On the first day of the Jubilee of Persons with Disabilities, Archbishop Rino Fisichella presides at Mass at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, and prays that the late Pope Francis’ legacy will give us courage “not to remain silent.”

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CNA Newsroom, Apr 28, 2025 / 07:13 am (CNA).

The College of Cardinals announced Monday that the conclave to elect Pope Francis’ successor will begin on May 7, as the Church enters the final preparatory phase for choosing its 267th pope.

The pivotal proclamation came following a morning general congregation meeting at the Vatican, where cardinals have been gathering daily since Pope Francis’ burial at St. Mary Major Basilica on April 26.

The date falls within the traditional 15- to 20-day window following a pope’s death, allowing sufficient time for the “Novendiales” mourning period and for cardinal electors to arrive from across the globe.

Of the 134 cardinals who will take part — those under 80 years of age — nearly all have already arrived in Rome. The remaining few are expected within days, according to Vatican sources.

The voting will take place beneath Michelangelo’s magnificent frescoes in the Sistine Chapel.

Following tradition, the cardinals will celebrate a “Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff” in St. Peter’s Basilica on the morning of May 7 before processing into the Sistine Chapel while chanting the “Veni Creator Spiritus,” invoking the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

Once inside, each cardinal will take an oath to observe the procedures, maintain secrecy, and vote freely for the candidate he believes most worthy. The chapel doors will then be closed to the outside world until a new pope is chosen.

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 91, is the current dean of the College of Cardinals, i.e., the most senior member, elected from among the ranks of the cardinal bishops and confirmed by the pope. Normally, it would be Re’s job to move the conclave process forward once it gets underway. 

Re is too old to take part in the conclave, however, as is his vice dean, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri. So the upcoming conclave will be directed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the next eligible most senior cardinal bishop and the Vatican’s secretary of state.

A two-thirds majority — 90 votes — is required to elect the new pope.

The world will watch for the traditional signals from the Sistine Chapel chimney: black smoke indicating an inconclusive ballot, white smoke announcing that a new pope has been elected.

Pope Francis was responsible for appointing 108 of the cardinal electors who will now choose his successor, dramatically reshaping the geographic makeup of the College of Cardinals during his pontificate. The college now includes representatives from countries with small Catholic populations and from regions previously underrepresented in papal elections.

At Mass on the third day of the Novemdiales in suffrage for Pope Francis, the Cardinal Vicar General for the Diocese of Rome reminds the faithful, as they mourn the late Pope, that death is not the end because ‘The grain must die to bear fruit.’

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CNA Staff, Apr 28, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The recent death of Pope Francis on April 21 has reignited interest in the centuries-old “Prophecy of the Popes,” also known as the St. Malachy prophecy, which some say indicates that Pope Francis was the last pope the Church will ever have.

The over-900-year-old prophecy, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, purports to describe every single pope from the year 1143 until the end of time — and Pope Francis appears, at least at a glance, to be the last pope described in the prophecy, suggesting the world will end now that his papacy has concluded.

A closer look shows that there is some significant evidence against the authenticity of this alleged prophecy. Here’s what you need to know.

What is the ‘Prophecy of the Popes’?

The document in question was allegedly a private revelation given to the medieval figure St. Malachy, who served as archbishop of Armagh, Ireland, in the 1100s. Reportedly, he made a visit to Rome in which he had a vision of the future popes and wrote them down.

The prophecy consists of a list of 112 short phrases; enigmatic “mottoes” in Latin that are supposed to represent the popes from St. Malachy’s time onward. 

The mottoes generally contain references to one of several things, including the pope’s name (his papal name, his birth name, or his family name), his place of origin, or a heraldic crest connected with him (his papal arms, his family crest, or the crest of his order or place of origin). They often involve wordplay regarding these things, though that is more obvious in Latin than in English.

The mottoes are believed by some to predict the succession of Catholic popes, concluding with a final pope referred to as “Peter the Roman.”

The next-to-last motto in the prophecy of the popes has been associated with Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned the papacy in 2013 and died at the end of 2022. The election of Pope Francis as his successor brings us to the last name in the prophecy of the popes, which many have taken to indicate the final pope at the end of the world.

This passage reads as follows:

“Peter the Roman, who will nourish the sheep in many tribulations; when they are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The end.”

Is it genuine?

This prophecy is not a Vatican-approved private revelation, though it has been influential in some Catholic circles for several hundred years. There is evidence to doubt its authenticity, however.

First, the prophecy was not published until 1595, though St. Malachy died in 1148. There is no record of the prophecy existing in the intervening 447 years. Allegedly, this was because the prophecy lay forgotten in a Roman archive, and it was not rediscovered until 1590.

While the fact that there is no mention of the document in the hundreds of years between the times of its reported composition and its rediscovery does not prove that it is false, it does cast significant doubt on its authenticity.

It has been proposed that the document, rather than being an authentic revelation, is a forgery composed around 1590 and then planted in the archive for political purposes — a claim that would explain the document’s lengthy absence.

Do its contents hold true?

The logical approach is to examine the prophecy’s contents to see which theory of its origins they are more consistent with: Do the contents seem to suggest that it was written in the 1100s, or do they suggest that it was written around 1590?

Many observers have thought the latter. One reason is that the “mottoes” for the period prior to 1590 are very easy to connect with the popes they allegedly represent. By contrast, the mottoes assigned to the popes coming after 1590 are much harder to connect with the popes they allegedly represent and often can be connected only in a contrived way.

Some examples of mottoes that are easy to connect to pre-1590 popes include:

• “Ex castro Tiberis” (“From a castle on the Tiber”). This is connected with Celestine II (1143–1144), who was born in Citta di Castello (“City of the Castle”), which is on the banks of the Tiber river.

• “Frigidus abbas” (“Cold Abbot”). This is connected with Benedict XII (1334–1342), who had been the abbot of a monastery at Fontfroide (“Cold Spring”).

• “De parvo homine” (“From a small man”). This is connected to Pius III (1503), whose family name was Piccolomini, which is derived from piccolo (small) and uomo (man).  

By contrast, some examples of post-1590 popes include:

• “Pia civitas in bello” (“Pious city in war”). This is connected with Innocent IV (1591), but there is no good way to link him with this motto. Some have pointed to the fact that he was patriarch of Jerusalem before his election to the papacy, and Jerusalem could be thought of as a “pious city,” but so could Rome and many others. Almost any Christian city would count, and Jerusalem was not a Christian city at this time. Furthermore, Jerusalem was not at war when he was patriarch.

• “Aquila rapax” (“Rapacious eagle”). This is connected with Pius VII (1800–1823), but there is no good way to link him with this motto. Some have proposed that his reign overlapped with that of Napoleon and that Napoleon could be described as a rapacious eagle (that is, a hungry commander of armies), but this is very tenuous and makes the motto not a description of the pope but of someone else who was on the world stage during his reign.

• “Religio depopulata” (“Religion destroyed”). This is connected with Benedict XV (1914–1922), but there is no good way to link him in particular with this motto. There is no obvious connection to his name, family, place of origin, or coat of arms. He did not destroy religion or religious life. Neither were either destroyed during his reign. He did reign during World War I, but that did not destroy either. He also reigned when communism came to power in Russia. That didn’t destroy religion in his day or in Italy. And again, we’d be connecting the motto with something other than the pope. If that were allowed then it would be possible to connect every motto with something that happened somewhere in the world during a pope’s day, and the prophecies would have no particular value as they would all be applicable to any pope.

What should we make of all this?

Let’s return now to the motto that supposedly describes Pope Francis: “Peter the Roman.” The name Peter has no clear connection to Francis, whose baptismal name was Jorge Mario Bergoglio (other than the fact that he held the office of St. Peter, the papacy). And despite having some Italian ancestry, Francis was not Roman by birth but rather Argentinian. 

There’s more: The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that even though the prophecy designates “Peter the Roman” as the last pope, the prophecy does not say that no popes will intervene between him and his predecessor, designated “Gloria olivæ” (“The glory of the olive”). The prophecy merely says that Peter the Roman, whenever he shows up, will be the last. 

Thus there is no compelling reason to believe that Peter the Roman is Pope Francis. (Many news articles and commentators also claim that the prophecy predicts Peter the Roman will show up in 2027, but in reality the document makes no mention of a year.)

Taking all of this together, Catholics need not worry much about St. Malachy’s prophecies. It is not an approved apparition, and the evidence is consistent with it being a forgery composed around 1590.

More fundamentally, Jesus indicated that we would not know the time of the end — and in keeping with Our Lord’s warning, predictions of the end of the world based on the Bible have a dismal track record. Trying to predict the end of time based on an unapproved private revelation that shows signs of being forged is even more misguided. 

We should trust God, live according to his word, and leave the future in his hands.

As Jesus said:

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day (Mt 6:34).”

This piece was adapted from a blog post by Jimmy Akin first published in the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, on Feb. 24, 2013.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The 135 cardinals eligible to elect the next pope will enter the Sistine Chapel to begin the conclave May 7, the Vatican announced. 

The cardinals will first celebrate the "Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff" in St. Peter's Basilica that morning before processing into the Sistine Chapel that evening.

The Vatican Museums announced that the Sistine Chapel would be closed to visitors beginning April 28 to allow preparations for the conclave to begin. The preparations include the installation of a stove to burn the cardinals' ballots and a chimney on the roof to signal the election results to the world.

The date for the conclave was set during the fifth general congregation meeting of cardinals April 28, Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, told reporters at a briefing later that day. The general congregation meeting was the first after a two-day pause to allow cardinals to participate in the funeral rites for Pope Francis.

More than 180 cardinals attended the April 28 meeting, including over 100 cardinal electors. During the session, about 20 cardinals offered reflections on the state of the church, its mission in the world, the challenges it faces and the qualities needed in the next pope, Bruni said.

Topics addressed included evangelization, interfaith relations and the ongoing need to address clerical sexual abuse, he added.

The cardinals also discussed whether Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who relinquished the rights associated with being a cardinal after he was forced to resign in 2020, would be permitted to participate in the conclave. Bruni said no decision had yet been made, and Cardinal Becciu has been attending the general congregation meetings.

Looking ahead to the next session, Bruni said the general congregation meeting April 29 would open with a reflection by Benedictine Father Donato Ogliari, abbot of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome and a member of the Dicastery for Bishops.

As cardinals entered the Vatican for the morning's session, Cardinal Anders Arborelius of Stockholm was asked by reporters if he expected a long conclave. "I think it will be," he said, "because up to now we don't know each other."

Meanwhile, Cardinal Walter Kasper, former president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity who is past the age limit to vote in the conclave, told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that he hopes the cardinal-electors "come to a consensus on the next pope very soon, in the footsteps of Francis."

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Reporting by CNS Rome is made possible by the Catholic Communication Campaign. Give to the CCC special collection in your diocese May 10-11 or any time at: https://bit.ly/CCC-give

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The conclave to elect the 267th Pope will begin on May 7th, following the conclusion of the Novemdiales Masses to pray for the eternal repose of the late Pope Francis.

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