'SPARK FROM HEAVEN': POPE SEEN AS SIGN OF COMING EVENTS AND WAS LINKED TO SEERS
With the passing of John Paul II the prophetic adrenaline is flowing as seldom before, and for good reason: the Pope not only changed history -- making himself the focus of prophecy -- but was himself wide open to supernatural manifestations.
Under John Paul II the great mystic Padre Pio was canonized, as was Sister Faustina of Poland, who received the Divine Mercy revelations. A statue exuding tears was approved in Italy, as were apparitions in such places as Kibeho, Rwanda, Cuapa, Nicaragua, and Betania, Venezuela. It was John Paul II, through Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who in 1986 stopped a local bishop from rejecting the apparitions at Medjugorje (in Bosnia-Hercegovina).
Meanwhile, and meaningfully, his passing comes quickly in the wake of the deaths of famed mystics Maria Esperanza and Sister Lucia dos Santos of Fatima -- speeding the prophetic pulse. There is also Terri Schiavo: even secular outlets are calling it an uncanny "coincidence" that the "culture of life" Pope, who lobbied hard for Terri's life, and who was reportedly deeply upset on hearing news of her death, died two days after she did -- the Pope passing in a disabled state but with the dignity he wanted for everyone.
The connection to Fatima remains the strongest mystical link. The Pope credited Our Lady of Fatima with saving his life in 1981 and is believed to be the "bishop in white" mentioned in the legendary "third secret" -- which he released in 2000.
He may also be connected to the revelation of St. Faustina Kowalska of Poland -- the Divine Mercy saint who had quoted Jesus as saying, "I bear a special love for Poland and if she will be obedient to My will, I will exalt her in might and holiness. From her will come forth the spark that will prepare the world for My final coming" (Diary 1732).
Many have long believed that John Paul II was that "spark," and such speculation can only gain momentum by further "coincidences," especially the fact that John Paul II died Saturday -- at the end of a more than weeklong Divine Mercy novena -- and on the vigil of the Feast of Divine Mercy that he himself had instituted. The first Mass offered for him was a Mass of Divine Mercy.
Thus, by that calculation, the death of the Pope is the harbinger of huge events. The death of this deeply Marian Pope also came on the First Saturday of the month, and was followed by suddenly fierce winds in Italy.
The Pope's passing also brings into play the prophecies of St. Malachy O'Morgair, an Irish monk who supposedly had a vision of the future popes while visiting Rome in 1139. The authenticity of the event is greatly disputed, and like all mysticism should be strictly discerned, but St. Malachy is said to have prophesied the list of popes through short, esoteric nicknames.
By this reckoning, if we accept it as a legitimate prophecy, John Paul II was De Labore Solis ("from the labor of the sun"), and would be followed by only two more popes -- the next being De Gloria Olivae ("from the glory of the olive") and then Petrus Romanus ("Peter the Roman").
The prophecies about the number of popes are many and often differ markedly from one another. At the popular and controversial site of Garabandal in Spain, a seer named Conchita Gonzalez once noted, "The Blessed Virgin said in 1962 that there will be only two more popes after Paul VI."
There was also St. John Bosco, who foresaw a time when a pontiff would stand at the helm of a noble ship in turbulent seas and guide it to safe passage between twin pillars that represent the Blessed Mother and the Eucharist. No Pope in history was more dedicated to the Virgin Mary than John Paul II, and he had declared the current year as the "Year of the Eucharist"!
"When this Pope will have completed the task which Jesus has entrusted to him and I will come down from Heaven to receive his sacrifice, all of you will be cloaked in a dense darkness of apostasy, which will then become general," asserted the locution of an Italian priest who is likewise as interesting as he is controversial. "There will remain faithful only that little remnant which, in these years, by accepting my motherly invitation, has let itself be enfolded in the secure refuge of my Immaculate Heart. And it will be this little faithful remnant, prepared and formed by me, that will have the task of receiving Christ, who will return to you in glory, bringing about in this way the beginning of the new era which awaits you.”
Such alleged claims have sparked fervid monitoring of the Pope and his potentially prophetic implications. Many are those who expected him to the proclaim a new dogma, believing that this declaration would lead to huge events.
Lesser and vastly more controversial prophecies claimed that John Paul II would end up in exile and die outside of Rome -- prophecies that, obviously, have turned out to be invalid. There are those who have predicted that the next Pope will be an "anti-Pope" or even the antichrist -- a drastic and dangerous prognostication.
But major events are on the horizon and matters that deal with the Church are said to be in the secrets of Medjugorje. There is now the searing question of what the next Pope will do when it comes to that apparition site: Will the next Pope reverse course and allow the bishop to now make a negative judgment?
John Paul reportedly read the monthly message from Medjugorje, often making statements that paralleled what Mary said there. Indeed, "Youth Day" followed messages on youth from Medjugorje.
Smiling when two pictures of the Pope were brought by a woman from Osijek in 1982, the Blessed Mother of Medjugorje reportedly said, "He is your father, my angels."
Concerning the Pope, who was briefed on the apparitions in an urgent letter from the pastor at St. James church in Medjugorje, the Blessed Mother also said, "Have him consider himself the father of all mankind and not only of Christians. Have him spread untiringly and with courage the message of peace and love among all mankind." According to a locutionist who was not part of the formal group of six seers, she also asked that he try to bring together Christians.
This John Paul II certainly did -- traveling the globe in subsequent years, as if he heard the same voice. At one apparition on April 2, visionary Ivan Dragicevic was recommending intentions to Our Lady when, allegedly, the newly deceased Pope appeared on her left. (He was smiling, young and very happy, all in white with a long gold cape, claim e-mails that are flying about the internet. Our Lady supposedly said to Ivan: 'This is my son; he is with me.")
What are we to make of it all? Could we be ready for things to occur in quick succession? Haven't matters (Esperanza, Lucia, Schiavo, and now the Pope; hurricanes; tsunamis) been moving fast as it is? And how should the Church deal with mysticism?
At the same time that many bishops have hardened their
stance against mystical claims, the Pope did the opposite, even receiving seers in a few instances. Ukrainian mystic Josyp Terelya -- who saw the Blessed Mother while imprisoned in a gulag -- met with the Pope both privately and in a formal session (right); and visionaries from Medjugorje (left), South America, the U.S., Asia, Europe, and other parts of the world presented him or his representatives with their messages -- many of them asserting, rightly or wrongly, that John Paul was a fellow seer.
When asked if she felt the same way, famous Venezuelan seer Maria Esperanza, who asserted that the Pope bilocated to her, and who on a visit to the Vatican once presented the Pope with a picture of the Virgin (as Mary, "Reconciler of Peoples and Nations"), only smiled at the question and said, "He will never say."
[resources: The Bridge to Heaven, Queen of the Cosmos, and Medjugorje and the Church]
