Reports now suggest that Pope Francis intends to publish an encyclical on faith for the Year of Faith. This encyclical may well be based on work on that topic which began under his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. The holy Pontiff resigned prior to completing his planned encyclical on faith.
I believe that God’s providence ordained this encyclical to be issued under Pope Francis, rather than Pope Benedict, for a very particular reason. The version planned by Pope Benedict XVI would perhaps have been like his other encyclicals: sound theology, but lacking any sharp rebuke to unfaithful sinners. The version that Pope Francis writes (or rewrites) will offer sharp correction to those who call themselves Catholic while rejecting the teachings of the Faith.
We stand now on the threshold of the tribulation. Unfortunately, one of the major events of the tribulation is the great apostasy, an event in which most Catholics leave the Church. In my eschatology, the tribulation begins soon, perhaps in 2013, but certainly by 2016, and the great apostasy is one of the early events of the tribulation.
It seems a fitting irony for the great apostasy to begin during the year of faith. For this apostasy, this abandonment of the true Faith by so many who call themselves Catholic, is not willed by God, but only foreseen and permitted by Him. Thus, in His infinite faithfulness, God first calls His wandering sheep back to Faith — by means (in part) of this new encyclical on Faith. Unfortunately, the response by many Catholics will be to leave the Church. The call to faith initiates an abandonment of the Faith.
The foundation for the great apostasy is already laid. Most Catholics do not see the Church as Teacher. They adhere to the prevalent opinions in sinful secular society, regardless of Church teaching. They do not believe that the Church has teaching authority from God. They feel free to call themselves Catholic while openly rejecting the definitive teaching of the Magisterium on important matters of faith and morals. All that is now needed for the great apostasy to begin is a triggering event.
As I’ve said all along, the event that initiates the great apostasy is the Pope teaching definitively on faith and morals. But since each Pope and the Body of Bishops teach continuously, what would distinguish the teaching that initiates the apostasy? I now believe that this particular encyclical is the trigger for the great apostasy.
My hopes for the contents of this encyclical:
The encyclical will call the members of the Church back to the fullness of faith.
The encyclical will state who may and may not receive Communion.
The encyclical will forbid those who openly reject definitive Catholic teaching from receiving Communion, including politician.
I hope that the encyclical will clarify the distinction between infallible and non-infallible teachings, and the different types and degrees of assent required. But perhaps this point will remain in dispute for some time.
I believe that this encyclical will include the use of Papal Infallibility. The unfaithful within the Church already know that they are rejecting definitive magisterial teaching. An encyclical that merely reiterates the known teaching of the Church would not trigger the great apostasy. However, if the encyclical uses Papal Infallibility, it will perhaps provoke a different response.
Not all of the unfaithful will reject the contents of this encyclical. By the grace of God, some unfaithful persons, some who have gone astray by believing heretical doctrines, may be brought back to the true faith by means of this encyclical. For I expect this encyclical on faith to correct a number of misunderstandings on faith and required beliefs.
When will the encyclical be released? I expect it to be promulgated well before the Year of Faith ends on Nov. 24, 2013. Hopefully, it will be completed and released as soon as possible, perhaps by summer. And if the tribulation does begin in 2013, I expect that it will begin in the summer.
[Matthew]
{24:32} So, from the fig tree learn a parable. When its branch has now become tender and the leaves have sprung forth, you know that summer is near.
{24:33} So also, when you will have seen all these things, know that it is near, even at the threshold.
The very start of the tribulation, its threshold, occurs in summer.
UPDATE: the encyclical on faith has been released, and it is not as I had hoped. Almost the entire work was written by Pope emeritus Benedict, with a few contributions by Pope Francis. So I still await the first encyclical by Pope Francis, and I expect that encyclical to be as described above.
by
Ronald L. Conte Jr.
Roman Catholic theologian and
translator of the Catholic Public Domain Version of the Bible.
the reproach of Christ 
What the Church really needs is a year of morals and a matching encyclical on morals.
It would help everyone. There would presumably be no circumvention. And this would certainly trigger the great apostasy if it has not already happened. Maybe Pope Francis will build off the year of faith with this. He is proven to be wise and clever and holy. I could see him conceiving something like this.
As far as the start of the tribulation. There is no doubt we are at the threshold. But God has shown Himself to be supremely patient in all this. In Revelation only the Lamb is worthy to break the seal. So for me even though the war starts by the extremists attacking it is really Jesus who initiates the Tribulation. He decides. So I am leaning more towards after the Warning-Consolation-Miracle. The act of Jesus breaking open the seal could be these. Recently I was reading the Second Secret of Fatima. Mary said, “When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.” The night could be this world. The unknown light could be the signs left at the Miracle. They are unknown in the sense that they cannot be scientifically explained. Then there is the war, the great famine, etc. This would at least give a little time for the faithful to make something of a preparation.
From a secular point of view Iran is also proven to be very patient with their plans. Why would they rush to send over the nukes when they know the U.S. Commander in Chief does not want to take action? They could wait until his term ends. I do see any reason for them to act in haste once they complete their nuclear program presumably in secret. They could continue to hide evidence and lie. Meanwhile they stockpile, strengthen alliances, build more weapons, etc. Eventually they bomb Manhattan and other U.S. cities (maybe Philadelphia) at the outset of WWIII (Mary mentions Manhattan and Philadelphia in her messages to Pedro Regis).
As far as the verse concerning Matthew I understand the summer as a Golden Age proceeding from the Return of Jesus, whether the Millenium or the New Heaven and the New Earth. As if a Kingdom of Summer. The NET Bible has this verse translated:
(Matt 24:33 [NET])
So also you, when you see all these things, know that he is near, right at the door.
By the time all of the above listed events happen Jesus is about to open up a fullness of the Kingdom. And this is a summer for creation.
Peace.
.
Many of the modern-day heresies are clearly contrary to Sacred Scripture as well as magisterial documents from the 20th and 21st centuries. Sacred Scripture does teach that intrinsically evil acts do exist, that Hell does exist and sinners condemned to Hell are there forever, and that lying, murder, and non-marital sexual acts are intrinsically evil.
Many Catholics today might not know that all Christian churches had considered contraception and direct abortion to be morally wrong until the Lambeth Conference of 1930, when the Anglican church began to teach that contraception can be moral under some circumstances. Since then, the other Protestant Churches started to teach that contraception can be morally good and many Catholics started to reject the Catholic Church’s teaching on contraception.
The Catholic Church had actually taught that direct abortion is intrinisically evil and always gravely sinful, even when the life of the mother is in danger or the direct abortion is sought as a means to improve the health of the mother or save the life of the mother, and this teaching is actually found in Casti Connubii and Humanae Vitae. Some Catholics today did not know that direct abortion when the life of the mother is in danger was not legal in all 50 states until the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. Although most Catholics do know that abortion is morally wrong and mortally sinful under ordinary circumstances, many Catholics do not know that direct abortion is intrinsically evil and always gravely immoral, even when the life of the mother is in danger. Furthermore, most Catholics do not even know that this teaching was taught by the Catholic Church long before its legalization in the United States and other countries in the world. In the last 40 years, secular society and most of Protestant Christianity has taught that direct abortion can be morally acceptable when the life of the mother is in danger, but some Protestant churches continue to teach that direct abortion is morally wrong under ordinary circumstances.
Pope Francis needs to do more than re-iterate Catholic Church teaching on abortion and sexual morality in his encyclical. He needs to emphasize that the Catholic Church’s teaching on abortion was taught by the Church long before its legalization in the United States and elsewhere in the world. The Magisterium needs to make clear in the next encyclical that unnatural sexual acts, even those committed between a husband and wife who are validly married to each other, are intrinsically evil and always gravely immoral. The Catholic Church also needs to mention its teachings on the fundamental principles of morality and the inerrancy of Sacred Scripture in magisterial documents.
I think you may be right. Pope Francis style so far has been to encourage the flock to be authentic Christians and not care for human respect. I can see easily see this translate in the doctrinal aspect of his teachings.