The Prophets of Doom

 

The prophet is someone who tells the truth
on the strength of his contact with God —
the truth for today, which also, naturally,
sheds light on the future.
—Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (POPE BENEDICT XVI), 
Christian Prophecy, The Post-Biblical Tradition, 
Niels Christian Hvidt, Foreword, p. vii

 

 

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Pope Leo made headlines this past week when he quoted his predecessor, John XXIII, who took issue “with the ‘prophets of doom’ who, ‘though burning with zeal for religion […] go about saying that our times, when compared with past centuries, are entirely worse.”^[1]General Audience, September 2, 2026 Leo was quoting John XXIII’s opening address to the Second Vatican Council.^[2]Address Gaudet Mater Ecclesia, 11 October 1962, 4.2; cf. catholicculture.org 

No doubt, the Pope’s remarks are being used by some to dismiss, out of hand, the sometimes dire prophecies that mark our era. So, is it true that our times are essentially no different than others, that they are just one more difficult bump on the long road of history and that everything will straighten itself out, as it has in the past?

 

The Prophets of Doom

While John XXIII’s perspective is controversial, it’s important to have the full context of his remarks. He goes on to say in that address:

We feel that We must disagree with these prophets of doom, who are always forecasting worse disasters, as though the end of the world were at hand.

What he says next is key:

Present indications are that the human family is on the threshold of a new era. We must recognize here the hand of God, who, as the years roll by, is ever directing men’s efforts, whether they realize it or not, towards the fulfillment of the inscrutable designs of His providence, wisely arranging everything, even adverse human fortune, for the Church’s good. —catholicculture.org

Ultimately, what John XXIII is dismissing are those who proclaim that the end of the world is nigh and that nothing but disaster awaits us. In that regard, I couldn’t agree more.

We are indeed “on the threshold of a new era” according to both prophetic revelations, the popes, and also according to the vision and understanding of the Early Church Fathers.^[3]cf. Dear Holy Father… He Is Coming! and How the Era Was Lost The Word of God is going to be vindicated, not voided; the promises of Scripture are going to be fulfilled, not defeated.^[4]cf. The Vindication of Wisdom and Vindication and Glory Didn’t God promise that the meek would inherit the earth?^[5]cf. Matt 5:5 That the Jewish people would come into the Faith?^[6]cf. Rom 11:25-27; cf. The Return of the Jews Is there not the promise of a Sabbath rest for the People of God?^[7]cf. Heb 4:4, 9-10; see The Coming Sabbath Rest Furthermore, should the cry of the poor go unheeded?^[8]Job 34:28; Prov 19:17 Should Satan have the last say — that God could not bring peace and justice to the earth as the Angels announced to the Shepherds?^[9]cf. Luke 2:14 Should the saints never reign,^[10]cf. Rev 20:1-6 the Gospel fail to reach all nations,^[11]cf. Matt 24:14 and the glory of God fall short of the ends of the earth?

Shall I bring a mother to the point of birth, and yet not let her child be born? says the LORD; or shall I who allow her to conceive, yet close her womb? (Isaiah 66:9)

God is not going to fold His hands and say, “Oh well, I tried.” According to both Old and New Testament prophets, this vindication and fulfillment of His Word is ultimately a coming era of peace when, as Our Lord himself said:

…this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)

Fr. Ottavio Michelini was a priest, mystic, and member of the Papal Court of Pope Paul VI (one of the highest honors bestowed by a pope on a living person). He received many revelations about the coming Era that echo several popes, such as the following from Jesus himself:

It will be the Mother, most holy Mary, who will crush the head of the serpent, thus beginning a new era of peace; it will be the advent of my Kingdom upon earth. It will be the return of the Holy Ghost for a new Pentecost. Hell will be defeated: My Church will be regenerated: My Kingdom, that is a kingdom of love, of justice and of peace, will give peace and justice to this humanity. (December 10, 1976) [The earth] will be made arid and desolate then “purified” by fire to be fertilized by the honest labor of the just escaped for the divine goodness to the tremendous hour of the divine anger. [Then] there will be the reign of God in the souls, that reign the just ask from God invoking “Thy Kingdom come.” —from Thou Knowest That I Love Thee, January 2, 1979

Pope after pope in previous centuries spoke openly of their anticipation of this coming Era of Peace. To quote but two of them:

It will at 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 and willingly obey His word, and every tongue shall confess that the Lord Jesus is in the Glory of the Father. —POPE LEO XIII, Annum Sacrum, On Consecration to the Sacred Heart, n. 11May 1899

But even this night in the world shows clear signs of a dawn that will come, of a new day receiving the kiss of a new and more resplendent sun… A new resurrection of Jesus is necessary: a true resurrection, which admits no more lordship of death… In individuals, Christ must destroy the night of mortal sin with the dawn of grace regained. In families, the night of indifference and coolness must give way to the sun of love. In factories, in cities, in nations, in lands of misunderstanding and hatred the night must grow bright as the day, nox sicut dies illuminabitur, and strife will cease and there will be peace. —POPE PIUX XII, Urbi et Orbi address,March 2nd, 1957; vatican.va

Unless there are going to be factories in Heaven, this is clearly a vision of a time of peace prior to the end of the world.

In fact, Pope John XXIII seemed to give further context to both his vision for the Second Vatican Council and his own papacy in that they are as a preparation for a new Era of Peace:

The task of humble Pope John is to “prepare for the Lord a perfect people,” which is exactly like the task of the Baptist, who is his patron and from whom he takes his name.

St. Paul also spoke of Christ preparing His Bride…

…that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:27)

That is, a people living completely in the Divine Will, which will naturally produce the fruit of peace. John XXIII continues:

And it is not possible to imagine a higher and more precious perfection than that of the triumph of Christian peace, which is peace at heart, peace in the social order, in life, in wellbeing, in mutual respect, and in the brotherhood of nations. —POPE ST. JOHN XXIII, True Christian Peace, December 23rd, 1959; www.catholicculture.org

All that said, does any of this preclude that there won’t be so-called “doom and gloom,” or even the idea that our times could be worse than other times?

 

Reality Check

Pope Benedict, one of the most prophetic men of our time, was once asked when he was a cardinal why he was such a pessimist. His reply: “I am a realist.” Realism is a ray of truth, and as such, always emerges from the Sun of Hope. But not a false hope. While our current Pope Leo XIV and John XXIII have apparently resisted the notion that our times aren’t any worse than others, that’s not an opinion shared by previous popes.  

“In our days this sin [of resisting the truth] has become so frequent,” said Pope Leo XIII in 1897, “that those dark times seem to have come which were foretold by St. Paul, in which men, blinded by the just judgment of God, should take falsehood for truth, and should believe in “the prince of this world,” who is a liar and the father thereof, as a teacher of truth…”^[12]Divinum Illud Munus, n. 10 He then proceeded to quote the passage on apostasy and the Antichrist in 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2, as did his successor, Pius X: “Who can fail to see that society is at the present time, more than in any past age, suffering from a terrible and deep-rooted malady which, developing every day and eating into its inmost being, is dragging it to destruction? You understand, Venerable Brethren, what this disease is—apostasy from God…” ^[13]E Supremi, Encyclical On the Restoration of All Things in Christ, n. 3, 5; October 4th, 1903 Pius XI would also agree, saying, “These things in truth are so sad that you might say that such events foreshadow and portend the ‘beginning of sorrows,’ that is to say of those that shall be brought by the man of sin, ‘who is lifted up above all that is called God or is worshiped’ (2 Thes 2:4).”^[14]Miserentissimus Redemptor, Encyclical Letter on Reparation to the Sacred Heart, May 8th, 1928 As I wrote in The Dark Proofs, the signs of self-worship and a humanity putting itself in the place of God, are all around us.

From these and other pope’s perspective,^[15]cf. Why Aren’t the Popes Shouting? the world has entered a dangerous phase that is above all spiritually precarious, as summarized well by St. John Henry Newman (1801-1890 A.D.):

I know that all times are perilous, and that in every time serious and anxious minds, alive to the honor of God and the needs of man, are apt to consider no times so perilous as their own. At all times the enemy of souls assaults with fury the Church which is their true Mother, and at least threatens and frightens when he fails in doing mischief. And all times have their special trials which others have not… Doubtless, but still admitting this, still I think… ours has a darkness different in kind from any that has been before it. The special peril of the time before us is the spread of that plague of infidelity, that the Apostles and our Lord Himself have predicted as the worst calamity of the last times of the Church. And at least a shadow, a typical image of the last times is coming over the world.  —Sermon at opening of St. Bernard’s Seminary, October 2, 1873, The Infidelity of the Future

Here again, the “last times” include the reign of Christ’s Kingdom in an all-new manner upon earth,^[16]cf. The Coming New and Divine Holiness resulting in an “Era of Peace” — what the Church Fathers ascribed to that “thousand years” spoken of by the Apostle St. John in Revelation Chapter 20 after the death of the Antichrist:

…they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for [the] thousand years. (Revelation 20:6)

Both St. Augustine and St. Irenaeus said this would be a time of “blessing” for the Church, a “Sabbath Rest“:

So, the blessing foretold undoubtedly refers to the time of His Kingdom… Those who saw John, the Lord’s disciple, [tell us] that they heard from him how the Lord taught and spoke about these times… —St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Church Father (140–202 A.D.); Adversus Haereses, Irenaeus of Lyons, V.33.3.4, The Fathers of the Church, CIMA Publishing

“And this opinion,” wrote Augustine, “would not be objectionable, if it were believed that the joys of the saints, in that Sabbath, shall be spiritual, and consequent on the presence of God.”^[17]St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.; Church Doctor), De Civitate Dei, Bk. XX, Ch. 7, Catholic University of America Press Yes, a Sabbath Rest is coming for the Church said the Church Fathers, not the end of the world — not yet. 

The more noteworthy of the prophecies bearing upon “latter times” seem to have one common end, to announce great calamities impending over mankind, the triumph of the Church, and the renovation of the world. —Catholic Encyclopedia, Prophecy, www.newadvent.org

Indeed, after stating bluntly in his encyclical that the Antichrist may already be on earth, Pope Pius X — far from being a prophet of doom — then points toward, not the end of the world, but it’s renovation:

May God, “who is rich in mercy” (Ephes.ii., 4), benignly speed this restoration of the human race in Jesus Christ for “it is not of him that willeth, or of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy” (Rom. ix., 16). —E Supremi, “On the Restoration of All Things in Christ”, n. 15

 

Realism vs. Hope

Therefore, I don’t see a tension between the idea that these times of ours are perhaps the worst in human history, but that there is hope and healing beyond them before the end of the world. As you’ve just read, this is clearly enunciated in both prophecy and magisterial teaching. When we globally promote abortion and euthanasia; when we export pornography to billions, destroying their innocence; when we threaten each other with nuclear weapons; when we leave billions to starve while others grow fat; and when artificial intelligence and robots threaten human existence… we are talking about horrors that never existed prior to even this century. 

Moreover, Jesus refers to a period He calls the “end of the age,” and then He (and St. Paul and St. John) gives explicit and troubling signs that precede and accompany it (cf. Matt 24). He even says that “those times will have tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of God’s creation until now, nor ever will be.”^[18]Mark 13:19 On the other hand, Jesus, by calling them “labor pains”, alludes to these travails as pointing toward something new:

When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. (John 16:21)

Pope Leo certainly did not gloss over the challenges of our times in his recent General Audience but highlighted the solution:

It is not a question of naïve optimism, but rather a renewed fidelity to the Mystery of Christ… It is a sharing that calls on us to leave behind all passivity and indifference in the face of current events, history and people’s lives, especially in the face of the rapid and profound changes we are experiencing today. We cannot remain as unengaged spectators; rather, we must listen with our hearts, allow ourselves to be challenged, and become involved…. In a time marked by profound changes, giving rise to worrying imbalances, the Church is called to serve the human person, listening to and welcoming the deepest questions of their heart and the longings that dwell within them, pointing to Christ as “the key, the focal point and the goal of … all human history”. —General Audience, September 2, 2026

Amen!

That said, it was Pope Francis who also exhorted that, “…we need to hear once more the voice of the prophets who cry out and trouble our conscience.”^[19]Lenten Message, January 27th, 2015; vatican.va Indeed, a wise priest once said to me, “The false prophets told the people what they wanted to hear, and the people loved them. The true prophets told the people what they needed to hear… and they stoned them.” The world has descended into a deep darkness, one many popes consider the acute spiritual darkness foretold in the Scriptures. “I sometimes read the Gospel passage of the end times and I attest that, at this time, some signs of this end are emerging,” admitted Pope Paul VI.^[20]The Secret Paul VI, Jean Guitton, p. 152-153, Reference (7), p. ix. His successor, John Paul II, would say a few years later that we are, in fact, facing “the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-church.”^[21]cf. Understanding the Final Confrontation At the same time, he repeatedly told us to expect a new Pentecost. 

[John Paul II] does indeed cherish a great expectation that the millennium of divisions will be followed by a millennium of unifications… that all the catastrophes of our century, all its tears, as the Pope says, will be caught up at the end and turned into a new beginning.  —Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (POPE BENEDICT XVI), Salt of the Earth, An Interview With Peter Seewald, p. 237

It’s not a matter of naïve optimism nor of blind pessimism. I think St. Louis de Montfort struck the right balance between reality and hope when he cried out to the Lord in his prayer for Missionaries…

Your divine commandments are broken, Your Gospel is thrown aside, torrents of iniquity flood the whole earth carrying away even Your servants… Will everything come to the same end as Sodom and Gomorrah? Will You never break your silence? Will You tolerate all this for ever? Is it not true that Your will must be done on earth as it is in heaven? Is it not true that Your kingdom must come? Did you not give to some souls, dear to you, a vision of the future renewal of the Church? —St. Louis de Montfort, Prayer for Missionaries, n. 5; www.ewtn.com

 

Related Reading

Why Aren’t the Popes Shouting?

The Popes and the Dawning Era

Dear Holy Father… He is Coming!

Rethinking the End Times

 

 

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