THE word “Antichrist” conjures for most people a secular tyrant of unsurpassed persuasive powers, a man who seduces billions to then enslave and destroy them.
However, applying Catholic common sense to the issue leads to different assumptions. The Antichrist’s work must be spiritual first and foremost. He must be the antithesis of Christ Himself, who brought not a physical kingdom, but a spiritual one.
Who has the greatest spiritual power in the world? Surely it is a man who is, or professes to be, the very Vicar of Christ, a pope of the Catholic Church.
While Catholics are forbidden to speculate on the date of the future Antichrist, we are not forbidden, and are encouraged, to “read the signs of the times.” One of the characteristics of the end times, as mentioned by St. Paul, is spiritual blindness. We can expect that if The Antichrist has already come, the vast majority would not see it, as the vast majority were ignorant of Christ’s birth in Bethlehem.
The Antichrist was foretold as the perfection of evil, the perfect imperfection St. John the Apostle described. The greatest evil is not murder or genocide, but the Lie that seduces souls and sends them to eternal ruin. The devil, we know, is the Father of Lies. That we live in an age when the powers of deception of both visible and invisible rulers have reached a level of sophistication unknown to previous ages is one sign that we are living in the period following the coming of The Antichrist.
In 1978, in his booklet “Last Days of the Catholic Church,” the writer W.F. Strojie became one of the first to speculate publicly that Giovanni Battista Montini, the man known as “Pope Paul VI,” whose reign lasted from 1963 to 1978, was the one and only Antichrist. Many then and now viewed such a message as one of doom and gloom. But as Strojie maintained, it was a message, when seen in light of Revelation, of consolation.
He wrote:
Recently my attention was drawn in a shop to a book entitled “How to Recognize the Antichrist.” Opened at random it gave information that everyone would be able to recognize Antichrist by his two little horns and funny eyes, and that the Bible is very definite about this, then followed several Scriptural quotations. This book can be bought for $2.45, between nice red covers. Ridiculous? Of course. But where are the Catholics to draw the line in straying from the basically spiritual meanings of Scriptural prophecies?
And:
For a prophecy to fit it must be seen to fit aptly. Those who do not read the scriptural prophecies with the spiritual sense mainly in mind, will not be able to quite certainly identify the many important signs.
…. The Scriptural predictions of the Latter Days held no interest for me until recently. It was only under the necessity of doctrinally explaining the Strange New Church of Vatican II, with a pope unlike any other who has ever lived, that I felt the need to look into Gospel accounts.
He came to “scoff at the notion that anyone other than a pope [or seeming pope] could be The Antichrist.” I encourage you to consider his arguments in full.
Teresa Stanfill Benns has also studied and embraced the theory that Paul VI was The Antichrist:
According to Holy Scripture, Antichrist’s coming will be preceded by the Great Revolt, most often referred to by Scripture commentators as a general falling away of both the Catholic hierarchy and faithful. Henry Cardinal Manning says this began with the Reformation. This Man of Sin will be revealed only after “he who witholdeth” is taken out of the way,” most likely meaning the Pope. Pope Paul IV tells us in his 1559 bull that the abomination will be revealed following an invalid papal election. The early Fathers teach unanimously he will cause the Holy Sacrifice to cease, and will pretend to speak for God, as if he were God. Please tell me this: If Antichrist has yet to come, WHO will revolt from the Church (hardly any Catholics left anywhere), WHAT sacrifice will cease (no valid sacrifices are now being offered), and HOW would anyone ever believe such a person could speak for God in wreaking all the havoc that was Vatican 2 (since this is a privilege reserved only to a validly elected Pope?!) I have explained in the work HERE that Antichrist’s system could possibly produce a final physical and literal manifestation of Antichrist who would attempt to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. But this person would not himself be the Man of Sin in a spiritual sense.
Benns reviews the similarities between Paul VI and the prophecies. She writes:
St. Thomas Aquinas tells us “The wicked will think themselves to be in peace and security after the death of Antichrist and before the coming of Christ, seeing the world is not at once destroyed as they thought hitherto.”
The Antichrist was never foretold to be anything more than a man. He was not to be literally Satan in human form. Years of livid writing on the subject make it difficult to see that a mere man could function in such a powerful role. The Pharisees and Sadducees at the time of Christ expected a man of superhuman abilities, a king who would create an earthly kingdom of glory for the Israelites. Is it not the same with expectations of The Antichrist? Don’t many Catholics expect a spectacular ruler of this world, rather than a mere man with superhuman powers of deception?
All of Paul VI’s Vatican II successors, including Leo XIV, would be included in his works. They have all taught the new Religion of Man. As John Paul II said on March 31, 1991: “Let respect for man be total… Every offense against the person is an offense against God…”
Wrote Strojie:
There has never been anything like the total revolution of Vatican II and J.B. Montini. Even our enemies — those secret expert liars and corrupters of Europe who know the score — admit that the most immoral of popes defended the Faith. Nor did the Antipopes ever tamper with doctrine or practice. As to those weak popes already mentioned, they were far from intending, much less attempting, general destruction.
Just as we could not fix a charge of perfection in base evil on one or another of the great tyrants or persecutors, partly because these could not be distinguished by DEGREES of guilt, so likewise would it be of two popes destructive of the Church. Therefore St. John’s prophecy of The Antichrist — singular — is fulfilled in J.B. Montini.
You may wonder why neither of these writers has been published or promoted by major outfits selling Catholic, or nominally Catholic, works. According to Strojie, the Catholic press in the 1970s and ’80s “locked out” from its pages those who pointed to deviations from the Faith. If what these authors say is true regarding Paul VI, and I strongly believe it is, this censorship existed, and exists, because the love of truth has long grown cold.
Teresa Benns writes:
Thank you for including me in your article on Paul 6. I found out something new about him only recently, something I had not understood before:
I am sure you have read about the Priory of Sion [ed.: see here]. The official emblem of the Priory of Sion is partly based on the fleur-de-lis, which is found throughout Saint Sulpice (a society associated with the Priory). The emblem represents a bee, and the tradition of long-haired kings of France known as the Merovingian dynasty, including Childeric, who was found with 300 gold bees in his tomb.
Roncalli’s invalid election smoothly segued into the ascent of Paul 6 as the next usurper of the papal throne. Who was the successor of Priory Grand Master Jean Cocteau following his death in 1963? Giovanni Battista Montini, and he brazenly displayed the proofs of his Priory affiliation on his coat of arms. Note the fleur-de-lis bees on his coat of arms on the bottom right. And what is beneath them? The beehive — even Montini’s tiara resembled a beehive, unlike that of previous true popes. The coat of arms tells us the Priory had finally captured the papacy.
