Sort of a GQ, but since it involves something pretty bizarre, I thought MPSIMS might be the better place for it:
There was supposedly a St. Malachy (not the OT prophet) who described future popes with rather cryptic phrases. I remember reading about this 20 or 30 years ago, and how they matched up until the time when the “prophecies were rediscovered” (which probably means when they were written), but were off in left field thereafter.
But the late Pope’s death got me to wondering what the Malachy phrases were for the last few Popes, and whether there was any “match” to any of them.
Anybody with access to them and who they’re supposed to apply to?
I remember something like this on that old “Sightings” show. I seem to recall them finding some prophecy that correctly predicted popes up to and including JP2. The name of his replacement was supposed to be Peter Romanus, or Peter the Roman. Something like that.
I was just looking this up the other day. Though it’s somewhat outdated (there’s a reference to an eclipse that will occur in 1999) I found this page interesting and informative, at least through the interpretations of various papal titles and how they describe the Popes they allegedly belong to. The author also provides six possible scenarios as to what the prophecies mean regarding the end of the Catholic church and/or the world, none of which are “it’s all a bunch of hooey,” so I’d take it all with a grain of salt.
Well, Gloria Olivae clears it all up. They’ll have to bring him out of retirement, but here he is:
http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bmartinicm.html
I assume no one here is taking this too seriously. All those prophecies sound about as vague as the writings of Nostradamus. They could be easily interpreted to apply to just about anyone or any situation. Still, this sort of stuff is interesting in the same way telling ghost stories in the dark can be. Oooooh creepy…
Some years ago, my dad bought a book on the Malachy prophecies. I wish I could remember the title or author. In any event, the author took it seriously. He explained when the prophecies were supposedly written, and when they were “discovered” and then went on to analyze each motto and its corresponding pope. It was incredible how obvious the first ones were–puns on family names, etc. Then suddenly we crossed the date when the manuscript had been discovered, and the author was doing lots of interesting gymnastics to match them up. He was still taking it seriously, though.
I wish I could remember some specific ones, or the name of the book, darn it, but my conclusion was that the document had pretty obviously been written around the time it was “discovered.”
Seeing you suggest him as papabile must have left him shaken, not stirred! 
Petrus Romanus would be an excellent user name.
I agree that these prophecies are interesting in the same way that Weekly World News is fascinating, but a load of bullocks.
Hey, I was just about to post in GD about this… good thing I did a search first. 
One of my friends, who is a pretty devout Catholic, happened to mention this business about “JPII will be the 3rd-to-last or maybe 2nd-to-last Pope”, and I wanted to know what she was on about.
Is this the same thing as the “Celestine Prophecy”?
No, those aren’t it. Hmm.
A few minutes with amazon suggests to me that this is the one.