One Left?

We can rest easy.  The world will not be destroyed by the asteroid that will pass within 17,000. miles of our planet on February 15.

How do I know?

Because the Pope resigned today, effective February 28, 2013 at 19:00 Greenwich Mean Time.

And, prophecies dating back from the 12th century tell us that we will have one more Pope after this one who is resigning.  Maybe.  No asteroid is mentioned.

Already the Internet is buzzing with discussion of the prophecies of the Irishman St. Malachy, who died in 1148 CE.  As the story goes, the saint saw a vision of all the popes who would ever reign, while visiting Rome.  He wrote details down, in Latin.  Like all seers, he had to disguise his visions lest he get into some kind of serious trouble.

The vision, to summarize, named 122 popes. Pope Benedict XVI is #121.

They weren't named by name, but rather by birthplace, or some characteristic.  Pope #121 was described as the "glory of the olive".  Only the last pope, the one to come (maybe), is described in detail.

The manuscript was supposedly found in archives in 1590, and published in 1595.  "Supposedly", because there is some doubt regarding whether St. Malachy wrote it, or someone from the 1590's.

These prophecies are not Roman Catholic Church doctrine.

Skeptics state the details of popes prior to the 16th century tend to be accurate, while the details after....well, those are more open to interpretation. (What, for example, is "the glory of the olive"?)

Visions of the future are not restricted to the Catholic faith.  This is part of what makes us human - we want to know the future, and perhaps there are those of us who can see into the future.  But, even so, it raises the question of if the future is fixed or if it can be changed. A future that changes can be the reason if some of these visions are authentic, and yet don't come to pass.  Personally, I do not rule out the possibility of some people with special talents can see into the future.

Those people, though, (assuming their vision is authentic), see the future through the lens of their own experience, which can cause a bit of a disconnect.  How, for example, would a person of the past describe an atomic explosion, or a spaceship?

But, getting back to St. Malachy and the glory of the olive - as of March 1, we may be down to our last Pope.  And, what do we know of the last Pope, according to this vision?

St. Malachy calls him Peter the Roman (or Peter of Rome).  "Peter" will reign during a time of great tribulation, and his reign will end with the destruction of the "city of seven hills" (Rome) and a terrible judgement thereafter.

I have to admit something strange happened to me today.  I went online after hearing of the Pope's resignation.  I saw a link to an article that asked the question "Is it possible our next Pope could be a non-European?"  There were several men listed that might be under consideration.

The first was a man in his 60's, from Ghana.

His first name is Peter.

Do you think the prophecy of "one last Pope" gives us anything to worry about?