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Yeah I had the same thought, so I checked out Spirit Daily...

The name Benedict seemed a strong signal on many levels. It was St. Benedict who was noted for his strong power against the devil -- this important at a time of heightened spiritual warfare -- and the order Benedict founded, the Benedictines, is also known as the "Olivetans." St. Benedict prophesied that the last pope would be from that order.

And it was allegedly St. Malachy of Ireland who prophesied that the Pope after John Paul II ("Labor of the sun") would be "Glory of the Olives."

"The Order of St. Benedict claims this final pope will come within the Benedictine Order, and that he was placed in the secession line because St. Benedict himself prophesied that before the end of the world, his Order will triumphantly lead the Catholic Church in its battle against evil (the Battle of Armageddon)," noted one article we recently posted.

http://www.spiritdaily.com/ratzinger1.htm

So I guess the best thing to do right now is pray!!. But I am not sure that the Propecies of St Malacy prophecies the end of the world ;ie the end of time, the Last Judgement, or just the end of our age.
But it does make me wonder if we should make good use of the time that we have because maybe the sun is setting and night is coming when it will be very hard to work

I can understand taking the name Benedict. At the time of Benedict, the Roman Empire had declined, and Europe was in need of conversion - just as it is now. Benedict's monasteries made a huge difference in the Christianization of Europe.

For the Saint Malachy observers here's another interesting tidbit from Stacy Meichtry who writes for the National Catholic Reporter :

I'm expecting somebody to say something like, "The new Pontiff also holds large stock shares in Olive Corp, the world's largest organization of growers and producers of olives and olive-products in the world."

Ciao,

Dave

I didn't realize that Malachy had specifically predicted this as the name of the next Pope! Do you think it's possible that Cardinal Ratzinger knew this, and consciously chose that name to signal that he believes he is the Pope of that prophecy? Interesting ...

The prophecy doesnt explcitly name the Pope as Benedict but since the Benedictines are known as the olivetians the link between our new Holy Father's name and the prophecy is easy to make.

As for why he chose Benedict. I think it has more to do with Benedict XVI's vision that the Church will have to shrink into fall vibrant communities of faith and slowly but surely re-Christianise the West. St Benedict of nursia is highly regarded by the Holy Father for laying the foundation stones of the monastic order that is practically responsible for the conversion of the German nations and the preservation of Classical Roman culture in the dark ages.

Okay, thanks for explaining that, Myles, but now I'm a little confused, because a bunch of websites are posting a prophecy attributed to St. Malachy stating that the next Pope would take the name "Benedict XVI" - you don't think they could be (gasp) making that up, do you?

I have the book of St. Malachy's prophecies. He doesn't say anything except the title. The rest is all speculation as to what he meant. But it is interesting that the new Pope took the name Benedict. Does this validate Malachy? I certainly don't know. But if it does, we had all better straighten up fast!

Well the prophecy of St Malachy is what forms the backbone of this thread and this discussion and indeed one can make a link between Benedict XVI and the propechy of St Malachy. The prophecy itself simply says 'Gloria Olivae' but many speculated even before the election that the next Pope would call himself Benedict because of this. Is the prophecy given extra weight because His Eminence Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger took the name Benedict? Argueably yes...

...although that might suggest that soon enough we're all going to be persecuted and the city of Rome is going to be destroyed. Nothing that hasnt happened before, of course, can anybody actually count the times Rome has been sacked since St Peter? I know the Vandals and the Goths had a go, Belisarius and the Ostrogoths also wrecked the place, did the Lombards smash it too? I know the Saracens did. But you get the point. Rome has been totalled a lot.

Of course the prophecy adds that this is going to be at the time of the great and terrible judge, which may or may not be metaphorical language for the second coming of the glorfied Lord.

Cool, no? Wonder if it'll all pan out.

Maybe the Pentecostals were right when some of their signs read, "get right with God - the end is near."

Well, I had stated in my post that since the Holy Spirit always chooses a Pope in reference to the most important area in the world, I assumed it might be someone very knowledgable about the Middle and Far East.

I was wrong. By picking Cardinal Ratzinger as Pope, God showed me that the most important area in the world is (once again): Germany and Europe.

Zenovia

This is the leading story on World Net Daily.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43887

Does choice fulfill
ancient pope prophecy?
Saint wrote of 'Glory of the Olive,'
which relates to Benedictine Order
--WND

Good morning Myles.

The Benedictines are not known as the Olivetans. The Olivetans are one of the twenty one different Congregations which make up the Benedictine Conferderation and they are have (2004 statistics) only 251 members out of a total O.S.B. membershop of 7,860. These figures are for monks only. There are 121 Olivetan nuns.

IMHO, these "prophecies" are superstitious as are those of Nostradamus.

Peace,

Charles