Pope Benedict Resigning

[kbot]

If the next pope is named Peter - watch out......


Pope Benedict surprises world, steps down citing frailty

(Reuters) - Pope Benedict surprised the world on Monday by saying he no longer had the mental and physical strength to cope with the demands of his ministry, becoming the first pontiff to step down since the Middle Ages and leaving his aides "incredulous".
The 85-year-old German-born Pope, hailed as a hero by conservative Catholics and viewed with suspicion by liberals, said he had noticed that his strength had deteriorated over recent months.
A Vatican spokesman said the Pope had not resigned because of "difficulties in the papacy" and the decision had been a surprise, indicating that even his closest aides were unaware that he was about to quit. The Pope does not fear schism in the Church after his resignation, the spokesman said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/ ... BH20130211

[Cherry Kelly]

It was all over the news. I can totally understand the deteriorating health - he IS 85. Have noticed before that he did not act/look healthy last year on some of the news articles and appearances.

[SquidInk]

It's the correct decision, of course.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_infallibility

[kbot]

It's the correct decision, of course.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_infallibility

Now if only secular government-leaders would admit that THEIR thought patterns were outta wack, we'd all be in a better place

Course, with our Congress-for-life, the chandces of that occuring are very remote- unless they're faced with a personal scandal that jeopardizes their position.

[Doka]

The Last Pope? I read something like this many years ago. Not sure if this was it? It seems to me Art and Father Malachy had many visits, now I wish, I would have paid more attention to them.

http://www.crystalinks.com/papalprophecies.html

[kbot]

The Last Pope? I read something like this many years ago. Not sure if this was it? It seems to me Art and Father Malachy had many visits, now I wish, I would have paid more attention to them.

http://www.crystalinks.com/papalprophecies.html

Yup, that's pretty much it.

I'm not sure about the Benedictine connection, although maybe it's an issue of name-association: Benedict/ Benedictine..????

Next few months will be interesting to say the least.

[Fan]

This has some serious deep-reading implications: http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/01/29/pop ... -of-irony/

[megman]

Cardinal Sicola has my vote......

[kbot]

It will be interesting to see how things go. Normally, there'd be a delay if the Pope had died. But, seeing as how Benedict is resigning, there is still the chance that he could direct the voting from behind the scenes. And, even then, what direction would the College of Cardinals take? Even though they were pretty much all hand-picked by Benedict, does that necessarily mean that they' vote for another conservative? Many think that someone such as Cardinal Arinze from Nigeria would be a good choice. Personally, I like him. I've heard him speak on TV a number of times and have read some of his work. It might be time to break from the Euro-centric philosophy of the Papacy and move to a broader perspective.

[Fan]

This entire system is just plain old evil. I see it very plainly.

[SquidInk]

He should simply appoint someone before stepping down.

No way to go wrong.

[kbot]

He should simply appoint someone before stepping down.

No way to go wrong.

Don't know if he can do that according to Canon Law.

BUT...... since hearing about this, I've been reviewing some material. One of the things that stuck in my mind was the prophesies concerning the Church in the last days - the St Malachy prophecies among others.

One of the more obscure elements comes from a fairly recent (by Church standards anyway) prayer which was written by Pope Leo XIII in 1888, called the Prayer to St Michael the Archangel. You can find this in any pre-Vatican II Missal. Older Catholics knew the long version pretty much by heart.

There are now two versions - the long version, which really isn't taught so much anymore since Vatican II, and the shorter version which most Catholics have at least heard, if not completely remembered. Many younger Catholics probably have never heard the longer version. The longer version was substituted by the shorter version in 1934.

The part the came to my mind today is this section:

“These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where the See of Holy Peter and the Chair of Truth has been set up as the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety, with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck, the sheep may be. "

http://www.traditioninaction.org/religi ... ichael.htm

When asked about this prayer and these lines, Pope Paul VI was reported to have said that these events have already come to pass - during Vatican II.

Fast forward a few decades, and then there is the issue of the release of the Third Secret of Fatima. Speculation has it that what was "officially" released was not what was provided by Lucia in her letter to the Bishop of Leiria, and then passed along to Rome. What is below is an extract from a much longer article, but provides some interesting and troubling views of the future.



Contains information about the Apocalypse, apostasy, Satanic infiltration of the Church
According to Jacob Mathew in the commentary accompanying the text[8] of the Third Secret released by the Vatican, "Those who expected exciting apocalyptic revelations about the end of the world or the future course of history are bound to be disappointed. Fatima does not satisfy our curiosity in this way ...".[8] Some critics see this as contradicting a considerable amount of evidence in the record, including previous testimony by Cardinal Ratzinger himself.[20][36][37] In an interview published in the 11 November 1984 edition of Jesus Magazine, Cardinal Ratzinger was asked whether he had read the text of the Third Secret and why it had not been revealed.[38][39] Ratzinger acknowledged that he had read the Third Secret, and stated in part that the Third Secret involves the "importance of the novissimi", and "dangers threatening the faith and the life of the Christian and therefore (the life) of the world." Ratzinger also commented that, "If it is not made public - at least for the time being - it is in order to prevent religious prophecy from being mistaken for a quest for the sensational."[39] Also, a news article quoted former Philippine ambassador to the Vatican, Howard Dee, as saying that Cardinal Ratzinger had personally confirmed to him that the messages of Akita and Fatima are "essentially the same."[40] The Akita prophecy, in part, contains the following: "The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate Me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres … churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord."[41][42]
Father Charles Fiore, in a taped interview, made the following remarks with regard to Cardinal Ratzinger's various statements about the Third Secret: "We have two different Cardinal Ratzingers; we have two different messages. But Malachi Martin was consistent all the way through; he believed that the Third Secret of Fatima had to do [...] with the internal problems of the Catholic Church."[28] On a syndicated radio broadcast, Father Malachi Martin was asked the following question by a caller: "I had a Jesuit priest tell me more of the Third Secret of Fatima years ago, in Perth. He said, among other things, the last pope would be under control of Satan... Any comment on that?" Fr. Martin responded, "Yes, it sounds as if they were reading, or being told, the text of the Third Secret. But it's sufficiently vague to make one hesitate— it sounds like it."[27] In a taped interview with Bernard Janzen, Fr. Martin was asked the following question: "Who are the people who are working so hard to suppress Fatima?" Fr. Martin responded, "A bunch, a whole bunch, of Catholic prelates in Rome, who belong to Satan. They're servants of Satan. And the servants of Satan outside the Church, in various organizations; they want to destroy the Catholicism of the Church, and keep it as a stabilizing factor in human affairs. It's an alliance. A dirty alliance, a filthy alliance, but a very good alliance."[43] In the same interview, Fr. Martin also said with respect to Lúcia that, "They've (The Vatican) published forged letters in her name; they've made her say things she didn't want to say. They put statements on her lips she never made."
On 13 May 2000, Cardinal Sodano announced that the Third Secret would be released, during which he implied the secret was about the persecution of Christians in the 20th century that culminated in the failed assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II on 13 May 1981.[10] However, other theologians believe that the secret concerns an apostasy of cardinals, bishops and priests. For instance, Cardinal Ciappi, personal theologian to Pope John Paul II, is quoted by sources as saying, "In the Third Secret it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top."[44] In addition, on a syndicated radio broadcast, Fr. Malachi Martin stated that the Third Secret "doesn't make any sense unless we accept that there will be, or that there is in progress, a wholesale apostasy amongst clerics, and laity in the Catholic Church ...".[45]
In a 1980 interview for the German magazine Stimme des Glaubens published in October 1981, John Paul II was asked explicitly to speak about the third secret. He said: "Because of the seriousness of its contents, in order not to encourage the world wide power of Communism to carry out certain coups, my predecessors in the chair of Peter have diplomatically preferred to withhold its publication. On the other hand, it should be sufficient for all Christians to know this much: if there is a message in which it is said that the oceans will flood entire sections of the earth; that, from one moment to the other, millions of people will perish... there is no longer any point in really wanting to publish this secret message. Many want to know merely out of curiosity, or because of their taste for sensationalism, but they forget that 'to know' implies for them a responsibility. It is dangerous to want to satisfy one's curiosity only, if one is convinced that we can do nothing against a catastrophe that has been predicted." He held up his rosary and stated "Here is the remedy against this evil. Pray, pray and ask for nothing else. Put everything in the hands of the Mother of God." Asked what would happen in the Church, he said: "We must be prepared to undergo great trials in the not-too-distant future; trials that will require us to be ready to give up even our lives, and a total gift of self to Christ and for Christ. Through your prayers and mine, it is possible to alleviate this tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it, because it is only in this way that the Church can be effectively renewed. How many times, indeed, has the renewal of the Church been effected in blood? This time, again, it will not be otherwise. We must be strong, we must prepare ourselves, we must entrust ourselves to Christ and to His holy Mother, and we must be attentive, very attentive, to the prayer of the Rosary."[46]
Lúcia herself is reported to have explicitly stated that the Third Secret contains Apocalyptic content. According to one source, when Lúcia was asked about the Third Secret, she said it was "in the Gospels and in the Apocalypse", and at one point she had even specified Apocalypse chapters 8 to 13, a range that includes Apocalypse 12:4, the chapter and verse cited by Pope John Paul II in his homily in Fatima on 13 May 2000.[47]



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Secr ... %C3%A1tima

This scenario is also reminiscent of words spoken during the Marian apparition at La Sallette, France in 1846.

http://www.catholicapologetics.info/cat ... salet.html

[Diogenes]

Kbot,

That is some post and in particular the reference to the inner workings of the Vatican, church being taken over by Lucifer.

I happen to be old fashioned enough to believe in such things and then when you take this tragedy with the Catholic church and these molestations over so many years and with so many higher ups involved in the cover up - it is chilling.

[Patty]

Making way for Petrus Romanus?

[Raggedyann]

This entire system is just plain old evil. I see it very plainly.