Ancient prophecies: Pope Francis Could be the last

WHEN the great 16th Century prophet Nostradamus stared into the
future, he described the fate of the final pope with eerie detail. And
the first sign will soon be in our skies.
The 266th pope now sits on the Throne of St Peter. According to the
pen of several prophets, he will be the last.
One prophet, a Saint of the Catholic Church, counted down the popes
until the end of the world. After Pope Francis there are no more on
that list.
Nostradamus himself foresaw the end of a pope and the Church itself at
a time when a great comet was to fill our skies. Comet Ison, said to
be one of the brightest for centuries, will pass by later this year.
Their ancient words have set speculation ablaze on internet forums and
in social media debates.
Anything mentioning Nostradamus is bound to fire up imaginations.
From his smoke-filled room in 16th century Renaissance France, the
prophet wrote oneof his characteristically tantalising four-line
prophetic "quatrains":
Quatrain II.46
"The great star for seven days shall burn
So nakedly clear like two suns appearing
The large dog all night howling, While the great Pontiff shall change
his territory."
Astronomers have announced that Comet Ison, which will pass later this
year, could end up being brighter than the moon - if it survives its
encounter with the sun.
This has been seized upon as evidence that Nostradamus's words are
about to come to pass.
Another of Nostradamus's writings has also beenassociated with the end
of the Catholic Church:
Quatrain VI.6:
There will appear towards the North
Not far from Cancer the bearded star:
Susa, Siena, Boeotia, Eretria,
The great one of Romewill die, the night over.
Again a portentous comet is mentioned inassociation with a fateful
event involving"the great one of Rome", a phrase he repeatedly used to
refer to the Catholic Church.
As with all of Nostradamus' prophecies, these quatrains have been
applied to various events over the centuries - most recently Pope John
Paul II.
However, in this case, Nostradamus was not the only one to foretell
the fate of the Catholic Church's final leader.
It is the writings of Saint Malachy, an archbishop of the 1100s, which
definitively states this will be the pope of theend times.
A Benedictine monk claimed to have discovered in 1595 a collection of
the Saint's papers where he had purportedly secretly written down 112
brief but vague prophecies. Each is associated with the reign of an
individual pope.
The last phrase applies to Pope Francis:
Verse 112:
"In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit
Peter the Roman, who will pasture his sheep in many tribulations, and
when these things are finished, the city of seven hills will be
destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The End."
Such vague words are widely open to interpretation and willno doubt
continue to generate speculation - even if another pope is elected.
And if Nostradamus and Saint Malachy are proven wrong, one can always
fall back on prophecies from the likes of Sir Isaac Newton who
predicts - based on his biblical calculations - that the world will
end in 2060.