The Bishop In White

There are definitely things moving in the Church, and as the time is coming closer for the election of the new Pope, it is becoming quite interested what is developing. As for many of us, our understanding of Pope Benedict’s resignation was due to his “advanced age” as he stated and inability to carry on with the mission that was handed to him to lead the Church. But recently I came across some new information behind the Holy Father’s reason to resign, information that I found very intriguing.  

According to “These Last Days Ministries” website, Pope Benedict’s action is something that is unprecedented in the history of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. On their site they state that “Yes, there were a couple of other resignations of popes in the past, but the circumstances were totally different. Never has a pope resigned because he felt too tired and weak to carry on.” This along with another site that I found bringing attention to the two lightning strikes onto the dome of St. Peter’s that evening added an mysterious emphasis that the Pope’s action demanded the world’s attention.

So what is happening? Well… if my research is leading me in the right direction, this is something really big and revolutionary in the Church.

According to Robert Moynihan, a reliable, long-time Vatican observer and Founder of Inside the Vatican magazine, who also finds himself disturbed about the Pope’s announcement, wrote:

“Are there facts the Pope has weighed in making this decision that we simply don't know about, or don't know fully? … Does the Pope have information about the possible course of events in the months ahead that led him to conclude that he needed to allow a younger, more energetic man to take over his office from him, so that the Church's highest authority could take action quickly and decisively as events unfold?”

It is clear to me that the Holy Father’s fatigue has come about from much more than aging. In reading other commentators online, they have revealed an aggressive battle going on within the Catholic Church and a notably rising tide of hatred towards authentic Christianity from outside. Moreover, a comment from Benedict, adds to the impression that resignation was decided for strategic reasons. A new pope had to be quickly chosen because of the pace of alarming events both within and outside the Church. During his Ash Wednesday homily, Benedict stated: 

“I am thinking in particular of the sins against the unity of the Church, of the divisions in the body of the Church.”

And then we should remember these words from his first Mass as Pope: 

“Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves.”

Is he fleeing from the wolves, especially those within the Church, who he knew would inevitably, incessantly attack him during his pontificate? I highly doubt it. They have been even more brutal than he anticipated in response to his determined rolling back of some of the chaos that followed Vatican II and his strong rebukes to all the elements of the Culture of Death. According to Life Site News, they say that “Benedict’s resignation should instead, be seen as a deeply humbling self-sacrifice to pave the way for an urgently needed stronger pope and stronger Church.”

Benedict's radical action and sense of urgency for doing so makes more sense in the light of excerpts from what then Fr. Ratzinger stated in a series of 1969-70 radios addresses on German and Vatican radio. These were published in 2009 in the book, Faith and the Future.

“The church will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning.

She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes…she will lose many of her social privileges…. As a small society, [the Church] will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members…."

"…But when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church. Men in a totally planned world will find themselves unspeakably lonely. If they have completely lost sight of God, they will feel the whole horror of their poverty. Then they will discover the little flock of believers as something wholly new. They will discover it as a hope that is meant for them, an answer for which they have always been searching in secret.

And so it seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will remain at the end: not the Church of the political cult, which is dead already, but the Church of faith. She may well no longer be the dominant social power to the extent that she was until recently; but she will enjoy a fresh blossoming and be seen as man’s home, where he will find life and hope beyond death.”

The Holy Father’s words in these radio excerpts echo to me the same kind of words that Our Lady of Good Success spoke when talking about the end times, and the Church’s faithful becoming less and less. This is not saying that we are loosing members to our Church, no, but I would venture you to consider how many of our members are all good practicing Catholics who follow their Catechism to a T? And don’t get me wrong; I am guilty of this too in my lack of full knowledge of all Church teachings. It is not too far off to say that we all need a restart in our faith, since our faithful members are becoming less.

So, something needs to be done. According to Our Lady of Good Success, we should not be afraid because as she points out, “The Church will return to her former beauty.” A reset is at hand I believe. And Benedict's past Sunday Angelus prayers, as reported by Vatican Insider, fit this same theme. He prayed:

“The time of testing is here. We must not use God for our own ends.”

Recently in last December 2012, Pope Benedict promulgated Intima Ecclesiae Natura, a law whose consequences will have a serious and lasting impact, especially in the United States.

As Christopher Manion of Crisis Magazine reports: “In the next twenty years, we will witness one of the biggest shifts in Church’s educational and charitable activities. When Intima Ecclesiae Natura, is fully implemented, the Church will have to sever its ties with an increasingly hostile, even hedonistic, secular government, and cease accepting government funding for its charities, its educational institutions, and its hospitals. The results will be revolutionary—and liberating.”

“Benedict has set in motion dramatic processes to correct the abuses and damages and steer all Catholic agencies back onto their correct path of being part of the evangelizing mission of the Church. Very many have strayed far from that primary role of Christian charities and in fact, as we have shown, many Catholic Church-funded groups actively oppose Christian principles on life, family and other crucial issues.”

Australian Cardinal George Pell's response to the resignation explains more of why Benedict felt he had to make way for a more energetic pope to carry on the multifaceted reforms that he began. Pell states, as reported by CathNews: The new Pope must save the Catholic Church from waning influence amid the evils of modern society "If we go under, we surrender to the tides that are breaking up families, decreasing the birth rate, the challenges of alcoholism and drugs and pornography. If we collapse or we wobble disastrously, it won't be for the good of the western world at all," he said.

It is also important to note something else that I forgot to look at in my research for my article on “Papal Prophecies”. A lot of these events that are occurring are also surprisingly pointing us to the events that are described in the Third Secret of Fatima. Yes, Fatima!

In the portion of the Third Secret revealed by the Vatican in the year 2000, there is a vision of the Holy Father passing “through a big city half in ruins”, who is then “killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions”.  Earlier in the same vision, Sister Lucia also reports seeing one she refers to as “a Bishop dressed in white”.  Yet she did not refer to the Bishop in white as the Holy Father, but only said “we had the impression that he was the Holy Father”.

This is very interesting why Sister Lucia used the term “Bishop dressed in white” in the first part of the vision, rather than the name “Holy Father”, who she later identified as being killed? Does this vision refer to two different men: one who is the Pope and another who is only dressed like a pope? Prophecies are usually unclear until they unfold, but recent events may shed a new light on this curious phrase used by Sister Lucia.

As we know now according to Fr. Georg Ratzinger, the brother of Pope Benedict XVI, the Holy Father will continue to wear white after he has resigned, and he will retain his papal name, yet be referred to as His Holiness Benedict XVI, Bishop Emeritus of Rome. So basically he will be “a Bishop dressed in white”. Is this the future bishop dressed in white that Sister Lucia was referring to? If so, is it he who is killed by the group of soldiers, as shown in the Vision? Or is the Vision perhaps referring to a future pope – the one Sister Lucia calls “the Holy Father” who is reigning while Benedict XVI is still alive? 

It is interesting to note that Pope St. Pius X also had two visions that were similar to the Fatima Vision of Sister Lucia. In 1909, during an audience with members of the Franciscan Order, St. Pius X had a vision of a future pope fleeing Rome. He said:

"What I have seen is terrifying! Will I be the one, or will it be a successor? What is certain is that the Pope will leave Rome and, in leaving the Vatican, he will have to pass over the dead bodies of his priests!" 

Just before he died Pope St. Pius X had another similar vision, in which he saw a future pope of the same name fleeing over the bodies of his brethren, before being killed himself.       

"I have seen one of my successors, of the same name who was fleeing over the bodies of his brethren. He will take refuge in some hiding place; but after a brief respite, he will die a cruel death”.

It will be very interesting if the next pope we see takes the name Pius XIII - “the same name” as Pius X. All-in-all it is clear that something big is happening here in the Church. And it is very possible that we are progressing towards to the events foretold at Fatima. May we renew our courage and zeal for the Faith, always remembering the words of Our Lady of Fatima: In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph.