Pope Leo XIV in a Divided World

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How this papal election fulfills the most important prophecy, and the opportunity this presents…

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Mark Mallett
00:00 – 00:28
The world has been holding its breath as India and Pakistan, two nuclear armed nations, have been threatening each other. At the same time, the world has been holding its breath to see who the 267th Pope would be. And he’s been elected. An American. Is this going to be a moment of galvanizing the Church and the world? Well, that next, on Countdown to the Kingdom.

Mark Mallett
00:42 – 00:53
Hello, I’m Mark Mallett from Countdown to the Kingdom and thenoword.com, and I’m joined with my confrere from New York, Albany, New York. Good to have you back there, Daniel.

Daniel O’Connor
00:53 – 00:54
Good to be back on, brother.

Mark Mallett
00:56 – 01:26
We have been, honestly, we’ve been trying so hard to get webcasts together on a regular basis and it’s just been, with everything happening in your life and mine and a lot of things going on, we apologize because we did say last fall we were going to get more webcasts out. But we have a good reason to get together and we have a short window tonight to speak about it. That’s the election of Pope Leo XIV. I don’t know, are you surprised that it’s an American? A fellow American I should add.

Daniel O’Connor
01:25 – 01:40
Very surprised. A fellow American. Yeah, it’s—I was wanting pizza balla, and I was thinking that would happen. It didn’t happen, but that’s okay. It’s not my job to select the pope. We’re going to trust that the Holy Spirit was operative in this, and I think he was.

Mark Mallett
01:41 – 02:37
My only concern with that cardinal from Jerusalem was that we would then have the nicknamed Pope Pizza and I just thought, “Will we ever get away from that?” It would have been hard. So the Cardinals probably considered that in the conclave, no doubt. Yeah, how’s that all gonna come down? But the conclave did happen. I remember, actually, I’m just recalling when Pope Benedict was elected. I remember my wife came bounding in. It was in the morning. I think we finished a concert tour the night before. So I was sleeping in and she came bouncing on my bed and she said, “Mark, Mark, there’s a new Pope. There’s a new Pope.” And I said, “Who is it?” She goes, “It’s Cardinal Ratzinger.” And Daniel, I remember just turning into my pillow and weeping with joy.

Daniel O’Connor
01:49 – 02:38
Papa John. Because he was gonna, yeah, if he took the name John, then Papa John, you know, it would be hard to get away from him, you’re right. That was the yeah. Silence.

Mark Mallett
02:38 – 03:36
And for probably three days, I had this incredible joy. It felt like God was extending the time of grace that we had under John Paul II. And, you know, sure enough, when he spoke, one of the first things he said is, “I’m just going to continue on the path of John Paul II.” When it came to Pope Francis, actually, I was driving on an ice road in Manitoba, Northern Canada heading toward, it was a reserve, so an indigenous reserve. And we could only get there on an ice road. And I remember just seeing pop up on my phone, I managed to get a signal that they had elected Pope Francis. And so now with this new pope, but I remember, I should say before that, Daniel, I remember the Lord saying, this was between Benedict and Francis, the Lord saying that we were going to be entering confusing and dangerous times.

Daniel O’Connor
03:28 – 05:58
I’m going to I’m going to Yeah, well, we’ve all been anxious, I think. I think very few people would be honest if they said they had no worries or anxieties at all about what’s coming up. And, you know, Pope Francis, God rest his soul, we love him, But of course, obviously there was a lot of confusion and ambiguity that we all had to wrestle with and try to find how to properly react ’cause he was the vicar of Christ.

Mark Mallett
03:37 – 06:39
And if you recall, Daniel, remember I heard that for two weeks in my heart during prayer. It was just insistent, the Lord saying, “You’re entering confusing and dangerous times.” And so, you know, for this past pontificate, I think it goes without saying that we’ve entered into times that were really confusing. So when Pope Francis passed away, I don’t know about you, but I looked at all those faces in St. Peter’s Square and all the apprehension in me of what was coming. I saw people cheering and excited. It is a historical moment to see this, but I’m just wondering what you’re feeling for. For me it was apprehension, maybe because of our ministry, the type of ministry you and I have with the NowWord.com for me, with this joint ministry of Countdown to the Kingdom. We’ve had to deal with a lot of the confusion, the dangers that have presented themselves over the course of Pope Francis’s pontificate. having to really play a lot of defense and contextualizing and re-explaining and dealing with distortions in the media. So for me anyway, it was, “Okay, who are we going to be electing?” And when he walked out, Pope Leo XIV, and I saw his face and I saw the genuine fear in him. You could see, especially that one profile shot, you could see. I should have it up on the screen. But that one profile shot, it almost looked like he was saying, “Oh, help me God. Help me to be able to do this.” And I just saw a humility in that. But anyway, that’s my kind of preamble. I wonder what your thoughts are as you now, again this is historical, surprised for me too to see an American elected as the 267th Pope. (whistling) (chuckling) *quietly reading* Yeah.

Daniel O’Connor
05:58 – 06:48
We have to obey him and submit to his magisterium. But also there were some issues that did have to be clarified. And really we were called to. But some people, they just got their guard up so much during the last pontificate that they’re starting this one off on the wrong foot, on a really bad foot. And I, you know, more on that in a moment, but first real quick, those who kind of went off the deep end, the last pontificate saying, oh, Francis, he’s either the Antichrist or the false prophet. I mean, that was so clearly bogus, but even if they couldn’t see that then, I hope they wake up and see that now ’cause Pope Francis came and went, he’s dead. The church has survived because Jesus promised the gates of hell will not prevail. There wasn’t, he didn’t do any of the things that we know from public revelation, the Antichrist and the false prophet will do.

Mark Mallett
06:47 – 06:49
[ Inaudible ]

Daniel O’Connor
06:49 – 08:26
So I hope those people will repent of the damage they did to the church and the faithful by spending all those years saying, he’s the false prophet, he’s an antipope, he’s the Antichrist. You got a lot of repenting to do if that was the crowd you were in, because we didn’t see the things that we would have had to see if that was correct. So those, but, and I know that was still the minority, but most people weren’t going that crazy, But a lot of people did just become so on their guard about every little thing that we already see some of them starting this pontificate off that way. And I would encourage you to trust the promises of Christ right now. The answer to the times we’re in is not a huge swell of Catholics just fighting against the Pope. The answer is more trust in Jesus’s words, “You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church “and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” And look at that, as Mark said in the beginning of this, I think the Holy Spirit spoke that to you, Mark, ’cause we didn’t discuss that before, but just the world holding its breath, wondering are we gonna wake up tomorrow dead because is nuclear war about to break out? The thing we’ve been fearing for 77 years, the world holding its breath, but also the world holding its breath at the exact same time because we’ve got a new vicar of Christ about to walk out in the balcony. And this is a moment that we as Catholics can take the bull by the horn and try to present the Catholic church as the answer. we can have a swell of conversions now. We can evangelize like never before now, hopefully. And if we don’t use that, if we instead do the opposite and just start fighting against the Holy Father, we have not only sinned, but we’ve missed a huge opportunity that I think we really need to take right now.

Mark Mallett
08:27 – 11:26
Yeah, I agree with everything you said. You know, people know Countdown to the Kingdom because of our openness and willingness to examine prophecy, to look at private revelation. And you know, we’ve said this in the past, Daniel, it’s a risky affair, countdown to the kingdom. It’s a risky affair to open ourselves to these different seers, to have published them on a regular basis. And it’s created problems. And And, you know, I’ve been examining prophecy for decades. It’s just something the Holy Spirit led me to do. And thank God I had beautiful parents and good people in my lives who were very balanced and who brought that all back into perspective. And thank God for good Popes who continue to focus us on the most important things. I mean, let me just quote Cardinal Ratzinger, who was Pope Benedict XVI, who said, “On this point,” he said, “it should be kept in mind that prophecy in the biblical sense does not mean to predict the future, but to explain the will of God for the present and therefore show the right path to take for the future.” That’s the purpose of prophecy. And I think both you and I are deeply concerned at this hour at how we’ve seen at the same time it’s not just you and I and a handful just and it was it was a handful of people who were willing to broach the subject of private revelation and try and approach it in light of public revelation and and bring it into the context of our times bring it back to the Pope’s the Church Fathers this is what I’ve done in my book this is what you’ve done in your writings to try and bring it in balance because prophecy is biblical. I mean, St. Paul lists prophets as second to the Apostles in his list of the gifts in the body of Christ. At the same time, this conversation has lately, in my opinion, gone rogue. And you pointed it out, people calling Pope Francis the false prophet, the Antichrist, do they not realize that they are contradicting the most preeminent prophecy which came from the lips of Jesus? Peter you are rock and on this rock I will build my church. And as I watched and you saw the headlines you know from all over the world, as I watched the coverage and I flipped around a bit, I was amazed actually at CNN’s coverage, at least what I was listening to on the radio.

Daniel O’Connor
09:24 – 11:34
I’m going to I’m going to Silence.

Mark Mallett
11:28 – 12:57
And you know, for a moment, CNN was the Christian news network. I mean, seriously, the stuff coming out of their mouths, they were astonished at what happened. And I think much of the world was astonished watching this. Because and what was it? It’s that Spirit of Jesus, and Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy, said St. John. And it’s the words of Christ being fulfilled on television before a worldwide audience. That’s what it was. And the Word of Christ, He is the Word made flesh, and that Word has power. The Word is the sword of the Spirit, and that sword, I could tell, was piercing the heart of those anchors. And so this moment today for me, Pope Leo XIV, and we’re going to talk in a moment about some of the things that are surrounding the feast day that this is on, and so we’ll highlight some of that. But for me today, this isn’t about what this seer said and that seer said. Does this apply to Pope Leo XIV? We’re missing the point right now. And the point right now is that the greatest prophecy was just fulfilled. Peter, you are rock. And we know right from Acts chapter 1 when Judas was replaced by Matthias, that apostolic succession was part of the plan of Christ.

Daniel O’Connor
12:54 – 13:51
I’m going to Amen.

Mark Mallett
12:58 – 13:51
Because in that upper room there were dozens of disciples. Why did they have to replace Judas after he died? All they needed to do was go out and proclaim the gospel. They added 5,000 that day. No, but it says in Acts 1 that his office had to be fulfilled. His office was taken by Matthias. So when Peter dies, his office is taken. But what happens to those keys of the kingdom? Well, they’re passed on to the next successor. And today we saw this man, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost. the first American cardinal received the keys of the kingdom. And so, for me, that is the power of everything I have witnessed. It’s the most important thing that comes out of this entire conclave. (laughs)

Daniel O’Connor
13:52 – 15:21
us back to the words of Christ and seeing the unique power of this before with the eyes of the world fixed upon it. Who else, what else, who else can generate such a phenomenon on the face of the planet? Nothing and no one. The Catholic Church alone has this and there are times when no one can deny that. There are times when no one can ignore that at least. That the Catholic Church alone is the recipient of the promises of Christ and in a papal election that’s when you see it. Despite all of the craziness, we survived and we thrived and we will continue to. Even in the most trying of circumstances the last several years, we had waves of conversion to Catholicism, all sorts of high-profile conversions. This past Easter, we had massive amounts of people coming into the faith. And with this, if we respond correctly to this, if we use this in accordance of God’s will, I think we can see that increase. And it’s almost like with that coincidence of events that we started this webcast with, it’s almost like God saying, trying to say to the whole world, here’s a shepherd, here’s someone you can trust, here’s someone you can get behind, here’s someone that can lead you. He’s not a partisan, he’s not fighting for one country or another. He’s interested in the salvation of your soul, and he’s interested in peace as well. I Who knows what enemies, who knows what persecution we’ll see in the future.

Mark Mallett
14:04 – 14:35
Yeah. Alright. I’m going to go ahead and get my phone. [LAUGHTER]

Daniel O’Connor
15:21 – 15:29
We will see it, of course. We don’t know exactly where it’s going to come from. We know it’s coming. But I think we need to do our best to trust this shepherd that God has given us now.

Mark Mallett
15:30 – 16:33
Daniel, I want to turn to the words now of this Pope and what he said from the balcony to all of us because we understand that when the Vicar of Christ is speaking, in fact when any of the Apostles and their successors are speaking, in unity with the Pope, in their mandate to using their authentic magisterium to teach sacred tradition, we know that the church teaches it. That in those moments we’re hearing the voice of Christ. As Jesus said in the Gospel of Luke, He said to them, “Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me.” And so Jesus gave that authority to the apostles. And so when Pope Leo stood on the balcony and spoke, it was beautiful what he said. God cares for us. God loves all of us, and evil will not prevail. Amen.

Daniel O’Connor
16:33 – 16:35
Amen.

Mark Mallett
16:34 – 18:40
We are all in God’s hands. I mean, this is a pope right now speaking as nuclear weapons are being pointed at each other in India and Pakistan as globalists are poised to impose a digital ID and digital passport system on all of humanity. There are so many threats upon humanity right now. But he reminds us, he says, “Evil will not prevail. We are all in God’s hands. Therefore without fear, united hand in hand with God and among ourselves, let us move forward. And this of course echoes John Paul II who said, “Be not afraid,” you know, from that very balcony, you know, “Do not be afraid.” And he says again, “Therefore without fear, united hand in hand,” which is a call for us back to prayer. It’s a call for us to walk with God and to follow Him. And then he said, “We are disciples of Christ. Christ goes before us. The world needs His light. Humanity needs Him as the bridge to reach God and His love. This is a call, Daniel, not to hide in our basements, to build bunkers and sit there and wait, declaring your home a refuge and saying that this is I’m going to wait here until the apocalypse passes over the great storm. Look, I’m not saying this to mock anyone, but listen, Jesus himself said, “What does it profit you to preserve your life, to gain the world, and yet to lose your soul?” Jesus said, “No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you. Wherever I am, thereto will my servant be.” Jesus calls us to follow him in his footsteps, And that means we’re to follow Him in giving our very lives for the sake of the gospel.

Daniel O’Connor
17:04 – 17:25
(audio cuts out)

Mark Mallett
18:40 – 18:44
We can’t get this wrong, Daniel. We can’t get this wrong.

Daniel O’Connor
18:43 – 18:44
Silence.

Mark Mallett
18:44 – 19:05
And right now there’s a prepper, self-preservationist spirit in the church. And we need to rebuke that in Jesus’ name because it’s not the Spirit of Christ. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve got bags of rice in my basement and some canned goods, you bet, because we’re living Even in crazy times, we got crazy weather.

Daniel O’Connor
18:59 – 19:00
You too.

Mark Mallett
19:06 – 20:07
We saw how supply chains dried up with the flick of a switch when they declared a pandemic. And so there’s common sense there. But ultimately, that doesn’t mean because I have a bag of rice that I shouldn’t be out in the street giving my life for the sake of Jesus Christ. And I’m saying this and I’m convicted because, yeah, I’m doing this on this webcast right now. writings. But I’m convicted and I’m saying, “What more can I do, Jesus?” Daniel, I just got back from Indonesia where my wife and I traveled there for a week and thanks be to God we had a trip that was paid for us to go. And as I drove through Bali, Indonesia, you could see the poverty in the streets from one little hut to the next. And people living, like elderly, 90 year old people sitting in a business, hoping that they’ll sell one little item that day so that they can eat.

Daniel O’Connor
19:57 – 24:03
I’m going to I’m going to I’m going to Well, it’s absolutely essential.

Mark Mallett
20:08 – 24:05
And the kindness and humility of them struck both Lee and I. You know, everyone, you’d see them and they would put their hands together and they’d say thank you. And they were so humble and so joyful. And I looked at them and yet as we traveled through the streets, Daniel, what we saw were There were these little temples in everyone’s yard, thousands of them. And of course they believe in Hinduism that they would take the body, burn it, and then throw the ashes in the ocean. And then they would have these little temples, you’d see them in their yards, where they would apparently capture, catch the soul of their loved ones until they’re reincarnated. So you can see the Hinduism, on the one hand, doesn’t understand the resurrection, it doesn’t understand, but I could see the preparation in them. You know, our tour guide talked about yin and yang, about light and darkness, and he said, “It’s better for us to be good.” He goes, “It’s better for us to be good people.” And so I could see what was there was a preparation for the gospel. There was a preparation in those people. And I just thought, if we could go there in the power of the Holy Spirit and proclaim to them that those things that they believe that are in accord with the gospel, those are good things. But Jesus, He’s the fulfillment of all their longing. And no, you don’t have to worry about being reincarnated into a cockroach. But when you die, if you believe in Jesus, if you follow Him, if you let Him into your and you repent of your sins and you say yes to Jesus, you won’t come back to earth. You’ll go to heaven to be with him in eternity. And so, forgive me for rambling here a bit and going on, but Daniel, the point is this. Those people need to hear Jesus. And our Pope says to us then, let me just conclude with his final, this isn’t the whole remarks, but he said, help us to then help each other to build bridges with dialogue, with encounter, uniting all of us to be one people always in peace. And he’s invoking here, of course, the words of Pope Francis. And many people, we know, we know there’s gonna be many people upset that he even mentioned Francis and he’s using those words of dialogue and encounter. What, you mean the words that Jesus himself lived as he went to the tax collectors and the Samaritans, as he went to the Romans? Remember the Roman centurion who came and said, “Lord, heal my servant. I’m not worthy that you should enter under my roof.” Jesus turned to him and said, “You have more faith than anyone in Israel.” It’s to these people that we do need to encounter. Pope Francis was right. Pope Leo XIV is right. This is what we need to do as a church. And if Countdown to the Kingdom has failed to convey that to you, I think we’ve failed our mission. And so you and I, Daniel, right now, we’re in the process of discerning a revamping of countdown to make sure that we maintain that focus to people, that we are called first and foremost to be light to the world. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world,” but then he said to the apostles about two chapters later, “You are the light of the world.” And we’re not to hide that light beneath a bushel basket or to literally hide in our houses or to hide anywhere, but to boldly go and proclaim the name of Jesus to the world that so desperately needs it. As I said in the introduction, we’ve got nuclear armed nations threatening each other because they don’t know Jesus. They need to hear, forgive one another. Anyway, I could go on, but I’m kind of feeling it right now. We need to listen to what Pope is saying. (chewing)

Daniel O’Connor
24:03 – 26:19
And I’m so glad you did say that because if we’re not shedding tears over billions of souls not knowing about Jesus, if we’re reserving our tears for ourselves and our own, “Oh man, I better not travel because this message said don’t travel,” or “I better not go to this city because this message said there’s going to be an explosion there,” like, wow, just missed the whole point of the gospel so that you can stick with every single word of your favorite living seer. And that’s the worst tragedy that could ever come from the mission. And we’ve always, I mean Mark, I don’t have too much of a guilty conscience here. I know you and I have always done our best to try and encourage the opposite of that mentality. Yeah, have some rice and beans, absolutely. But get out there. Don’t listen to some message that tells you to stop getting out there, to just focus on your own safety. Absolutely not. The people who need to hear the gospel, who are they supposed to hear it from if not that faithful remnant that we’ve always been asking you to be devoted to our lady praying the rosary evangelizing if you’re Sitting on your butt in your home because you’re afraid because some seers message made you afraid to go out You have lost the plot and worse than that. So Because you are the one who who is called you are among those who are called to go out there travel You know wherever God called like God called you to Indonesia recently mark and called me to Florida recently because I had to go there to do God’s will tomorrow I have to go to Manhattan to do God’s will which is the very place that all these people say no you can’t go there because some message said there’s gonna it’s gonna be underwater no I’m gonna follow wherever God’s will leads me and if I die there then that’s where I was supposed to die and if that’s not your mentality if your mentality is no I got to do whatever it takes to preserve my own hide that’s really really bad and you got to repent of that now is the time to repent of that we’ve got an opportunity now to evangelize the world. And we can either do our best to do that, or we can just make our little circles even more and more narrow. You know, just find some little thing to be angry about. And what Pope Leo XIV said, so that his calls don’t apply to me because I’m angry at him or something. And you know, if you’re gonna sin, don’t sin. But if you’re gonna sin, don’t make a pious-sounding excuse for it, because that just makes it twice as bad. That’s what Jesus says to Louisa.

Mark Mallett
24:14 – 26:18
Oh boy. [ Inaudible ] (TV playing in background) – Yeah. (murmuring) Yum. (laughing)

Daniel O’Connor
26:19 – 27:16
He tells Louisa the sin of the Pharisees was so evil because even though they were so unjust they cloaked their evil and pious sounding excuses So don’t don’t say, you know If you’re just lazy or selfish and don’t want to evangelize don’t want to take risks Don’t want to go out and do God’s will please don’t dare say oh It’s because this seer’s message said I need to stay home or something because that just made that sin of laziness or selfishness or cowardice Twice as bad get out there proclaim the word do God’s will he’s gonna show you his will You don’t need some seer to tell you his will for you because he’s gonna tell it to you and you better He’s gonna tell it to you through your own signs your own interior inspirations of the Holy Spirit above all, you know Church teaching and public revelation, of course That’s always your foundation for knowing God’s will but he’s also gonna tell it to you as you get on your knees before the Blessed Sacrament he’s gonna You’re gonna have these things welling up in your heart, these impressions, and they’re gonna draw you towards something.

Mark Mallett
27:01 – 27:01
Yeah.

Daniel O’Connor
27:17 – 27:25
And that might be a fearsome thought, whatever God is drawing you towards, but you gotta run towards it full speed ahead, no fear, trusting in God.

Mark Mallett
27:27 – 27:36
Well said, well said brother. You know, my mind just went blank. Well, I think, yeah, I…

Daniel O’Connor
27:34 – 27:47
– Well, can I really quickly say, I’m so sorry if I’ve been distracting you guys doing this, I injured my rotator cuff recently and every now and then I have to press on it or else I’ll just like pass out.

Mark Mallett
27:39 – 27:48
No, go ahead. Or your arm will fall off.

Daniel O’Connor
27:47 – 27:55
So I’m not trying to be, yeah. But I’m sorry if it’s annoying, if it’s trying to not pass out from the pain of my shoulder.

Mark Mallett
27:56 – 28:02
Well, I hope that gets better soon. And by the way, we asked everyone to pray for your dad.

Daniel O’Connor
28:02 – 28:04
Please do pray for my father, Darren.

Mark Mallett
28:03 – 28:13
Darren is your dad’s name. Yeah. And it was just, was it two years ago you lost your mom as well?

Daniel O’Connor
28:05 – 28:14
Yes, he’s got cancer now, so pray for his healing, please. Oh, last year, yeah.

Mark Mallett
28:14 – 28:28
It was last year. Yes, okay. So anyway, this is a tough time. You’re a young man, and to lose, potentially now to lose both parents. I just ask everyone to keep Daniel and his whole family and Darren, of course, in your prayers.

Daniel O’Connor
28:16 – 28:32
Yeah. Yeah. And we’re certainly hoping and praying my father will come through this. So that’s our hope.

Mark Mallett
28:31 – 28:33
Yeah, that’s the hope.

Daniel O’Connor
28:33 – 28:33
Yeah. That’s our prayer.

Mark Mallett
28:35 – 30:21
You know, getting back to our subject, and you kind of raised it at the beginning of the program, you know, some people have come out and they’ve immediately started looking for a way that we can look negatively at the Pope, at Pope Leo XIV. Again, I agree with you. This is the wrong foot to start on, and I’ll tell you why, because If you want to look at the first Peter, he was the only one of the twelve who declared, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And when he made this declaration, Jesus gave him the keys to the kingdom. But you recall, this is also the guy who denied Jesus three times. On the other hand, you look at St. Paul, who was murdering Christians. And in the blink of an eye, St. Paul converted and became one of the greatest apostles in history of the church. What is my point? It doesn’t matter who Pope Leo XIV was perhaps yesterday. Not really. Because, you know, the impact of your prayers, the impact of the conclave, and the homilies you heard from fellow cardinals, their love, their trust, his reflections on the gospel, his own ministry, only looking out at St. Peter’s and seeing the miracle of the Universal Church, we don’t know the impact that this has on the man. That if there is something in his past that’s maybe not perfectly in line with the gospel, I don’t know about you, but I’m not perfect yet, Jesus can take care of these things. And so we ought not to judge him by the past. And so some Some people have raised some things.

Daniel O’Connor
29:51 – 30:41
I’m going to Silence.

Mark Mallett
30:21 – 31:29
I mean, my goodness, can the priest out there, the parish priest, can you please raise your hand and send us a text? Here, countdown if you’re perfect, if you’ve done everything perfect in your parish, or the bishops out there, or especially you lay people who are perfect, please send us a text because we’d like to come. Both Daniel and I will travel. We’d love to meet you and shake your hand because I don’t know anybody who’s perfect And I hope that I wouldn’t be judged. I’m sitting here having gone through, and I’ve shared this publicly, one of the most tumultuous years of interiorly looking at my life. And like I’ve said to people, I think it’s almost like the illumination of conscience by drip, like a coffee drip. And it’s like one day, every day, it’s like God lets another drip come and I go, “Oh, Jesus, I’m sorry. Forgive me for that sin against that person and what I’ve done. But that was yesterday. And that’s not who I am today. At least I hope that’s not who I am today. So the point is this.

Daniel O’Connor
31:30 – 31:31
Silence.

Mark Mallett
31:30 – 32:02
We saw Peter who made this proclamation. We could have a saint. We could have elected a saint today. Maybe we did. But he could deny Christ. Or we could have elected another Saint Paul who would love to murder Christianity in some put his own progressive liberal ideas forward but yet he could go through a conversion like st. Paul I think you get the point of what I’m saying yeah

Daniel O’Connor
31:55 – 32:03
Yeah, the graces that come with being elected pontiff, we’ll never know, because that’s about the rarest group there is, those who have been elected Pope.

Mark Mallett
32:04 – 32:07
(TV playing in background)

Daniel O’Connor
32:04 – 32:43
But we’ve got to assume that there’s such an overwhelming amount of grace, that there’s goodwill there, and I’m sure there is. Most of us didn’t know anything about this guy before today. I certainly didn’t. But I’ve read up some things, and he seems to be authentic, even if he’s had some imperfections, as Mark said, we all have. love for the gospel and for the poor, it seems to be really, really authentic. And if it is, and I think it is, God’s overwhelming grace with him being elected Holy Father, that’s gonna work marvels. And I think we need to be open to that leading that he’ll be giving the whole church through those graces, with those graces.

Mark Mallett
32:44 – 32:48
You know, a lot of people are focused on the labels, right? Is he a conservative? Is he a liberal?

Daniel O’Connor
32:48 – 32:50
Silence.

Mark Mallett
32:48 – 34:24
Is he moderate? And, you know, I did a reflection on this at thenowword.com about Jesus’ words to Peter. And you know, Peter denied Christ three times, as I just said, but then Jesus on the beach after the resurrection said, “But do you love me?” And three times we hear Peter say, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you. You know I love you.” And the third time Jesus asks, Peter gets a little bit worried because at that point it’s like, “You know I love you, Lord.” And Jesus doesn’t leave it there, though. He doesn’t just leave it, “Okay, you’ve affirmed that you love me, so now I’ll give you the keys back.” It’s not that Jesus took them away. But Jesus doesn’t leave it there. As if, okay, all you needed to do was make reparation and now you’re worthy to hold the keys. No. Jesus then says two words that are so key. He then says to Peter, “Okay, then follow me.” I mean, he tells them. Every time Jesus asks him, “Do you love me?” And Peter says, “Yes.” He then says, “Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep.” So he’s giving Peter that mandate. But then he says those two words, the most important two words, “Follow me.” It’s not about being conservative or liberal or moderate or any of these things. It’s about being faithful to Jesus, following Him. And so my hope and prayer for the Pope wasn’t that we would have a conservative or a liberal, but that we’d have an obedient Pope, a Pope who would recognize that in all of sacred tradition we have all these riches.

Daniel O’Connor
34:12 – 37:30
I’m going to I’m going to I’m going to Silence.

Mark Mallett
34:24 – 39:24
We have the contemplative aspect of our church. We have the active element, the social gospel. We have the charismatic element in our church, the wonderful, joyful, charismatic element. We have the more traditional element within the Eastern rites and so on. We have so much beauty and depth to us. Daniel, we’re like a garden. We’ve got roses and lilies and violets and petunias and all these different things. And some people love the smell of roses way more than the lilies and vice versa. And the thing is that God has all these different ways that He reaches out. What I pray for is we have a Pope who just loves and embraces and is open to it all. And that’s what it means to follow me. And that’s not just for the Pope. That’s for each of us. And so you know, we’ve both been, you know, in my blog and your writings, we’ve been trying to steer Catholics back to what does the church say? You know you’ve done a tremendous job on the whole discussion as aliens have come to light and UFOs and so on. You’ve done a masterful job of pointing people back to well what does the church say about this whole thing? And again I think you’ve done a beautiful job of that. There’s been a big attack this past year or two on the charismatic renewal, the charismatic gifts of tongues and healing and so on. And I’ve just tried in my own writings to steer people back to say, “What does the Church say? What does Scripture say?” That’s what we need to obey. Look, you may not fully understand the gift of tongues. You may not fully understand the Summa, Thomas Aquinas and the depth of that theology, but But it doesn’t mean that you turn your back then on the intellectual apostolate of St. Thomas Aquinas, nor does it mean that you turn your back on the experiential elements and the charisms particularly, not so much the experience. I don’t care if you go and raise your hands and jump up and down, but I do care if you’re open to 1 Corinthians 12 and 13 and 14 where St. Paul says that we should strive eagerly for the spiritual gifts. So this is the prayer that all of us will hear Jesus today say, “Follow me,” through Pope Leo XIV, who He’s called once again, the successor to Peter, “Follow me.” And this is how I think we will come to unity, and this is where we’re going. We call this website Countdown to the Kingdom for a reason. Is that we’re going to experience the Our Father here on earth be fulfilled. Jesus said this through servant of God, Luisa Picaretta. We prayed every day as a church. We have popes like Benedict XVI and John Paul II and others, all talking about this coming era of peace, this coming peace. And we should highlight what Leo XIII said about this, because that’s the namesake that was taken by Pope Leo XIV. What did Pope Leo XIII say? He said, “We have attempted and persistently carried out during a long pontificate towards two chief ends. In the first place, towards the restoration, both in rulers and peoples, of the principles of the Christian life in civil and domestic society, since there is no true life for men except from Christ. And secondly, to promote the reunion of those who have fallen away from the Catholic Church, either by heresy or by schism, since it is most undoubtedly the will of Christ that all should be united in one flock under one shepherd. And he said in his consecration to the Sacred Heart in 1899 that this is going to come. He said, “Will it length be possible that our many wounds be healed and all justice spring forth again with the hope of restored authority, that the splendors of peace be renewed and the swords and arms drop from the hand, and when all men shall acknowledge the empire of Christ. All men in Pakistan, in India, in Africa, in Canada, in all the continents, all will acknowledge the empire of Christ and willingly obey His Word. And every tongue shall confess that the Lord Jesus is in the glory of the Father. And we are told through many mystics, we’ve published them here on this website, brother, that there’s coming, this air of peace. It’s not going to be heaven on earth per se in the sense that the kingdom is fulfilled, that we reach a utopic state, that we don’t even need to die and go to heaven. Rather, no, the veil will remain between heaven and earth but will experience a union with John Paul II called a new and divine holiness. It’s the bride getting ready to meet the bridegroom.

Daniel O’Connor
38:57 – 39:51
I’m going to Oh, he must know.

Mark Mallett
39:24 – 40:32
She receives, it says in Revelation 19, a white garment. And St. Paul says in Ephesians 5, that Christ is preparing for Himself a bride who was spotless, who is unblemished and without wrinkle. This is what Leo XIII is speaking about. And I would have a hard time believing that Leo XIV doesn’t know about that prophecy, these things from Pope Leo XIII. So we’re heading toward this era of peace when we will be fully Catholic. So I’m bringing it around to what I’m saying. We’re going to be fully Catholic, Daniel. We’re going to be fully traditional, fully charismatic, fully contemplative, fully active, fully Marian, fully papal. We’re going to be completely Catholic and the whole world will for a time recognize and acknowledge the Empire of Christ. And as I think it was Pius XII who said, “The Catholic Church is the reign of Christ already present on earth.” Amen. And this will spread to the ends of the earth as a and then he said the end will come.

Daniel O’Connor
40:25 – 40:43
Amen. And all of his successors, Pope Leo XIII’s successors said the same thing. This became a predominant theme in 20th century papal magisterium.

Mark Mallett
40:39 – 40:39
Yeah.

Daniel O’Connor
40:43 – 41:35
Also in 20th century mystics. No accident there. same Holy Spirit that’s protecting the Magisterium was also prodding on the mystics to write down what they wrote. And it’s really sad to me that some, even who promote some private revelations, still don’t understand and still even speak against the era of peace. Guys, it’s a guarantee, it’s an absolute guarantee. We’ve got post after post of the website about it. I wrote a whole book about it called “The Crown of History,” which is the subtitle is “On the Era of Peace.” Pope Leo XIII, as Mark just quoted, God his successor, Pius X, Pius XI, Pius XII, John Paul II, John XXIII, Paul VI, they all spoke about these promises of Christ, about peace, about his gospel being actually fulfilled on earth, about that not being a daydream. That’s not just symbolic and that’s not just about heaven.

Mark Mallett
41:17 – 41:18
[ Inaudible ]

Daniel O’Connor
41:35 – 44:03
No, those prophecies actually mean what they say and they’ll happen. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” That’s going to happen. The Popes are all clear. The mystics are all clear. The prophecies are all clear now chastisements Persecution deception those things also will come and they will come before it and that’s why I see this I mean, we didn’t want the webcast to focus on this because we wanted to ground people This is the time to be grounded not sensational As we said I said earlier people have gone off the rails getting too sensational too fixated on specific predictions and it’s made them crazy So we’re trying to ground you back in public revelation and church teaching here But also we don’t want to miss the signs of the times either No, that’s what that’s that’s also why we started countdown discerning these signs of the times and there’s a lot of signs of the times Evident literally today on the day that this Pope was elected. He’s taking the name Leo the 14th and of course Looking at Leo the 13th, that’s very prophetic with Satan being given this period of time But then that period of time would end this 75 to 100 years, which I speculate in my last book first and last deception I think that started in 1947 and if it did it could end any time with Today being the feast day the traditional feast of st Michael the Archangel and of course Leo the 13th after he sees this vision of Satan being given greater power over the earth He composes the st Michael the Archangel prayer and Commands it to be recited after every mass Across the whole world and I hope and I pray we get back to that now with Leo the 14th as our Pope Today is the feast of Our Lady of Pompeii Which the Pope Leo the 14th specifically invokes on invoked today from the balcony right after he’s elected and that’s an apparition That converted Bartolomeo who was a Satanist priest who became a great saint Promoting the Rosary and Jesus told the servant of God Luis Picarretta that the coming of the kingdom the era of peace would come through the Rosary and A lot so a lot of things are happening today Reminding us that God is still very much on the move Even if things didn’t pan out exactly as a lot of people are speculating That doesn’t mean that anything ultimately has changed the time of mercy is coming to a close soon But we still have this window of opportunity and we have a great window with this new Pope take advantage of it. Let’s proclaim the gospel. Let’s above all live the gospel, live in the divine will, proclaim the divine will, proclaim the divine mercy.

Mark Mallett
41:44 – 43:54
[ Inaudible ] I’m sorry (faintly speaking) (indistinct chatter)

Daniel O’Connor
44:03 – 44:14
This is an exciting time for the church in the world and when people are excited, they’re more open. Hopefully people are excited about this Pope. Use this. Use this as an opportunity to invite people into the faith.

Mark Mallett
44:14 – 44:52
Amen. Well, I think on that, that’s a wonderful note to end on. And I want to close with this scripture, bringing this all back to our new Pope’s words from the balcony that we need to bring this light to the whole world. And St. Paul wrote, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news.” For, “every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?” And that’s you and me. And so, you know, I pray, my prayer today is that God will bless this new Pope, that He will pick up that first papal document of Pope Francis, which was Evangelii Gaudium, the joy of the gospel, and that He will help us along that and give us the courage and the grace we need. And we all need to pray. We need to pray for the Holy Spirit. I feel there are so many threats. In my own country, we elected probably one of the most preeminent globalists, Prime Minister Mark Carney, that we could possibly have ever chosen. This is a very dark time for Canada. And so many of us, there’s a lot of uncertainty in our nation about where we’re going. And so the temptation is going to be to withdraw. The temptation is going to be to become silent. and we need to pray for the Holy Spirit to come upon you, upon me, upon this website, countdowntothekingdom.com, and upon all our listeners and viewers.

Daniel O’Connor
46:13 – 47:42
I’m going to I’m going to Amen.

Mark Mallett
46:14 – 48:13
And we ask, Lord, in this day, that you’ve given us a new pope, you have fulfilled your word again, that you are the wise builder. You said, “What builder builds his rock on sand?” Or sorry, “Builds his house on sand?” wise builder builds his house on rocks. So when the storm comes, the house will stand. Well, Jesus, you are the wise builder. You are the wisest of builders. And you continue to build your church through all the storms of history. And you will certainly continue to build your church through the great storm through which humanity is passing, is going to pass in these times. Because we know, we know that we’re living in extraordinary times. We don’t know the hour, we don’t know the days, we don’t know how long this will last, but Jesus, we put our eyes on you, we put our faith and our hope and our trust in you, because as we saw today on St. Peter’s balcony, your word is true. Your promises, your Petrine promises are true. You continue to build, and you promised that you would be with the church until the end of the age. So Jesus, we trust in you. Come to your bride, come quickly Jesus, come and help us to fulfill your word, our own missions here on earth, in union with the Holy Father. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, amen. We love each of you very much and we pray for you and we ask you to keep praying for us. And as I mentioned earlier, where Daniel and I are looking at kinda rethinking and revisioning Countdown to the Kingdom, as to how we can better serve the body of Christ while still continuing to test prophecy and retaining what is good. God bless you and thank you for your prayers. We have a new pope, and may the Lord bless the church this night. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Daniel O’Connor
48:12 – 48:14
God bless.

Mark Mallett
48:37 – 48:44
Thank you for watching!

So grateful for your prayers and support.
Thank you!