If I present anything from private revelation, even to a Blessed or Saint, my theological opponents will cry out: “We don’t have to believe anything in private revelation”. True enough. But when the contents of a private revelation please them, the same persons treat that source like dogma. Now certain persons, wishing to oppose Pope Francis, have been using the private revelations at La Salette to attack not only the Pope, but the Holy See and the Church Herself.

The Blessed Virgin Mary at La Salette: “Rome will lose the Faith and become the Seat of the Antichrist.”

Absent La Salette, based on my work in Catholic eschatology, I could have told you the same truth. The people of Rome, not the Pope or the Holy See, but the persons living in the secular city of Rome, lose the Faith. They follow the Antichrist when he rises to power. And then they rise up against the Pope of that time, called “Antipas” by the book of Revelation, to kill him. Those few faithful who are left in the Vatican City of that time or in Rome are killed or driven into exile.

Then the Antichrist, wishing to destroy the true Church and to replace it with his own false Church, makes Rome to be the seat of his religion authority. He makes Jerusalem to be the seat of worship in his false Church. The Antichrist never attempts to become Pope, nor to run the Catholic Church, nor to make his false prophet into a Pope. Rather, he sets up his own false religion, worshipping himself, not Jesus Christ. And then this false Church fights against the true Catholic Church, which still exists and is clearly separate from the false Church of the Antichrist.

The false interpretation is that “Rome will lose the Faith” means that the Roman Pontiff and/or the Holy See will lose the Faith and begin to teach heresy, to lead people astray, and to try to destroy the Church. This claim is false and contrary to dogma. The indefectibility of the Church is a dogmatic teaching; the Magisterium has always taught that the Church can never go astray or lead astray. Then the Pope is also indefectible, in the sense that he is the Rock on which the Church is founded and he cannot fail in faith (Mt 16:18; Lk 22:32). So no Pope has ever or can ever teach grave error, nor try to corrupt the Church, nor fail in faith by heresy, apostasy, or idolatry. So this false interpretation is heretical and schismatic. It tries to convince the faithful not to trust the Pope or the body of Bishops, as if we were in or near the time when “Rome” would lose the faith. This leads the faithful away from the Church, which is the body of Christ.

As for the Rome becoming the seat of the Antichrist, meaning the location of his authority, that does not imply that the Antichrist is Pope or is associated with the Pope. So the Holy See does not become the See of the Antichrist, as in the false interpretation. Rather, secular sinful Rome becomes the See of the Antichrist’s false religion.

In the book of Daniel, the time is described when Rome loses the Faith and become the See of the Antichrist.

{9:24} Seventy weeks of years are concentrated on your people and on your holy city, so that transgression shall be finished, and sin shall reach an end, and iniquity shall be wiped away, and so that everlasting justice shall be brought in, and vision and prophecy shall be fulfilled, and the Saint of saints shall be anointed.
{9:25} Therefore, know and take heed: from the going forth of the word to build up Jerusalem again, until the Christ leader, there will be seven weeks of years, and sixty-two weeks of years; and the wide path will be built again, and the walls, in a time of anguish.
{9:26} And after sixty-two weeks of years, the Christ leader will be slain. And the people who have denied him will not be his. And the people, when their leader arrives, will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will be devastation, and, after the end of the war, the desolation will be set up.
{9:27} But he will confirm a covenant with many for one week of years; and for half of the week of years, victim and sacrifice will nearly cease; but there will be in the temple the abomination of desolation. And the desolation will continue even to the consummation and the end.”

The “going forth of the word to build up Jerusalem again” is 1948 when the State of Israel was declared. Then the arrival of the Christ leader (a Christian leader in my interpretation) was 49 years later (7 weeks of years) in 1996 counting 1948 as year one. And that is when the great Catholic monarch was born (Ferdinand Zvonimir). Then 62 weeks of years later is week 69, which is one week of years before the end of the 70 weeks of years. That one week of years has traditionally been considered the reign of the Antichrist. So week 69 is when the Antichrist rises to power. At that point, “the Christ leader will be slain.” In this case, there is a dual meaning. The Christian leader of the South falls to the king of the North, the Antichrist, in warfare, by means of betrayal: “And the people who have denied him will not be his.” He will be betrayed.

Then also, the Roman Pontiff of that time, who is also “the Christ leader”, is slain by the followers of the Antichrist. This is detailed in the next sentence: “And the people, when their leader arrives, will destroy the city and the sanctuary.” The supporters of the Antichrist kill the Roman Pontiff after the Christian king of the South is killed. The kingdom of the South was the last protection that Catholic Christians and other believers had against those who hate religion in the world. Once that kingdom, which includes the Holy Land, fell to the Antichrist, those who hate the Church felt free to kill the Pope and destroy the city, meaning the Vatican City of that time, and the sanctuary, meaning all the Churches of Rome, especially the main Basilica of that time.

“And its end will be devastation, and, after the end of the war, the desolation will be set up.”

In the end, Rome will be destroyed. It will no longer be needed once Christ Returns. And after the end of the war, meaning the rise to power of the Antichrist, the abomination of desolation will be set up. See my other posts and my books about the abomination.

[Daniel]
{11:25} And his strength and his heart will be enraged against the king of the South with a great army. And the king of the South will be provoked into going to war by having many allies and exceedingly good circumstances, and yet these will not stand, for they will form plans against him.
{11:26} And those who eat bread with him will crush him, and his army will be suppressed, and very many will die, having been executed.

The Antichrist, as the king of the North, will make war against the Christian king of the South. Those who eat bread with him, are those who receive the Eucharist with him, yet they are not Catholic Christians, as “the people who have denied him will not be his.”

After defeating the king of the South, the Antichrist as the king of the North, defeats the next two most powerful kingdoms.

{11:27} And the heart of two kings will be similar, to do harm, and they will speak lies at one table, but they will not succeed, because as yet the end is for another time.

Again, by betrayals, the Antichrist takes control of these two kingdoms as well. Now he has put down three kings.

{7:24} Moreover, the ten horns of the same kingdom will be ten kings, and another will rise up after them, and he will be mightier than the ones before him, and he will bring down three kings.

In the latter years of the kingdom of the ten kings, the Antichrist rises to power as the king of the North, one of the ten. He then defeats three kings, so that the kingdom of the ten kings becomes a kingdom with 7 heads (the Antichrist and the six remaining king) and 10 horns (ten kingdoms). This is the beast of Revelation:

{12:3} And another sign was seen in heaven. And behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems.
{12:4} And his tail drew down a third part of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman, who was about to give birth, so that, when she had brought forth, he might devour her son.

The great red dragon is the kingdom of the ten kings, after it has been taken over by the Antichrist. The seven diadems are the seven rulers over the false religion of the Antichrist. These are, at first, the same as the temporal rulers over the ten kingdoms. Each ruler will have both temporal and spiritual authority. Then later, when the false prophetess convinces the Antichrist to make a formal structure for his religion, there will be one spiritual leader for each of the ten kingdoms, so ten diadems. And these rulers are separate from the temporal rulers, who are still seven.

{13:1} And I saw a beast ascending from the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon its horns were ten diadems, and upon its heads were names of blasphemy.

The formal religion of the Antichrist gives each ruler blasphemous titles.

The tail of the dragon, meaning the religion of the Antichrist, drags down a third of the “stars”, meaning a third of the Catholic Bishops go astray by following the Antichrist. Then the woman is the Church. She is not destroyed by the Antichrist or his kingdom. She is not corrupted by him. She withstands the Antichrist and his false teachings. For the gates of Hell never prevail over the Church.

So the Pope and the Holy See and the Church never lose the Faith. And the Rome that becomes the See of the Antichrist is sinful secular Rome, not the Roman Pontiff or his See.

Ronald L. Conte Jr.