Francis says he wants Rome less narcissistic and says he does not believe in a ‘Catholic God’ as he inaugurates a reform team

Notice the following:

Pope Francis has opened a landmark meeting on reforming the Catholic Church.

The pontiff is holding three days of consultations with eight cardinals he has appointed to advise him on revising the Vatican administration and worldwide Church reforms.

The eight-member council is made up of cardinals from the Americas, Africa, Australia and Europe.

As the talks began Tuesday, Rome’s La Repubblica newspaper published an interview with Pope Francis in which he denounced what he called the “Vatican-centric” nature of the church’s administration.

The pontiff said too many previous popes have been “narcissists, flattered and thrilled by their courtiers.” He said that many of the “courtiers” inside the Vatican administration only look after Vatican interests, neglecting, in his words, “the world around us.”…

Along with allegations of corruption and internal conflict, the Catholic Church has been undermined by revelations of a history of sexual abuse by priests. http://www.voanews.com/content/pope-begins-talks-on-church-reform/1760708.html

The eight-member council is supposed to propose changes to the Vatican’s so-called “apostolic constitution” (Francis wants Vatican’s constitution ripped up and re-written: a prelude to make way for ecumenism?).

I believe that by trying to make the Church of Rome more relevant, part of the intent of these changes is to make it more appealing to other groups that the Vatican has wanted to have ecumenical unity with.

Catholic and biblical prophecy tell of a time of apparent ecumenical unity. Here are some Catholic prophecies about that:

Roger Bacon (died 1294): There shall arise a…priest to reform the Church. The Greeks will return (to the Church)…there will be one fold, one shepherd (Culleton, The Prophets and Our Times, p. 149).

Venerable Bartholomew Holzhauser (17th century): …there will be an ecumenical council which will be the greatest of all councils by the power of the Great Monarch, and by the authority of the Holy Pontiff, and by the union of the most devout princes, atheism and every heresy will be banished from the earth. The Council will…be believed and accepted by everyone (Dupont, Yves. Catholic Prophecy: The Coming Chastisement. TAN Books, Rockford (IL), 1973, p. 40).

Frederick William Faber (died 1863):…Antichrist…Many believe in a demonical incarnation—this will not be so—but he will be utterly possessed…His doctrine as apparent contradiction of no religion, yet a new religion…He has an attending pontiff, so separating regal and prophetic office (Edward. Prophecy for Today. Imprimatur + A.J. Willinger, Bishop of Monterey-Fresno; Reprint: Tan Books and Publishers, Rockford (IL), 1984, p. 87).

Anna-Katarina Emmerick (October 1, 1820): The Church is in great danger…The Protestant doctrine and that of the schismatic Greeks are to spread everywhere. I now see that in this place (Rome) the (Catholic) Church is being so cleverly undermined, that there hardly remain a hundred or so priests who have not been deceived. They all work for the destruction, even the clergy. A great destruction is now at hand…

(April 22, 1823): I saw that many pastors allowed themselves to be taken up with ideas that were dangerous to the Church. They were building a great, strange, and extravagant Church. Everyone was admitted in it in order to be united and to have equal rights: Evangelicals, Catholics, sects of every description. Such was to be the new Church (Dupont, pp. 66, 71).

Oba Prophecy: It will come when the Church authorities issue directives to support a new cult, when priests are forbidden to celebrate in any other, when the highest positions in the Church are given to perjurers and hypocrites, when only the renegades are admitted to occupy those positions.

Nun Anna-Katarina Emmerick (19th century): I saw again a new and odd-looking Church which they were trying to build. There was nothing holy about it…

Yves Dupont (writer interpreting A. Emmerick above), They wanted to make a new Church, a Church of human manufacture, but God had other designs…The Holy Father shall have to leave Rome, and he shall die a cruel death. An anti-pope shall be set up in Rome. (Dupont, pp. 115,116)

Jeanne le Royer (died 1978): I see that when the Second Coming of Christ approaches a bad priest will do much harm to the Church. (Culligan, E. The Last World War and the End of Time. The book was blessed by Pope Paul VI, 1966. TAN Books, Rockford (IL), p. 128)

Yves Dupont (reader and reporter of Catholic prophecies): prophecies are quite explicit about the election of an anti-pope…Many prophecies predict an anti-pope and a schism. (Dupont, pp. 34,60-61)

Biblical prophecy (cf. Revelation 13:4,8;17;18; Daniel 11:36-38) and some Catholic prophecies show that this is dangerous and will not end will for those who will ultimately support the ecumenical power in Rome (cf. Revelation 17:16-18).

All (Catholic or otherwise) should be careful, compare their teachings with the Bible, pray to God, and not accept doctrines that are unbiblical for the sake of this coming ecumenical unity.

Furthermore, notice more of what Pope Francis said:

On the church and politics:

“I believe that Catholics involved in politics carry the values of their religion within them, but have the mature awareness and expertise to implement them. The Church will never go beyond its task of expressing and disseminating its values, at least as long as I’m here.”

On his plans to reform the church:

“I’m not Francis of Assisi and I do not have his strength and his holiness. But I am the Bishop of Rome and Pope of the Catholic world. The first thing I decided was to appoint a group of eight cardinals to be my advisers. Not courtiers but wise people who share my own feelings. This is the beginning of a Church with an organization that is not just top-down but also horizontal.”

On the Roman Curia, the Vatican bureaucracy:

“It sees and looks after the interests of the Vatican, which are still, for the most part, temporal interests. This Vatican-centric view neglects the world around us. I do not share this view and I’ll do everything I can to change it. The Church is or should go back to being a community of God’s people, and priests, pastors and bishops, who have the care of souls, are at the service of the people of God.”

On the obstacles he faces:

“The real trouble is that those most affected by (narcissism) — which is actually a kind of mental disorder — are people who have a lot of power. Often bosses are narcissists. … Heads of the Church have often been narcissists, flattered and thrilled by their courtiers. The court is the leprosy of the papacy.”

On careerist priests:

“It also happens to me that when I meet a clericalist, I suddenly become anti-clerical. Clericalism should not have anything to do with Christianity.”

On the greatest challenges for the church:

“The most serious of the evils that afflict the world these days are youth unemployment and the loneliness of the old. The old need care and companionship; the young need work and hope but have neither one nor the other, and the problem is they don’t even look for them any more. They have been crushed by the present. You tell me: Can you live crushed under the weight of the present? Without a memory of the past and without the desire to look ahead to the future by building something, a future, a family? Can you go on like this? This, to me, is the most urgent problem that the Church is facing.”

On converting others:

“Proselytism is solemn nonsense, it makes no sense. We need to get to know each other, listen to each other and improve our knowledge of the world around us. Sometimes after a meeting I want to arrange another one because new ideas are born and I discover new needs. This is important: to get to know people, listen, expand the circle of ideas. The world is crisscrossed by roads that come closer together and move apart, but the important thing is that they lead towards the Good.”

“I believe … that our goal is not to proselytize but to listen to needs, desires and disappointments, despair, hope. We must restore hope to young people, help the old, be open to the future, spread love. Be poor among the poor. We need to include the excluded and preach peace. … I have the humility and ambition to want to do something.”

On the essence of his belief:

“I believe in God, not in a Catholic God; there is no Catholic God. There is God and I believe in Jesus Christ, his incarnation. Jesus is my teacher and my pastor, but God, the Father, Abba, is the light and the Creator. This is my Being.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/01/pope-francis-interview_n_4023659.html?

Is this pontiff Catholic? The “last pope” will not be. He will feign a version of Roman Catholicism, but not really believe it.

Notice some statements from my book The Last Pope: Do Biblical and Catholic Prophecies Point to Pope Francis?:

Is the Pope Catholic or Will He Betray Rome?

In some households, the expression, “Is the Pope Catholic?,” is asked with the intent of suggesting a “yes” or “obviously yes” response to a question. Since the fourth century, the popes have all claimed to be Catholic (they were not called “pontifex maximus” prior to then) and the vast majority have been Roman Catholic in their faith. Some were more hypocritical, etc. and thus this author would be hesitant to claim that all the Bishops of Rome have truly held to the faith of that church.

But is it possible that the last pope, who could be Pope Francis I, will not be Roman Catholic? On the surface this seems absurd.

As discussed in chapter 2, prior to becoming Pope Francis I, Jorge Mario Bergoglio went to Catholic seminary, became a Catholic priest, then a bishop, then a cardinal, and then on March 13, 2013, the Bishop of Rome. So, to most he clearly is a Catholic. And Pope Francis I may well truly be.

But if he is the last and final pope, then the Bible shows that he will allow compromise mightily and allow the Catholic Church of Rome to be betrayed, hence suggesting that he would not then be true to the Catholic faith.

Connecting the Dots

As cited earlier, the Bible tells of a religious leader who will rise up and support the final European Beast power to the point of attempting to force people to worship that Beast (Revelation 13:11-17).

Although some have suggested that the ten-horned Beast of the Sea (Revelation 13:1-4) will turn against and burn the two-horned Beast of the Earth (Revelation 13:11), based upon the teachings of Revelation 17:16-17, since this two-horned Beast is the False Prophet of Revelation 16:13 and he gets burnt by Jesus and His angels (Revelation 19:15-21, someone or something else must get destroyed in Revelation 17.

The Bible specifies that the someone/something is a city that rules over the world. Since the time of Jesus, what are the only organizations that ruled over much of the old Roman Empire from a seven-hilled city?

They would include the old Roman Empire, the Church of Rome, and to a lessor degree, the Eastern Orthodox Church (Constantinople/ Istanbul is on seven-hills, similar to Rome and had a certain prominence for about 1,000 years). They have had relations with world rulers that have not always lived up to New Testament ideals and actually are the only ones that could possibly fit the historical record.

Now since parts of both Roman and Orthodox Catholic prophecy show that Rome wins out between the two in the end in terms of final top leader, this is consistent with the historical understanding within the Church of God that Rome is the unfaithful woman in Revelation 17. Presuming that is the case, then if one connects-the-dots, it is the Church of Rome that gets betrayed by supporters of the ten-horned Beast in Revelation 17. And since the two-horned Beast is a major supporter of the ten-horned Beast, he then has at least some responsibility in this end time destruction of the Church of Rome (for more dots to connect, see also chapters 5 and 12).

Since it should be almost inconceivable that a pope that was truly Roman Catholic in the sense of the Catechism of the Catholic Church would totally betray his church, this is why I am suggesting that the last pope will not truly be Catholic.

This destruction of Rome is consistent with various Catholic private prophecies that suggest that a top Roman clergy member (like a pope) would betray their church and oversee the destruction of Rome…

For years I have believed that the last pope would not truly be Catholic. He would be a different type of “antipope” (most antipopes occurred because of disputed elections, but I have suggested that a pontiff who does not hold too many of the core beliefs of the Church of Rome would also seem to fit the definition of an antipope).

Will Pope Francis I end up being that pontiff?

(Thiel B. The Last Pope: Do Biblical and Catholic Prophecies Point to Pope Francis? Nazarene Books, 2013, pp. 86-89)

The above book has quotes of many, many, biblical and other prophecies to help you see what to look out for to determine if Pope Francis will be the final Antichrist. I will also state that I agree with Francis there is no Catholic God–however, I do believe that the Church of Rome has a god (2 Corinthians 4:4), but this is not the same as the God of the Bible.

Francis remains one to watch.

Some items of possibly related interest may include:

Why Should American Catholics Should Fear Unity with the Orthodox? Are the current ecumenical meetings a good thing or will they result in disaster? Is doctrinal compromise good? Is the plan to adopt some Protestant teachings and eliminate Protestantism?
Orthodox Must Reject Unity with the Roman Catholics Unity between these groups will put them in position to be part of the final end time Babylon that the Bible warns against as well as require improper compromise.
Anglo – America in Prophecy & the Lost Tribes of Israel Are the Americans, Canadians, English, Scottish, Welsh, Australians, Anglo (non-Dutch) Southern Africans, and New Zealanders descendants of Joseph? Where are the lost ten-tribes of Israel? Who are the lost tribes of Israel? What will happen to Jerusalem and the Jews in Israel? Will God punish the U.S.A., Canada, United Kingdom, and other Anglo nations? Why might God allow them to be punished first?
Hope of Salvation: How the Continuing Church of God differ from most Protestants How the real Church of God differs from mainstream/traditional Protestants, is perhaps the question I am asked most by those without a Church of God background.
The Last Pope Do Biblical and Catholic Prophecies Point to Pope Francis? Why might Pope Francis be the last pope? What happens if he is? Biblical and other prophecies help explain what to expect.
The Last Pope: Do Biblical and Catholic Prophecies Point to Pope Francis? Amazon Book What does the Bible say about a pope near this time? Is the final pope to be an antipope and antichrist? Does Catholic prophecy point to Pope Francis as being the dreaded “Peter the Roman”? This 186 page book provides information and answers.
The Last Pope: Do Biblical and Catholic Prophecies Point to Pope Francis? Kindle This electronic version of the printed book which is available for only US$2.99. And you do not need an actual Kindle device to read it. Why? Amazon will allow you to download it to almost any device: Please click HERE to download one of Amazon s Free Reader Apps. After you go to for your free Kindle reader and then go to The Last Pope: Do Biblical and Catholic Prophecies Point to Pope Francis? Kindle.
Pope Francis: Could this Marian Focused Pontiff be Fulfilling Prophecy? Pope Francis has taken many steps to turn people more towards his version of ‘Mary.’ Could this be consistent with biblical and Catholic prophecies? This article documents what has been happening. There is also a video version titled Pope Francis: Could this Marian Focused Pontiff be Fulfilling Prophecy?
Could Pope Francis be the Last Pope and Antichrist? According to some interpretations of the prophecies of the popes by the Catholic saint and Bishop Malachy, Pope Francis I is in the position of “Peter the Roman,” the pontiff who reigns during tribulations until around the time of the destruction of Rome. Do biblical prophecies warn of someone that sounds like Peter the Roman? Could Francis I be the heretical antipope of Catholic private prophecies and the final Antichrist of Bible prophecy? This is a YouTube video.
The Malachy Prophecies and “Peter the Roman” An Irish bishop allegedly predicted something about 112 popes in the 12th century. Pope Benedict XVI was number 111. Francis would seem to be number 112–if he is that one–and if so, he is to reign until Rome is destroyed. May he be an antipope/final Antichrist?
Which Is Faithful: The Roman Catholic Church or the Continuing Church of God? Do you know that both groups shared a lot of the earliest teachings? Do you know which church changed? Do you know which group is most faithful to the teachings of the apostolic church? Which group best represents true Christianity? This documented article answers those questions. [Português: Qual é fiel: A igreja católica romana ou a igreja do deus?]