Netschaton Apocalyptic Elements Series
Rome,  Vatican, &  Pope

Vatican Radio Live
Vatican Web Site

Intro
The Vatican & Rome as elements of apocalyptic discourse

The Vatican and Rome are broad topics, however what is of interest in terms of Digital Apocalypse which is the subject of this web site is the relationship of the Vatican and Rome to apocalyptic discourse. For instance, one may want to consider the eschatology and theology of the Roman Catholic Church, popular Catholic and Christian Fundamentalist beliefs about the Vatican, the city and civilization of Rome as apocalyptic symbols, technologies and End Times, and the political relationship of the Roman Catholic Church to the city of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.

In fundamentalist Christian, Traditional Catholic, and some syncretistic Judeo-Christian  New Age eschatologies, the following elements may be of significance; the Jesuits and "Black [i.e., Jesuit] Pope," the Occult, and Satanism in high places in the Vatican.

In addition, many Marian prophecies detail a Heavenly Pope, an Anti-Pope, and an Antichrist figure.

Of additional interest are the Prophecies of St. Malachi, one of which is a list of all the Popes until the Parousia. Malachi designates each pope by a title that expresses something of his reign. Pope John Paul II would be  the "Labor of the Sun" in Malachi's prophecy and some Roman Catholic eschatologies deploy JPII narratively as a marker for apocalyptic time.

The Book of Revelation identifies the Whore of Babylon, the Woman Riding the Beast, and Mystery Babylon with the City of the Seven Hills, the Eternal City, Rome. The reason for this from a purely historical-critical point of view is clear. The book was written in a time of persecution and violent suppression of the Christian religion by the Roman Empire. Nero had persecuted Christians in the 60's C.E. and Vespasian was conducting a persecution of Christians at the time the book was most likely written.

In the ___ Midrash there is a legend of the Angel Gabriel who, shortly after the Creation of the World and due to a an historic error by a Jewish ruler, stuck a reed around which formed a sandbar. This sandbar became Rome, the City of the Seven Hills.

Rome

Vatican

The origins of the "Cittá del Vaticano" are as an unpleasant neighborhood outside the city walls populated by Jews and beginning in the first century by (Jewish) Christians and still later by the persecuted Gentile converts to the Christian sect. St. Peter's Basilica purports to be built on St. Peter's tomb, a fact which, if true, would ostensibly strengthen the Catholic Church's claim to Petrine authority and the Papacy's claim to the seat or universal bishopric of Peter from Rome.

In the early 4th century, the emperor Constantine (died AD 337) with considerable difficulty erected a basilica on the Vatican Hill. The difficulty of the task, combined with the comparative ease with which this great church might have been built on level ground only a slight distance to the south, may support the contention that the Emperor was convinced that the relics of Peter rested beneath the small Aedicula (shrine for a small statue) over which he had erected the basilica. The task before the excavators was to determine whether or not the belief of Constantine accorded with the facts or was based merely upon a misunderstanding. From eb.com Online

Curia

Vatican and Geopolitics

Temporal Powers and Pretensions

 

Cathedra Petri by Christusrex.org

Cittá del Vaticano by Christusrex.org

The Pope

The Papacy as Dogma and Institution

Protestant "Pope as Antichrist" Apocalypticisms

Protestant "Pope as False Prophet" Apocalypticisms

Catholic "Anti-Pope" Apocalypticisms

Catholic "Celestial Pope"

Prophecy of St. Malachi

 

Infoseek search Malachi Martin

Fundamentalist Christian site claiming that Antichrist will be a literal reincarnation of Judas Iscariot and that the kingdom of Antichrist is a revived Roman Empire.

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⁵ Nero redivivus or "resurrected Nero" is associated with  Antichrist.

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