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9th May 2025
04:00pm BST
The election of new Pope Leo XIVx ‘could fulfill 900-year-old prophecy’ about the end of the world
Pope Leo XIV, formerly known as Cardinal Robert Prevost, was elected as the new Pope yesterday following the death Pope Francis at the age of 88 on April 22.
Yesterday evening saw the white smoke from the Sistine Chapel bring joy to both followers of the Catholic Church and the people of America and Peru, where the new pontiff spent the majority of his career.
However, there is a chilling reason why certain people are treating the election of a new pope with hesitance.
While Catholics are celebrating, a spine-tingling conspiracy has resurfaced—and it's more than a little unsettling.
A 100-year-old prophecy written by St Malachy suggests the 69-year-old could be the last Bishop of Rome
Based on St Malachy's trip to Rome, during which he claimed to have had a vision of the future, the ancient text listed the names of every pope from that moment until the end of the world.
The text said that there would be 112 popes after his lifetime.
The list ends referencing a man named 'Peter the Roman' who he said is serving as the Bishop of Rome during the end of the world.
Of the final pope, St Malachy wrote: "In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock amid many tribulations, after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people. The End."
It's obvious to note that 'Peter the Roman' has no correlation to Pope Leo XIV, whose full birth-name, Robert Francis Prevost, so we can assume that Saint Malachy missed the mark on that one.
Additionally, the text also mistakes his nationality, as Leo XIV holds both American and Peruvian citizenship, not Italian, as 'the Roman' suggests.
While his predictions (other than this) have been fairly accurate, author Robert Howells says there is certainly room for interpretation.
He explored the prophetic visions in his book, including the Last Pope theory.
"It's interesting that there is a final persecution, there is Peter the Roman, these tribulations, the judgements—and then it says ‘when these things are finished the city of the seven hills will be destroyed’.
"That's kind of implying that Rome will be affected by war or something? Or it could be an earthquake, or a comet, which was a familiar prediction in the time Malachy is believed to have written the book," explained Howells.
The Vatican has neither confirmed nor denied the accuracy of the visions, due to its strict 'no authentication of prophecies' policy.
Furthermore, people have linked Peter the Roman to Pope Francis, however that theory has also been debunked for several reasons.
We’ll just have to wait and see...
