having mercy chose him as an Apostle, saying to him, follow me."  Francis decided to follow Christ and discerned his priestly vocation on the feast of St. Matthew in 1953.

   Forgive me, but I don't see Peter the Roman in any of these things. In point of fact, all the popes through the ages, have been Peter the Roman. St. Peter himself, recall, was not a Roman either, even in WND's "old meaning."  He was Bishop of Rome. Each pope, as successor of Peter, is a Petrus Romanus, as Bishop of Rome.

    Who knows? Our times seem to be fulfilling many prophesies. Persecution of christians worldwide, Armaggedon just around the corner, the Church itself attacked viciously from without and suffering public scandals and apostasy within through the century-long efforts of communists and freemasons.  We live in a time when saints are being made and souls are falling into hell second by second.

   Our Lady at Fatima in Portugal, 1917, told the three children  what was to come; that the Pope would have much to suffer. There was a vision of a "bishop in white," going through a city in ruins, bodies all around, climbing a hill to a cross and being himself killed by soldiers. Was this a vision of an assassination? Or was it a spiritual death of the many traitors within the Church and the suffering of Christ's representative on earth? Rome may indeed be destroyed, along with many nations. Our Lady said that if men did not repent wars and destruction of many nations would take place.  I haven't seen a lot of repentence, while the enemies of Christ gain strength and go virtually unchecked in their goal of domination.

   Prayer, reparation for blasphemy against the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and his holy mother, penance, fasting, whatever we can do to beg God's mercy, should take precedence over fretting about a last pope. God's will be done. Many believe that the anti-Christ is alive now. Meanwhile, Satan is loose and laughing at all of us, while populating hell with millions of souls, who will know nothing but unimaginable pain and suffering, and will scream their hatred toward God for all eternity.

   We can lessen the punishment God is going to visit on our miserable humanity; but punishment we will have.  It is already being meted out. God is merciful, but He is also just.

8/12/13