Universal Catholic Apostasy Predicted
Catholic Sacred Scripture Which Predicts Universal Catholic Apostasy
Luke 18:8
Matthew 24:15
Matthew 24:24-25
2 Thessalonians 2:3-5
We find in Luke 18:8, that Jesus predicts there will be little faith left when He returns at His second coming, “…when the Son of Man (Jesus) comes, will he find faith on the earth?” This entails a great religious apostasy from those who once knew and professed the truth. Likewise it indicates there will be a small religious group of believers who hold the true orthodox Catholic faith.
In Matthew 24:15, Jesus predicts the abomination of desolation, “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel–let the reader understand.”
Matthew 24:24, states that, “…false christ’s and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”
And, in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-5, we read, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.”
Further, as one Catholic author and apologist points out, “The New Testament tells us that this deception will happen in the very heart of the Church’s physical structures, in the “Temple of God” (2 Thess. 2:4) and in “the holy place” (Mt. 24:15). It will be because people receive not the love of the truth (2 Thess. 2:10).”
Catholic Prophecy Concerning the Universal Apostasy
Also we find the prophecy of St. Nicholas of Fluh (1417-1487): “The Church will be punished because the majority of her members, high and low, will become so perverted. The Church will sink deeper and deeper until she will at last seem to be extinguished, and the succession of Peter and the other apostles to have expired. But, after this, she will be victoriously exalted in the sight of all doubters.”
“St. Paul says that Antichrist ‘sitteth in the temple of God’…This is not the ancient Temple of Jerusalem, nor a temple like it built by the Antichrist, as some have thought, for then it would be his own temple…this temple is shown to be a Catholic Church, possibly one of the Churches in Jerusalem or St. Peter’s in Rome, which is the largest church in the world and is in the full sense ‘The Temple of God.'” Fr. Herman Kramer, (‘The Book of Destiny,’ 1975, pg. 321)
We see one example in which Pope Pius XI, states that St. Peter’s Basilica is a great temple, “…the Basilica of St. Peter’s…that great temple…” (Quingaugesimo ante (#30), Dec. 23, 1929)
Further, we find, “…St. Bernard speaks in the passage of the Antipope (as the Beast of the Apocalypse).” ‘The Catholic Encyclopedia,’ volume 1, (article on Antichrist)
Rev. Culleton writes, “Towards the end of the world, Antichrist will overthrow the pope and usurp his see.” (‘The Reign of Antichrst,’ 1974, pg. 130)
Likewise, Our Lady of La Salette appeared Sept. 19, 1846, predicting, “Rome will lose the faith and become the seat of the Antichrist…the Church will be in eclipse.”
“Rome (not the Catholic Church) has lost the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.” (Bro. Peter Dimond, ‘The Truth About What Really Happened to the Catholic Church,’ pg. 5)
1 John 2:22, “Who is a liar, but he who denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, who denieth the Father, and the Son.”
Pope Leo XIII’s Prayer to St. Michael
“…October 13, 1884, Pope Leo XIII…experienced a horrifying vision.”
“The pope later confided that during the strange episode he saw demons and heard the atrocious, guttural voice of Satan boasting to God that he could destroy the Church and drag the world to Hell if he were given sufficient time and power. According to the Pontiff, Satan asked God for between 75 and 100 years of enhanced worldly influence and it was granted.”
“Afterwards Pope Leo…urgently composed the famous prayer to the archangel Michael.”
On September 25, 1888, Pope Leo XIII, composed what is known as the (original) Prayer to St. Michael (which is also a prophecy), which, “he ordered…to be recited after all Low Masses as a protection for the Church against the attacks from Hell.”
Pope Leo XIII writes, “That cruel, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan, who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with his angels. Behold, this primeval enemy and slayer of men has taken courage. Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the name of God and of His Christ, to seize upon, slay and cast into eternal perdition souls destined for the crown of eternal glory. This wicked dragon pours out, as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy, and the pestilent breath of impurity, and of every vice and iniquity…
“These most crafty enemies,” continues Pope Leo, “have filled and inebriated with gall the bitterness the Church, the spouse of the immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, that they raised the throne of their abominable impiety, with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck, the sheep may be scattered…pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that …that he may no longer seduce the nations.”
Further, Pope Leo XIII, writes, that Satan and the other unclean spirits, “wander about the world for the injury of the human race and of the ruin of souls.”
“Pope Leo XIII foresaw and predicted the great apostasy; and he pinpointed that the apostasy would be led from Rome – Rome which alone is “the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of truth for the light of the world.” Pope Leo clearly foresaw that this place (Vatican City in Rome), where had been set up the Chair of Peter by the first Pope, St. Peter himself, would become the throne of Satan’s abominable impiety, with “iniquitous design that when the Pastor (the true Pope) has been struck, the sheep (the Catholic faithful) may be scattered.”
“Pope Leo was not predicting the defection of the Catholic Church (which is impossible, as the gates of Hell can never prevail against the Catholic Church [Mt. 16]), nor the defection of the Chair of Peter (which is also impossible), but rather he was predicting the implementation of an apostate, counterfeit Catholic religion from Rome in which “the pastor” (the true Pope) is replaced by a usurping antipope (as has occurred in Church history), with the iniquitous design that “the sheep may be scattered.”
Further, “Pope Leo’s prayer also foresaw that Satan’s impure apostates would lay impious hands “on the Church’s most sacred possessions.” What are the Church’s most sacred possessions? The most sacred possessions of the Church are those things which Christ entrusted to Her: namely, the deposit of faith (with all of its dogmas) and the seven sacraments instituted by Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. ..Pope Leo’s prayer foresaw the attempted destruction of the deposit of faith with Vatican II and the new sacramental rites of the Vatican II Church.”
In 1934, this original Prayer to Saint Michael by Pope Leo XIII was change, taking out the reference to,“the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of truth for the light of the world.” And eventually the entire prayer was replaced by a different version of the “prayer to Saint Michael,” and eventually, the prayer itself was removed from the Low Mass.
