[Campion]

John speaks of "antichrists" already gone into the world. That is a more likely way to pin this on the papacy.

John also tells you how to identify those antichrists.

"He who denies the Father and the Son ..."

IMO, that's someone who denies the Incarnation and the Divinity of Christ. No Pope (yet) meets that qualification.

[xzins]

I was speaking in terms of trying to find a system that's the culprit. The word "antichrists" would make that possible.

As opposed to the "son of perdition" which seems clearly to be speaking of a person, imo.

I'm not thrilled at all about mariology, but I don't think that Catholics deny the Father and the Son. They are historic trinitarians.