April 6, 2005
Jaroslav Pelikan, the premier church historian for the educated popular audience, reflected Monday in the NYTimes about the tangled ancient hostilities between the Oriental/Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic realms of Christianity, a schism that occupied the mind of John Paul II.
We have no illusions that the intricacies, historic and contemporary, of these disputes interest even one of our readers. But we would like to derive, for the sake of thinking about it, a laundry list of both the categories and minuitae of the dispute. We serendiptiously discovered a push-off point here, and here, assuming we can ignore the seemingly reflex repetitive snarkiness arising at one time or another in all quarters.
Perhaps our interest is not totally in Left Field. A commenter at Get Religion, the blog that monitors media coverage of religion, refers to the [provenance and authenticity uncertain] tangled 12th-century prophecies of St. Malachy regarding the roster of popes until the End of the World. It is rumored that some Roman Catholic clergy, as well as laity by the boatload, take them seriously, whether in the end they are shown to be lunacy, misdirection, demonic oracle, or true vision.
Interest in the prophecies is somewhat cyclical in nature, tending to go up sharply when the reigning pontiff grows extremely old or falls dangerously ill....Bander states that during the conclave which was to elect John XXIII, a certain Cardinal from the United States (Cardinal Spellman of New York), evidently having taken Malachy's forecast that the next pope would be "pastor and mariner" literally, rented a boat, filled it with sheep and sailed up and down the Tiber.
Is the world awaiting the Last Pope? Will he -- or she -- [ed: genuflecting to the De-gendered Language folks, are we?] be a true Vicar of Christ or the dissembling False Prophet? Will the Church be One?
...the Gloria Olivae, for this would seem to be none other than that miraculously designated Pope who, after a horrible period of world turmoil, will, by his exemplary holiness, convert masses of people and leaders of nations to the Roman Catholic Church. During his pontificate there will be "one fold and one shepherd."
Merely as a matter of psychology, one would not like to be amongst the papabili awaiting the Conclave election as, arguably, the Antichrist. Or even one who presides over the End Times.
Somewhat echoed by the eschatological vision of the papacy recorded by St. Faustina.
After the death of Pope John XXIII, Our Lady told Conchita that after him there will be three more popes before the end of time. The third and last pope is our Pope John Paul II.... In St. Faustina’s Diary, section 1732, Jesus tells her: “I bear a special love for Poland and, if she is obedient to My will, I will exalt her in might and holiness. From her will come forth the spark that will prepare the world for My final coming.”
Our policy is to assume nothing, in these interesting times.
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