+St. Gabriel Possenti+

Introduction

With Francis near death, many are wondering what will happen next. Readers have often asked about what to expect in the near future and how we can explain this from passages in St. John’s Apocalypse. I have no real answers, only opinions, but I do know what those approved commentators writing before Pope Pius XII’s death have written. Many have been confused about the following passages in the Apocalypse and how they apply to us today. Different commentators offer different solutions, but the ones provided by Rev. Kramer and Rev. Haydock below seem to offer the best explanation of what we are experiencing today, and what may lie ahead. We begin with an analysis of Antichrist’s system, which continues today in Rome with the reign of the usurpers.

Rev. H. Bernard Kramer, The Book of Destiny, p. 395-97

Apocalypse Chap. 17, Verse 10

In verse ten, St. John turns his attention from the beast to the heads; to the whole series of successive world-dynasties. He therefore changes his viewpoint from the future to the present. In explaining the significance of the heads this verse clears up the meaning of verse nine. The seven heads are seven anti-God empires. Five of them have passed away. One of the world-empires exists; this is Rome, the sixth head. The seventh empire has not yet come, and when it appears, it shall exist only a short time. That is the empire of Antichrist.

The beast existed in and through all the ancient world-empires and shall show fullest development and expression in the empire and person of Antichrist. His empire shall embody, promote and propagate much more extensively idolatry, Caesarism or state supremacy, immorality and devil-worship and persecution of God’s people than the ancient empires did. The beast existed unceasingly from the ascendancy of Egypt as a world-empire until the end of the pagan Roman dominion. Each empire grew up in the shadow of its predecessor and attacked, crushed and ended the world-dominion of that predecessor. But the beast has ceased to exist since pagan Rome fell and shall come back to life when Antichrist resurrects it by satanic power. Yet it exists potentially in the ten horns (Dan. VII. 24) into which the sixth, the Roman empire was dissolved. Some of the ten horns seen by Daniel may be existing in our times.

Apocalypse Chap. 17, Verse 11

In this verse St. John returns to the time in which the beast does not exist. This verse is complicated in English; in Greek it is clear. The clause, “the same is also the eighth”, refers to the person of Antichrist. The rest of the verse points to his empire. The English translation, “is itself the eighth” is misleading, because the pronoun “itself” modifies “beast”. In Greek “ “the beast”, is neuter gender, while the pronoun is masculine, showing that not the “beast” is the “eighth”, but Antichrist considered as a person apart from his empire is the EIGHTH. His power, which is of satanic origin, is personal and is the means by which he establishes the seventh empire. This power is independent of the empire, is not conferred by it, because it is from the throne of Satan. Therefore he is something above and distinct from his empire as a ruling power. This chapter treats of Antichrist only in relation to his empire. Chapter XIII treats directly of his person and indirectly of his empire. In Greek the clause clearly refers to Antichrist, while in some English translations it cannot be discerned unless it be translated, as some have it, “he himself is also the eighth”.

Antichrist himself, as a human being endowed with satanic might and authority, is the Beast and the EIGHTH something, because he is the culmination and personification, the head and most complete expression of all evil that shall ever exist on earth. He has thus another reason and mode of existence in being the embodiment of sin fully developed in a human being, as Christ was the embodiment of virtue and perfection. Thus the text does not say that he is the eighth head, but his empire is one of the seven heads. He is himself something distinct from those empires, pre-existed, as it were, in the great sin of emperor-worship throughout the whole series of empires, which altogether constituted the empire of Satan, and whereof his own shall be the highest development. Likewise his authority being of satanic origin and personal is something above and distinct from his empire and constitutes an EIGHTH or spiritual empire direct­ing all military and civil resources in his empire and that of Babylon. That the Beast is foredoomed to a speedy end and complete annihilation is repeated for a purpose. It shall come out of the abyss to fulfill its destiny and then be annihilated. The faithful need not fear the beast exceedingly. (End of Rev. Kramer quotes)

“But the beast has ceased to exist since pagan Rome fell and shall come back to life when Antichrist resurrects it by satanic power,” Kramer wrote above.  We daily have sites such as Novus Ordo Watch and a few others screaming that Francis is a heretic and Rome is pagan, when the Catholic Church taught at the 1869 Vatican Council that no TRUE pope could ever fall into heresy while teaching the faithful. Kramer only confirms what Henry Cardinal Manning noted in his sermons — that pagan Rome could exist once again only if Antichrist had appeared on the scene to resurrect it. And Card. Manning was convinced, even in the late 1800s, that the paganization of Rome had already begun. There is no attempt whatsoever by LibTrads to discover or explain how and why, from solid Catholic sources, the Church could be without a true pope for nearly 67 years, or what this really means for Catholics. No mention of Antichrist and only sneers if this topic is even broached. My, how pleased he must be! But we will continue to try and make sense of things despite our critics, even if our speculations prove to be somewhat off course. Because Christ told us to read the signs of the times, and to try and understand what we read. We do our best, then, to obey Him.

What follows is only the personal opinion of this author. But it could be a secondary or minor interpretation of the scriptural verses on the seven hills in an allusive sense, with the one given by Rev. Kramer being the primary meaning. For as we read from the Douay-Rheims commentary on Apoc. 22:10: “We have no certainty when we apply these predictions to particular events. For as St. Jerome takes notice, the Apocalypse has as many mysteries as words, or rather mysteries in every word” (https://www.drbo.org/chapter/73022.htm).

Another observation: the seven hills

If there are seven heads of the beast throughout history, this symbolism could continue into the beast’s actual governance, giving further clues as to where he will reign and who will be his minions. In the 12^th century, the popes granted the Italian Cardinals jurisdiction as Local Ordinaries over seven dioceses (“hills” or “mountains”) of Rome. Later in the 12^th century, two of the dioceses were combined (Santa Rufina with Porto) reducing this number to six. But a seventh “hill,” one of the suburbicarian dioceses, was added back in the 1980s, and this addition seems to be a definite sign. The “seven heads” spoken of in Apoc. 13:1 are the seven empires. But then we go to Apoc. 17: v. 9, which tells us that, “The seven heads are seven mountains and they are seven kings upon which the woman sitteth.” This could also refer to seven dioceses, not mountains, ruled by seven Novus Ordo kings — the “cardinals,” and later “bishops” appointed by the usurpers who were the “heads” of these dioceses.

The Catholic Encyclopedia tells us that one of the meanings of Antichrist could be “a king who reigns during an interregnum.” These Novus Ordo lackeys are not truly cardinals and bishops, but lesser “kings” under the universal king, Pontifex Maximus, Antichrist’s successor. (The Catholic Encyclopedia ranks cardinals alongside kings and emperors in dignity.) The first usurper-king in this series would have been Angelo Roncalli (John 23), identified as the false prophet in my 1990 work, Will the Catholic Church Survive… Rev. Kramer says of the false prophet: “This false prophet, possibly at the behest of Antichrist usurps the papal supremacy… His assumed spiritual authority and supremacy over the Church would make him resemble the Bishop of Rome… He would be Pontifex Maximus, a title of pagan emperors, having spiritual and temporal authority.” This king reigns over the “whore of Babylon,” the prostituted version of Christ’s Church, a false church presenting as the true Church of Christ.

In 1962, Roncalli transferred the cardinal’s jurisdiction over the six dioceses surrounding the Vatican to the residential bishops, suggesting further reform. These “bishops” were answerable directly to Roncalli. The “cardinals” then became titular bishops only, possessing no ordinary jurisdiction over these dioceses. Initially the six traditional dioceses were Albano (1), Frascati (Tusculum) (2), Palestrina (3), Sabina (4), Ostia (5), and Velletri, Porto and S. Rufina (6) (https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/suburbicarian-dioceses). Today the dioceses are reorganized and listed as Ostia 1), Velletri-Segni (2) Porto-Santa Rufina (3), Frascati (4), Palestrina (5), Albano (6) and Sabina-(Poggio Mirteto) (7). John Paul 2 joined Segni to Velletri and Sabina to Poggio Mirteto in 1986. “According to ancient Roman sources, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh king of Rome, established a Roman colony at the town, then known as Signia” or Segni (Wikipedia, Segni).

It is hard to believe there is no significance to the addition of Segni and the reorganization of the dioceses to create seven versus the traditional six dioceses. Segni, joined to Velletri and Poggio Mirteto, joined to Sabina are two entirely new additions. For from the 1100s to 1910 and from 1915 on, the cardinals, not the residential bishops, were assigned certain dioceses. Adding Segni appears to have fulfilled the prophecy of Apoc. 17:9, tying this prophecy in Apocalypse directly to the newly organized pagan Rome of the usurpers. Therefore, this biblical description could never have applied previously because only the usurpers could have ridden the beast seated on the seven mountains described in Apoc.17:4.

The identity of the ruler of the seven kings and the lesser kings is laid out in Apoc. 17:11. The beast (Paul 6) was a cardinal by all appearances, created by Roncalli. Yet in reality he was not a cardinal, because Roncalli was never pope. Becoming the second of the seven kings, he also was the eighth king, a bogus pope heading the entire system as the Man of Sin — Satan’s vicar, as Kramer explains. The lesser kings are kings by each succeeding Pontifex Maximus, but the ultimate exercise of their power rests with the eighth king (Satan joined to Montini and his successors) who lends them power to direct their activities. As antipope, Roncalli was the first universal king, playing his role as False Prophet. The inevitable result was the advent of that great harlot, the Novus Ordo church, sprawled in serpentine fashion across the seven dioceses and ruled from across the Tiber River by the eighth head — the system of Antichrist. The creation of the seventh diocese may only have been a sort of territorial marking, a sign that all of the former sees united to Rome were now in enemy control.

The scarlet whore atop the beast is “Babylon, the great” (Apoc. 17:5), the early Christians’ code name for Rome. In the hand of the scarlet whore is a golden cup, “…full of the abominations and filthiness of her fornication” (Apoc. 17:4). This cup is reminiscent of a golden chalice. Rev. Leo Haydock calls this verse “…common scriptural expressions for the abominations of idolatry.” She is “drunk with the wine of her prostitution” (Apoc. 17:2),  and this is no coincidence considering the corruption of the consecration formula for the wine in the Holy Sacrifice, replacing “for many” with “for all.” The worship of bread and wine idols is frequently mentioned in Holy Scripture in connection with types of false Christs, (and these usurpers ARE false Christs): “wine of iniquity”(Ps. 4,17: “the wine of the condemned” (Amos 2,8); “the two iniquities (bread and wine)” (Osee 10, 10); “bread idols” (Jer. 7, 18); “the bread of deceit” (Prov. 23, 3); “idols without life” (Ps. 105, 28). This we find in Rev. Kenelm Vaughn’s Divine Armory of Holy Scripture, (pgs. 754-55).  Emperor-worship also is involved here, as Rev. Kramer notes. For these usurpers, so fond of their followers’ rapt attention, are not popes, but emperor-kings.

Who will be the seventh king?

Bergoglio is dying, and the new king in this line once he passes would be the seventh usurper reigning since Pope Pius XII’s death. Seven is a number that we find numerous times in the Apocalypse; among other things, it signifies completion. In Chap. 1, seven candlesticks represent the seven churches throughout the ages and their bishops are symbolized by seven stars or angels (Rev. Berry). This is mentioned again in the first verse of Chap. 2. Seven spirits of God and the seven stars are mentioned in the first verse of Chap. 3. Seven lamps and seven spirits of God in Chap. 4, verse 5; five mentions of seven in Chap. 5; 1 in chapter six, several in Chap. 8, and so on throughout the entire book. This number may not seem important to us mortals, but it means something to God. The seventh hill was created by Roncalli and could indicate that this has some special significance. It could be that these agents of Antichrist believed that the seventh king is the one who will deliver the kingdom into the hands of Satan, head of the one-world church of all religions.

We do not know his identity, but as stated in our last blog, it is likely he will make it appear that the Novus Ordo church is rejecting the changes and returning to its previous pre-Vatican 2 position, similar to what Pres. Trump is doing with this country. It will be a seduction so convincing, so diabolically clever that many LibTrads will “return” to this church, believing as they have been falsely led to believe, through private revelation and their pseudo-clergy, that this is the promised restoration of the true Church. Those who refuse to buy into it will be persecuted. The Latin Mass of St. Pius V may appear to return, and all the sacramental rites could be “restored” to their previous forms. What can it hurt? They can never be valid again without a canonically elected pope, so it will cost the usurpers nothing. This is the only way that it can appear, when political antichrist comes, that he is the true antichrist, not Paul 6. Political antichrist will then be seen as the one who abolishes the mass and destroys Rome, when it was long ago destroyed spiritually. And this will be the greatest and final deception.

As prophesied, the reign of this seventh king, if indeed he is the final usurper and this opinion holds, may well last for only 42 months, or three and a half years. But again, it could be longer, since that number may only symbolize an indefinite period as some commentators believe. Will Enoch and Elias physically appear during this time? Perhaps, if they have not already appeared in other manifestations as again, some commentators teach. All this of course is only speculation, and only time will tell whether or not it comes to pass. There will be twists, turns, contradictions and surprises. The subjects of this seventh king will be those Christ threatens to vomit from His mouth — the final, pitiful remnant of the last church of Apoc. Chap. 3, the Laodicea church. This is the seventh and final church before the end.

As Francis Panakal, author of The Man of Sin first observed, “In Pope Pius XI’s Summi Pontificatus, after describing his generation as one “’tormented … by spiritual emptiness and deep-felt interior poverty,” the pope applied to it this passage of the Apocalypse as follows: ‘Thou sayest: I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing: and knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked’ (Apoc. 3:17). This particular passage is a description of the church of Laodicea which, in the opinion of Catholic interpreters, is a representation of the Church as a whole during the time of the Antichrist. Thus Pius XI’s application of this passage of the Apocalypse to his time would, in effect, be an indication that the age of the Antichrist had in some way already begun.” And indeed it had.

The seventh church — Laodicea

In his first address as pope, Pope St. Pius X warned Catholics that Antichrist had already been born. At that point in time, Giovanni Battista Montini (Paul 6) was six years old. The exorcist Rev. Theophilus Riesinger, O.P.Cap., revealed in 1940 what he had learned in his exorcisms — that Antichrist was already alive and would begin his persecutions in 1952, the very year Pope Pius XII first fell ill from chromic acid poisoning. Montini was then his acting pro-secretary. Pope Paul IV, in his Cum ex Apostolatus Officio, prophesied how he would come to power as the abomination of desolation — through an invalid papal election. Shortly before his death in 1939, Pope Pius XI warned that the world already had entered that deadly phase that would see the fulfillment of prophesy, the end of the age of the Church and the rule of Antichrist. It is important to weigh carefully the words of Christ through St. John to the angel of this Laodicea church, the last church, for in these words we see all that has happened to us today. We read from Apoc. Chap. 3: 14-22:

“And to the angel of the church of Laodicea, write: These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, who is the beginning of the creation of God:

“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest: I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing: and knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold fire tried, that thou mayest be made rich; and mayest be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear; and anoint thy eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise. Be zealous therefore and do penance. Behold, I stand at the gate, and knock. If any man shall hear my voice, and open to me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that shall overcome, I will give to sit with me in my throne: as I also have overcome and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.”

Here we need the wisdom of Rev. Leo Haydock to make the most sense we can out of these verses. Reverend Haydock calls being hot nor cold a “dreadful reprehension,” one few recognize as such. Being cold means being “guilty of great sins.” Being hot means being zealous and fervent in piety. Being lukewarm indicates that one is “slothful, negligent and indolent” in seeking Christian piety and perfection and in “all things regarding the service of God.” For this they are guilty before God of great sins and “forfeit his favour and grace.” They fancy themselves as being safe and good because they live as others do and “are not guilty of scandalous and shameful crimes to which others are addicted.” The lukewarm are further from true conversion than the cold; “they live and die with a heart divided between God and the world,” where greater and more shameful sinners are at least cognizant of the abhorrence of the vices that they commit. “Stupidity is more dangerous than absolute wickedness”  — the cold still have a conscience. Christ, beginning to vomit the lukewarm from His mouth, means that they will be lost if they fail to reform.

The “eye salve” mentioned in Apoc. 3:18 is necessary for them to see their plight and indicates their willful ignorance. Being naked when they think they already possess the white garment of salvation describes to a “T” both those complacent in their Novus Ordo beliefs as well as those LibTrads who are certain they have the graces they need through the sacraments when they have nothing; they know not their blindness and nakedness. It also can refer to any of us who pridefully believe that we are guaranteed salvation because we no longer belong to any of these sects; we are to work out our salvation in fear and trembling. Those who continue in their ignorance and blindness can only be described as having entered into the operation of error to believe lies described by St. Paul in 2 Thess. 2. Christ warns us the Church will be rebuked, chastised and required to do penance to become zealous. But how can this possibly fit in with a restoration of the Church, when Laodicea is the last of the seven churches?! Those who overcome with Christ will share a throne in Heaven with Him, for He too has overcome. Is this not a subtle reference to the passion of the Church? In Apoc. 13:7 it is said that Antichrist will “overcome the saints” but in verse 10 of this chapter we find that the faith and patience of the saints will save them in the end.

Conclusion

For decades, many have rejected the idea, first advanced by Francis Panakal and Rev. Joaquin Saenz-Arriaga, that Paul 6 was the Antichrist. It is the proposition I presented in my first book, released in 1990. There I expanded on the topic, introducing additional evidence in subsequent e-books and articles. Those objecting to this belief falsely maintain: “There must always be bishops” and/or cite the necessary restoration of the Church before the end, but only a pope canonically elected can claim to be the successor of St. Peter. As discussed in our last blog, we have never been promised a restoration of the Church in Holy Scripture, and private revelations cannot be made the equivalent of Church doctrine; they have been known to be manipulated and falsified. All that follows once Antichrist appears is the battle of Armageddon, the destruction of Babylon, the Final Judgment and the consummation.

Some also have objected that because Christ will throw Antichrist and the False Prophet into the lake of fire alive, as recorded in Apoc. 19: 20, this means he has not yet come: “And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet, who wrought signs before him, wherewith he seduced them who received the character of the beast, and who adored his image. These two were cast alive into the pool of fire, burning with brimstone.” They hold that this verse proves that Antichrist will not appear until later, at the very end, following the restoration. I have countered that for the empire of Antichrist to exist today in Rome and worldwide, which it does, there first had to exist the Man of Sin, THE Antichrist, to establish this empire, a truth we are bound to believe. And this is what Rev. Kramer refers to above.

If one looks at all that Montini accomplished during his reign and before, no one can deny that he was the primary architect in the destruction of the Church. Nor can they possibly contest the fact that nearly half of faithful Catholics abandoned the Vatican 2 church once the Novus Ordo Missae was introduced. The cardinals and bishops betrayed the Church by invalidly electing Roncalli, and the once-faithful laity failed to reject the false Church — this was the Great Apostasy. The Continual Sacrifice had ceased, true Catholics knew this, and only Antichrist could have caused its cessation. To be the perfect mirror of Christ, Satan also had to have his vicar, and this could not be accomplished with a Protestant idea of a political figure persecuting. The Apocalypse must be taken spiritually, and Pope Paul IV himself told us who the abomination of desolation would be in his Cum ex Apostolatus Officio.

There is another explanation of Antichrist perishing alive in the pool of fire, however, that no one has considered. Because this event seems to immediately precede the Final Judgment, the meaning of “alive” could refer to the resurrected bodies of the beast and false prophet, (John 23 and Paul 6), being among the first to be so resurrected and judged, so that all the faithful may see them destroyed. Various commentators, Rev. Kramer among them, have opined that at the Last Judgment the faithful who have escaped the wiles of Antichrist will sit with Christ in judgment on those who destroyed His Church. This seems to be what Christ Himself suggests in Apoc. 3:21. Christ stands at the door and knocks (Apoc. 3:20); His arrival is imminent, Kramer warns. He invites us to the marriage feast. But those who refuse to apply the eye salve and repent, who fail to open the door, shall be cast out into the exterior darkness.