1. A liberal Pope

The ultra-Conservative Catholics imagine that every Pope is conservative. They also imagine that if a Pope were liberal, he must be a heretic. They think that the answer to every theological question is the conservative answer. But that is not what Christ taught. He did not teach conservatism, but truth — including some theological answers that are liberal or moderate, rather than conservative.

Which future Popes will be liberal? More than a few.

Pope Francis is actually quite liberal. He believes in reform of the Vatican’s bureaucracy. He has a great concern for the poor and other disadvantaged populations. And he recently gave a sermon that suggested atheists can be saved without converting to belief in God.

But in my eschatology, I’m predicting a future liberal Pope, one who is elected during the latter years of World War 3, after the great apostasy and a great schism in the Church. He will be liberal, but a true and valid Pope. He will be the Pope who approves of the ordination of women to the deaconate. He will be opposed from the outset by the ultra-conservative Catholics.

2. Women Deacons

A future Pope will approve of the ordination of women deacons
predicted timing: sometime in the latter half of the 2010’s, perhaps in 2016

The conservative position is that women cannot be ordained at all. However, the Magisterium has only taught that women cannot be ordained to the priesthood, because Christ did not give the Church the authority to ordain women as priests. As for ordination to the deaconate, that remains an open question. I contend that this passage:

[Romans 16]
{16:1} Now I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is in the ministry of the church, which is at Cenchreae,
{16:2} so that you may receive her in the Lord with the worthiness of the saints, and so that you may be of assistance to her in whatever task she will have need of you. For she herself has also assisted many, and myself also.

implies that women will eventually be ordained as deacons, since the Greek word corresponding to the word “ministry” above is a word meaning deacon. Now you might argue that deacon in Greek has the broader meaning of service, which does not imply ordination. But my response is that the role of deacon in the Church today involves nothing that is prohibited to women by way of service. A deacon does not dispense any Sacrament that cannot also be dispensed by a layperson in extraordinary circumstances.

3. Unification

All the Protestant denominations will repent and convert, and will seek unity with the one Catholic Church.
predicted timing: late 2010’s for conversion and seeking of unity; early 2020’s for the restructuring of the Church needed to accomplish unification.

Jesus predicted this event in the parable of the Prodigal Son. He also prayed that his disciples would be one. His prayer and His prediction cannot fail. But conservative Catholics will behave like the elder son in the parable, refusing to rejoice in Unification. For this event will bring a huge influx of new members into the Catholic Church, members who tend to be more liberal, who have no attachment to the Latin Mass, and who will influence the Church toward a greater diversity of liturgical form.

4. Restructuring

In response to the return of the Prodigal Protestant Churches, the one Catholic Church will be restructured to have seven parts: 5 for the formerly Protestant denominations, one for the East, and only one for the Latin Rite. Conservative influence in the Church will be diluted, and the hope of a uniform Latin-only Mass for the whole world will be dashed.

5. A non-Roman Pope

As the Blessed Virgin Mary predicted at La Salette:

‘A protestant nation from the north will convert to the faith and, by means of this nation, the other nations will return to the faith.’
‘The pope who will come after this one will not be roman.’ [Maximin’s secrets]

So, after the conversion and return of the Protestant prodigal churches, a valid and true Pope will be elected who is not a Roman Catholic — he will be one of the converts from Protestantism, a new Catholic, but not of the Roman (i.e. Latin) Rite. The ultra-conservative Catholics will be beside themselves with anger and indignation.

by
Ronald L. Conte Jr.
Roman Catholic theologian and
translator of the Catholic Public Domain Version of the Bible.