The Apocalyptic Prophecy of Pope Francis

On Wednesday, March 13, 2013, the conclave of Cardinals convened to elect a new pope of the Roman Catholic Church elected Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina as the 265^th successor to the Chair of St. Peter. It was a surprising selection; he was the first non-European to be chosen in nearly 1,300 years and the first member of the Jesuit order to achieve that office. It is probable that many members of the conclave did not fully understand the man they elected.

His choice of a name may have been the first clue that something was afoot. Saint Francis was a medieval reformer who clashed with the Vatican of his day and inveighed against the wealth and privilege of ecclesiastical authorities. Bergolio’s choice of name was both propitious and prophetic. He eschewed the Papal Palace as a residence and adopted a humble persona that captivated the world. Among his very first acts was a new twist in the papal custom of washing feet during Holy Week. His predecessors usually washed the feet of seminarians. He chose a dozen inmates of juvenile detention center and the feet he washed were neither all male nor all Catholic. Among them was a young Moslem girl. More traditionally minded Catholics were aghast.

In the sermon he delivered at his inaugural papal mass, he left little doubt that he believed that protection of creation – the environment – was a profound religious duty.[1]

His public statements, many seemingly off the cuff, have been either deeply alarming, or uniquely perceptive, depending on one’s point of view. When it came to environmental issues, his statements, including his controversial exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, the Joy of the Gospel, were perceptive and prophetic. His model, perhaps, was not so much Isaiah as Jeremiah.

Evangelii Gaudium was not an “Encyclical” setting doctrine but an “Apostolic Exhortation on the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World.” Chapter Two, “Amid the Crisis of Communal Commitment” discussed “Some Challenges of Today’s World.” Paragraphs 52 to 60 dealt with issues, either directly or tangentially, related to the alarming, perceived collapse of

1. No to an economy of exclusion [53-54]

2. No to the new idolatry of money [55-56]

3. No to a financial system which rules rather than serves [57-58]

4. No to the inequality which spawns violence [59-60]

Earth’s environment. They included with explanation four exhortations:

In paragraph “56” he directly relates his concerns about the world economic order to the environment:

“The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits. In this system, which tends to devour everything which stands in the way of increased profits, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of a deified market, which become the only rule.” (Emphasis supplied)

Later in his Exhortation, he expresses the obligation of humanity to the environment directly:

"215 There are other weak and defenseless beings who are frequently at the mercy of economic interests or indiscriminate exploitation. I am speaking of creation as a whole. We human beings are not only the beneficiaries but also the stewards of other creatures. Thanks to our bodies, God has joined us so closely to the world around us that we can feel the desertification of the soil almost as a physical ailment, and the extinction of a species as a painful disfigurement. Let us not leave in our wake a swath of destruction and death which will affect our own lives and those of future generations.[177] Here I would make my own the touching and prophetic lament voiced some years ago by the bishops of the Philippines: “An incredible variety of insects lived in the forest and were busy with all kinds of tasks… Birds flew through the air, their bright plumes and varying calls adding color and song to the green of the forests… God intended this land for us, his special creatures, but not so that we might destroy it and turn it into a wasteland… After a single night’s rain, look at the chocolate brown rivers in your locality and remember that they are carrying the life blood of the land into the sea… How can fish swim in sewers like the Pasig and so many more rivers which we have polluted? Who has turned the wonderworld of the seas into underwater cemeteries bereft of color and life?” (Emphasis supplied)

Despite some criticisms from conservative elements in the Church, Francis has not retreated from his elevation of the environment to a religious issue. On May 21, 2014, Pope Francis told an audience; “If we destroy creation, creation will destroy us.”

Is Francis right? Was his statement hyperbole or prophecy? Creation destroying us! Is he prophesying an Apocalypse?

[i] Drew Christiansen, “A Pope Comfortable In Green Implores 'Protection' Of

Creation” America, April 8-15, 2013.