Asked Grok
Is biblical prophecy reliable?
Long answer but it was affirmative.
Asked grok
Do you know about the prophecy of Pope Francis being the last pope?
, I’m familiar with the idea tied to the "Prophecy of the Popes," often attributed to Saint Malachy, a 12th-century Irish archbishop. This prophecy is a list of 112 short Latin phrases, each supposedly describing a future pope, starting with Celestine II in 1143 and ending with a figure called "Petrus Romanus" (Peter the Roman), who’s said to be the last pope before a dramatic end involving the destruction of Rome and divine judgment. Some people interpret this to suggest Pope Francis, the current pope as of February 21, 2025, might be this final figure.
Here’s the gist: Malachy allegedly had a vision in 1139 while visiting Rome, wrote down these cryptic mottos, and gave them to Pope Innocent II. The document then supposedly vanished until it was published in 1595 by a Benedictine monk named Arnold Wion in his book Lignum Vitae. Up to 1590, the descriptions match historical popes pretty well—think “Ex castro Tiberis” (from a castle on the Tiber) for Celestine II, who was born in a town by the Tiber River. After 1590, though, the phrases get vague and harder to pin down, like “Rosa Umbriae” (Rose of Umbria) for Clement XIII, who had a thin connection to Umbria.
For Pope Francis, the link to "Peter the Roman" hinges on a few stretches: his birth name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio, and his parents were Italian immigrants, tying him to Rome culturally. He chose the name Francis after St. Francis of Assisi, whose father was named Pietro (Italian for Peter). The prophecy’s final entry reads: “In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit Peter the Roman, who will pasture his sheep in many tribulations, and when these things are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The End.” Some see Francis’s focus on social issues and church reform as “pasturing sheep” amid trouble, but there’s no clear “persecution” or Roman ruin yet.
Skeptics—and most historians—call this a 16th-century forgery, likely cooked up to sway a papal election (maybe for Cardinal Simoncelli in 1590, whose hometown fit the motto “from the old city”). The accuracy drops off after 1590, and St. Bernard, Malachy’s biographer, never mentioned any prophecy. The Catholic Church doesn’t endorse it officially, and some theologians dismiss it outright.
Biblically, this connects loosely to end-times ideas—like Revelation 17’s fall of Babylon, often linked to Rome—but it’s not a direct match. The Antichrist or False Prophet (Revelation 19:20) theories float around, but nothing in Scripture names a last pope. So, is Francis the final one? The prophecy’s murky origins and forced interpretations leave it shaky. It’s more of a historical curiosity than a biblical slam dunk. What do you think about it?
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