The Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the Genocides of the 20th Century

Ezekiel's vision took place at the Chebar Canal, which runs into the River Euphrates. The main concentration camp of the Armenian Genocide was established at the confluence here in the modern Deir-ez-Zor district.

As I argue at considerable length in my book Unveiling the Apocalypse: The Final Passover of the Church, there is a wealth of evidence to suggest that Pope Leo XIII personally believed that his prophetic vision was concerned with the Millennium of Rev 20. Pope Leo XIII's vision, which he witnessed around the year 1886, was chiefly concerned with the imminent arrival of a period in which Satan would be granted greater power. A prophetic experience which proved only too real with the unfolding of the wars and genocides throughout the course of the 20th century.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus refers to the binding of the "strong man" in the same context as His prophecy concerning the Sign of Jonah:

Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.” Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. “Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house." (Matt 12:22-29)

Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.

(Matt 12:39-41)

So the appearance of the Sign of Jonah and the binding of the "strong man" (which took place during Christ's sacrificial death on the Cross and His descent into Hades on Holy Saturday), are very closely associated events.

Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. (John 12:31-33)

According to the amillenialist view elaborated by St. Augustine of Hippo, it was through the victory of the Cross that Satan was bound throughout the course of the "thousand years", or Millennium of Rev 20:

And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time. (Rev 20:1-3)

When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. (Rev 20:7-9)

St. Augustine of Hippo taught that Satan was bound by Christ in order to allow the spread of the Gospel to the ends of the earth, which had allowed Christianity to become the world's largest religion. However, he also expected the Devil to be unleashed upon the world once again at the end of the "thousand years", during which time Christianity would suffer serious repression leading to an age of apostasy. St. Augustine equated the "thousand years" of Rev 20 with the Sabbath Millennium discussed by the Early Church Fathers. A week of millennia which would last from the biblical date of creation right up to the end-time itself. The Early Church Fathers had calculated this period from the Greek text of the Bible to end around the year 500AD; but as I note in my book, this period can be accurately dated to around the turn of the 20th century, once we take into account St. Bede the Venerable's recalibration of the chronology of the Bible, which he did by using the original Hebrew text.

In my previous blog post The Sign of Jonah and the Binding of Satan, I have already detailed how the Sign of Jonah was an actual historical event which took place during the ministry of the prophet himself, which consisted of a total solar eclipse that appeared over the site of ancient Nineveh. Known as the Bur Sagale solar eclipse, this event is thought by some theologians to have occurred sometime in and around the prophet's entrance into Nineveh described in Jonah 3, and was pivotal in bringing about the repentance of the ancient Ninevites. It is of crucial significance then that the beginning of the period of Satan's greater power foreseen in the vision of Pope Leo XIII was similarly timed to coincide with a total solar eclipse which traversed the site of ancient Nineveh. This was at the start of the First World War, on 21st August, 1914 - the feast day of Our Lady of Knock. A Marian apparition that specifically announced the opening of the scroll sealed with seven seals by the Lamb of Revelation, which sets the entire events of the eschaton into motion with the release of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse described in Rev 5-6:

Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth."
(Rev 5:1-10)

I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest. When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.

When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth. (Rev 6:1-8)

The significance of the Four Living Creatures is key to understanding the meaning of the opening of the scroll sealed with seven seals and the unleashing of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In order to unravel the mystery behind this portion of the Apocalypse, we must turn to the Book of Ezekiel. It is here that we find that the Four Living Creatures are closely associated with a very precise location centred on the River Euphrates, which was identified with the Chebar Canal:

In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. On the fifth day of the month (it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin), the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there.

As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal. And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had a human likeness, but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf's foot. And they sparkled like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. And the four had their faces and their wings thus: their wings touched one another. Each one of them went straight forward, without turning as they went. As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle. Such were their faces. And their wings were spread out above. Each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies. And each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went. As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches moving to and fro among the living creatures. And the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures darted to and fro, like the appearance of a flash of lightning.

Now as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them. As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl. And the four had the same likeness, their appearance and construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel. When they went, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went. And their rims were tall and awesome, and the rims of all four were full of eyes all around. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose. Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went, and the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. (Ezek 1:1-20)

Many theologians have identified the Chebar Canal with the River Khabur in the Deir-ez-Zor district in modern Syria, which became the site of the largest concentration camp during the Armenian Genocide, which was perpetrated at the very start of the First World War in April 1915. Between 1915-1923, an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were exterminated by the Turkish government, providing a future template which their close allies the Germans would use to implement the Jewish Holocaust. The key architects of the infrastructure used to exterminate the Jews during the Second World War had witnessed the Armenian Genocide first hand, and directly lifted the systematic slaughter devised by the Turks to annihilate a third of the world's total Jewish population.

As I argue in my book, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are one and the same as the four angels bound at the River Euphrates, who are released at the opening of the seals of Revelation in order to kill a third of "the people":

Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, were released to kill a third of [the people]. (Rev 9:13-15)

The Four Horsemen are released at an exact time which had been prepared for them, which I propose is one and the same as the period of the unbinding of Satan at the end of the Sabbath Millennium - which can be calculated from the text of the Hebrew Bible. We are told that the four angels that are released in order to kill a third of the people are bound at the River Euphrates, which we know was the location of Ezekiel's vision of the Four Living Creatures at the Chebar Canal. And it is the Four Living Creatures who summon the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse at the opening of the first four seals of the Apocalypse. 

It is interesting to note that the River Euphrates had been dammed in the years just preceding the First World War, during the construction of the Hindiya Barrage between 1911-1913:

The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. (Rev 9:13-14)

The drying up of the Euphrates is mentioned in the same context as the appearance of the apocalyptic locusts, which occurs at the opening of the Abyss by the angel given the key to Hades, which ties us back into the period of the unbinding of Satan described in Rev 20:

And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. (Rev 9:1-3)

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while. (Rev 20:1-3)

It is no coincidence that the Wright Brothers had began to develop the first aircraft within a year of Pope Leo XIII's consecration of the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1899, which had paved the way for the world's first military airplane being developed in and around the same time as the Tunguska event of 1908 - which is the single most famous event of a star fallen to earth in recorded history. As I argue in my book, the invention of military aircraft is the most plausible explanation of the symbolism of the "apocalyptic locusts" which rise at the opening of the Abyss which takes place at the end of the Millennium of Rev 20. 

All of the above combined prophetic signs indicate that the end of the Sabbath Millennium discussed by the Early Church Fathers did indeed coincide with the vision of Pope Leo XIII and the short time of Satan described in Rev 20. As we shall discuss in more depth in the next post, the fact that Armenia was the world's first Christian kingdom ties in with the prophetic symbolism of the Kingdom of God as the kerygma of Jesus' ministry. The proclamation of coming of the Kingdom and Christ's casting out of unclean spirits was the ultimate sign of the binding of Satan and the inauguration of the millennial reign of Christ through the victory achieved at the Cross at Calvary. 

But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house. (Matt 12:29-30)

Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Puerto Rico

The following blog post was written by Carlos Caso-Rosendi, who is one of the most knowledgeable writers out there on the subject of Catholic eschatology:

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: The following is an account of the events surrounding an alleged apparition of Our Blessed Mother in Puerto Rico. Should these events be approved by the Church as worthy of belief, that would be the only continuous apparition of Our Lady ever, lasting from 1899 until 1909, beginning shortly after the end of the Spanish American War of 1898. The events described below took place in an isolated mountainous area in Puerto Rico at a time when communications to and from the island were few. Carlos Caso-Rosendi

The Holy Mountain (Santa Montaña), altitude: 2,226 ft above sea level, in the Espino neighborhood of the Municipality of San Lorenzo, is a locality near where the municipalities of San Lorenzo, Patillas and Cayey meet. This mountainous region is located within a natural reserve—the Carite Forest—which consists of about 6,400 acres of tropical rain forest that are part of the Sierra of Cayey.  As of 1954 and by mandate of the government of Puerto Rico—for all official purposes, including cartography—Cerro Las Peñas (The Stones Hill) was named Cerro de Nuestra Madre (Our Mother’s Hill).

The Our Lady of Mt Carmel Diocesan Sanctuary, is located at the top of La Santa Montaña in Puerto Rico. It was built and dedicated in 1985 by the bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Caguas, Monsignor Enrique Hernández Rivera. The story of La Santa Montaña begins on August 8, 1899, when the atmospheric phenomenon known as Hurricane San Ciriaco left the island after crossing it diagonally leaving 3,369 dead and hundreds of thousands  homeless. The losses were estimated by the government at the time in US$35.8 million.

Read the rest at the below link:

https://casorosendi.wordpress.com/2018/03/19/our-lady-of-mount-carmel-in-puerto-rico/

Update on the Heretical Ministry of Fr. Joseph Iannuzzi

Just a few days after my last blog post concerning several questionable elements of the ministry of Fr. Joseph Iannuzzi, the superior general of the Oblates of St. Joseph (OSJ), Fr. Michele Piscopo, issued a letter to clarify that he actually does have permission for a leave of absence. This letter appeared on a website run by a group called the "3rd order of Benedictine Oblates of the Divine Will", which is basically a front for the Divine Will Movement.

https://www.queenofthedivinewill.org/father-iannuzzi-slandered-our-response/

This is quite a turnaround from the email concerning Fr. Iannuzzi's ministry which was written by Fr. Giacondo Antonio Bronzini, the secretary general of the OSJ, which was sent to Prof. Robert Fastiggi of Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. Prof. Fastiggi has given me permission to reveal that he was the academic source who had received the below email from Fr. Bronzini, which detailed how problematic Fr. Iannuzzi has been for the OSJ during the course of several years:

Egregio Signore, pace e bene.

P. Joseph Iannuzzi ha chiesto più volte l'esclaustrazione, passando da una diocesi (o comunità religiosa) a un'altra, rendendo praticamente impossibile controllarne la condotta. Da parte sua, da anni non dà ai Superiori relazione delle sue attività. Attualmente è fuori comunità senza permesso. Distinti saluti, p. Giocondo A. Bronzini, segretario generale OSJ. 

Dear Sir, peace and goodness.
Fr Joseph Iannuzzi has asked many times for exclaustration, moving from one diocese (or religious community) to another, making it practically impossible to control his conduct. For his part, for years he has not given the Superiors report of his activities. He is currently outside the community without permission.
Yours sincerely,
p. Giocondo A. Bronzini, OSJ general secretary.

Fr. Piscopo's response to this revelation from Fr. Bronzini is rather a rather curious contradiction of the above communication received by Prof. Fastiggi, and shows that there are some mysterious goings on in the OSJ concerning Fr. Iannuzzi's problematic ministry. It is of course impossible to know what is going on behind the scenes here, but it seems likely that Fr. Iannuzzi was either only given permission in retrospect, or Fr. Bronzini was simply unaware that he was actually granted permission from Fr. Piscopo to leave the community. Either way, Fr. Bronzini's response to Prof. Fastiggi is rather telling that Fr. Iannuzzi is viewed as a major problem by the highest ranking members of the curia of his religious congregation. 

I have it on high authority that Fr. Iannuzzi is not currently on the directory of priests in the USA, so he is currently operating without faculties away from his religious congregation, and he basically answers to no one. This explains why he is promoting the works of Vassula Ryden with impunity, even though the CDF have issued a notification against her writings. There is still the glaring problem that his various books and seminars promote an heretical concept of the Millennium of Rev 20 which adopts the millenarian eschatology of Medieval Abbot Joachim de Fiore, whose works were condemned by the Church - most notably by St. Thomas Aquinas.

I answer that, The state of the world may change in two ways. In one way, according to a change of law: and thus no other state will succeed this state of the New Law. Because the state of the New Law succeeded the state of the Old Law, as a more perfect law a less perfect one. Now no state of the present life can be more perfect that the state of the New Law: since nothing can approach nearer to the last end than that which is the immediate cause of our being brought to the last end. But the New Law does this: wherefore the Apostle says (Hebrews 10:19-22): "Having therefore, brethren, a confidence in the entering into the Holies by the blood of Christ, a new . . . way which He hath dedicated for us . . . let us draw near." Therefore no state of the present life can be more perfect than that of the New Law, since the nearer a thing is to the last end the more perfect it is.

In another way the state of mankind may change according as man stands in relation to one and the same law more or less perfectly. And thus the state of the Old Law underwent frequent changes, since at times the laws were very well kept, and at other times were altogether unheeded. Thus, too, the state of the New Law is subject to change with regard to various places, times, and persons, according as the grace of the Holy Ghost dwells in man more or less perfectly. Nevertheless we are not to look forward to a state wherein man is to possess the grace of the Holy Ghost more perfectly than he has possessed it hitherto, especially the apostles who "received the firstfruits of the Spirit, i.e. sooner and more abundantly than others," as a gloss expounds on Romans 8:23.

Reply to Objection 1. As Dionysius says (Eccl. Hier. v), there is a threefold state of mankind; the first was under the Old Law; the second is that of the New Law; the third will take place not in this life, but in heaven. But as the first state is figurative and imperfect in comparison with the state of the Gospel; so is the present state figurative and imperfect in comparison with the heavenly state, with the advent of which the present state will be done away as expressed in that very passage (1 Corinthians 13:12): "We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face."

Reply to Objection 2. As Augustine says (Contra Faust. xix, 31), Montanus and Priscilla pretended that Our Lord's promise to give the Holy Ghost was fulfilled, not in the apostles, but in themselves. In like manner the Manicheans maintained that it was fulfilled in Manes whom they held to be the Paraclete. Hence none of the above received the Acts of the Apostles, where it is clearly shown that the aforesaid promise was fulfilled in the apostles: just as Our Lord promised them a second time (Acts 1:5): "You shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence": which we read as having been fulfilled in Acts 2. However, these foolish notions are refuted by the statement (John 7:39) that "as yet the Spirit was not given, because Jesus was not yet glorified"; from which we gather that the Holy Ghost was given as soon as Christ was glorified in His Resurrection and Ascension. Moreover, this puts out of court the senseless idea that the Holy Ghost is to be expected to come at some other time.

Now the Holy Ghost taught the apostles all truth in respect of matters necessary for salvation; those things, to wit, that we are bound to believe and to do. But He did not teach them about all future events: for this did not regard them according to Acts 1:7: "It is not for you to know the times or moments which the Father hath put in His own power."

Reply to Objection 3. The Old Law corresponded not only to the Father, but also to the Son: because Christ was foreshadowed in the Old Law. Hence Our Lord said (John 5:46): "If you did believe Moses, you would perhaps believe me also; for he wrote of Me." In like manner the New Law corresponds not only to Christ, but also to the Holy Ghost; according to Romans 8:2: "The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," etc. Hence we are not to look forward to another law corresponding to the Holy Ghost.

Reply to Objection 4. Since Christ said at the very outset of the preaching of the Gospel: "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17), it is most absurd to say that the Gospel of Christ is not the Gospel of the kingdom. But the preaching of the Gospel of Christ may be understood in two ways. First, as denoting the spreading abroad of the knowledge of Christ: and thus the Gospel was preached throughout the world even at the time of the apostles, as Chrysostom states (Hom. lxxv in Matth.). And in this sense the words that follow--"and then shall the consummation come," refer to the destruction of Jerusalem, of which He was speaking literally. Secondly, the preaching of the Gospel may be understood as extending throughout the world and producing its full effect, so that, to wit, the Church would be founded in every nation. And in these sense, as Augustine writes to Hesychius (Epist. cxcix), the Gospel is not preached to the whole world yet, but, when it is, the consummation of the world will come.

Summa Theologica (I-II, Q. cvi, a. 4)

It was St. Thomas Aquinas who most forcefully condemned the millenarian worldview, which Cardinal Ratzinger described as the idea of an intra-historical fulfilment of the hope which lies only beyond the eschatological judgement. The most dangerous aspect of millenarianism has long been recognized as the fact that this worldview ultimately leads to the development of extreme, revolutionary types of ideologies, which ultimately culminated in the concentration camps and gulags of the 20th century. As the world-renowned millenarian expert Marjorie Reeves notes:

"... although the implicit danger was only slowly realized, once the point had been grasped that the Joachimist hope provided a dangerously revolutionary basis for action, the doctrine of the third status was attacked far more energetically than Joachim's formulation on the Trinity". (Marjorie Reeves, The Influence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages, p129)

It is these secular forms of millenarianism which the Catechism most forcefully condemns. Fr. Iannuzzi and his followers attempt to evade the charge of millenarianism by equating it solely with the doctrine of ancient Chiliasm. This is simply untrue, since the secular forms of millenarianism are singled out for the greatest condemnation in the Catechism. Not whether or not there will be some odd, ethereal form of the Second Coming of Christ for an earthly millennial reign, and that by posing a "spiritual millennium", that the followers of Fr. Iannuzzi can escape the charge of millenarianism. Joachim de Fiore similarly posed an "Age of the Spirit" rather than an coming of a reign of Christ in the Flesh, and was condemned for this idea long ago. 

The Antichrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgement. the Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the "intrinsically perverse" political form of a secular messianism. (CCC 676)

Cardinal Ratzinger gave a detailed overview of the problems posed by the millenarian worldview in his book Eschatology, which helps to further flesh out his thought when he helped to compose the Catechism:

"The expectation of a wholly just world is by no means a product of technological thought. It is rooted, rather, Judaeo-Christian spirituality. Over against the despair that in all epochs present suffering and injustice occasioned, other cultures defended themselves by invoking such ideas as those of the eternal return or liberation in Nirvana. The contrasting idea of a definitive future salvation, while not exclusively restricted to the Judaeo-Christian sphere, received its most powerful and penetrating formulation there.

The marked intra-worldly character which this idea assumed in the Old Testament led in early Christian times to the supplementing of the transcendent hope for the Kingdom of God by the notion of chiliasm: a thousand-year-long reign of Christ and those who are first to rise with him. The question of the earthly realisation of the promise which this notion suggested became a burning issue for Western Christianity through the work of Joaichim of Fiore - whom we met at the outset of this book. Joachim was convinced that God's plan for his human creatures could triumph only if it also succeeded on earth. It seemed to follow, then, that the time of the Church, as men have experienced it since the apostles, cannot be the definitive form of salvation. Joachim transformed the earlier periodization of history, which reflected the seven days of the week, into the idea of a multiplicand: history contains three times seven days. This he did by linking the venerable inherited schema with the doctrine of the Trinity. In this way, it appeared to be possible to calculate the third "week" of history, the time of the Holy Spirit.

The immanence of this third age created the obligation to work towards it: something Joachim tried to do through his monastic foundations. The mingling of rational planning with suprarational goals, already observable in the Old Testament and in Judaism, now receives systematic form. It will soon slough off the spiritual dreams of Abbot Joachim and emerge into the political history of Europe, where it will take the form of the messianism through planning. Such planned messianism became ever more fascinating as the potential of planning waxed and religion waned, through continuing, inevitably, to form human motives and hopes. Hegel's logic of history and Marx's historical scheme are the end products of these beginnings. These messianic goals in which Marxism's fascination lies rest upon a faulty underlying synthesis of religion and reason. For planning is now directed to goals which are quite disproportionate to planning methods. And so both the goal and the planning suffer shipwreck.

"As early as the patristic Church, steps were taken to eliminate chiliasm through an effort to preserve biblical tradition in its proper form. The Joachimist dispute filled the thirteenth century and, in part, the fourteenth also, ending with a renewed rejection of this particular form of hope for the future. The present-day theologies of liberation belong in this context. But just why did the Church reject that chiliasm which would allow one to take up the practical task of realizing on earth parousia-like conditions. The rejection of chiliasm meant that the Church repudiated the idea of a definitive intra-historical fulfilment, an inner, intrinsic perfectibility of history. On the contrary, it affirms the impossibility of an inner fulfilment of the world. This is, indeed, the common content shared by the various fragmentary pictures of the end of the world offered us by Scripture. The biblical representation of the End rejects the expectation of a definitive state of salvation within history. This position is also rationally correct, since the idea of a definitive intra-historical fulfilment fails to take into account the permanent openness of history and of human freedom, for which failure is always a possibility. In the last resort, such neo-chiliasm expresses a profound anthropological perversion. Human salvation is not to be expected from the moral dignity of man, from the deepest level of his moral personality. Rather we are to set our hopes for it on planning mechanisms, marginal to the authentically human though these may be. The values which sustain the world are turned upside down. A planned salvation would be the salvation proper to a concentration camp and so the end of humanity.

Faith in Christ’s return is, therefore, in the first place the rejection of an intra-historical perfectibility of the world. Precisely in this negative aspect, it is also the preservation of humanity against those who would dehumanize man. Of course, if this thesis-which in itself is, in any case, rationally evident-were to stand alone, then the last word would be with a posture of resigned acquiescence. And so, over and above this preliminary statement, we must add that faith in Christ’s return is also the certitude that the world will, indeed come to its perfection, not through rational planning but through that indestructible love which triumphed in the risen Christ. Faith in Christ’s return is faith that, in the end, truth will judge and love will conquer. Naturally, this victory is won only when we take a step beyond history as we know it, a step further for which history itself yearns. The historical process can only be perfected beyond itself It is where this insight is accepted, where history is lived in the direction of its own self-transcendence, that in each and every case the process of history is thrown open to its fulfilment. Thereby, reason receives its due place, and the duty to act according to measure. Simultaneously, hope also enters into its proper realm, and is not exhausted on the laboratory counter.

The world’s salvation rests on the transcending of the world in its worldly aspect. The risen Christ constitutes the living certainty that this process of the world’s self-transcendence, without which the world remains absurd, does not lead into the void. The Easter Jesus is our certainty that history can be lived in a positive way, and that our finite and feeble rational activity has a meaning. In this perspective, the “antichrist” is the unconditional enclosure of history within its own logic – the supreme antithesis to the Man with the opened side, of whom the author of the Apocalypse wrote:
Behold he is coming with clouds,
And every eye will see him."
(Ratzinger, J. Eschatology: Death and Eternal Hope, pp211-214)

Dealing with the millenarian eschatology espoused by Fr. Iannuzzi remains the single greatest problem which Fr. Piscopo is still duty-bound to address. Explaining the existence of his various business interests and dealings in property is only a secondary issue, and one which I have only recently brought to light. The fact is that Fr. Iannuzzi is widely revered as the intellectual guru of the Divine Will Movement. His ministry is a serious problem which has long since spiralled out of control, and his writings now need to be properly condemned by the Church as millenarian heresy.

The false idea that I am writing under a pseudonym, and various other strange allegations made against me are a bizarre attempt to discredit my work. The fact that I studied divinity at a secular institute cannot be used against me at all. I simply didn't have the time nor money to travel all the way to Maynooth to study theology. My degree is a Batchelor of Divinity (which includes the study of biblical languages), not Batchelor of Arts. The page posted on the website "Benedictine Oblates of the Divine Will" is just a very weird ad hominin attack against me to distract from my very serious findings on the destructive priestly ministry of Fr. Iannuzzi, which now looks like it could turn into one of the biggest scandals to hit the Catholic Church in several years.