Pope Benedict XVI Assassination Plot in 2012?

Conspiracy or Prophecy? Cardinal Paolo Romeo's recent prediction that Pope Benedict XVI will die within twelve months has been causing somewhat of a media frenzy in Italy, stirring rumours of an assassination attempt on the pope. It appears to stem from a leak of a letter relayed to the Pope by Darío Castrillón Hoyos of Colombia dated to 30th December, 2011, which contained the contents of a recent conversation between Italian businessmen and Cardinal Paolo Romeo during a visit to China, during which he predicted the death of the Holy Father within the next 12 months:


Labelled "strictly confidential for the Holy Father", the detailed letter reports several conversations that Cardinal Paolo Romeo, the archbishop of Palermo, allegedly had with Italian businessmen in Beijing on a trip last November during which he predicted the pope would die within 12 months and suggested his replacement would be Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan... (See the full report here)



The Italian media appear to be latching onto the idea of Pope John Paul I style assassination conspiracy theory, based on perceived power struggles within the Vatican. While the idea of murderous plots being concocted by high ranking Church officials is of course preposterous, the fact that this rumour began within the Vatican itself leaves us to ponder...

In my book, I summarise the rather complex and persuasive argument forwarded by various Fatima experts that the text released in June 2000 was only a part of the entire Third Secret, which judging by official documented sources, appears to have consisted of two separate parts. The first part is four pages long, and contains Sr Lucia's description of the vision during which the children saw "a bishop dressed in white", who they thought was the Holy Father, being killed by a group of assailants - which is the text that was released in the year 2000. Offcial documents show that this part of the text was stored in the Vatican Archives. A wealth of evidence suggests that there is a second part which is written on a single sheet of paper, and is kept in an envelope which is stored in a bedside cabinet in the Papal apartments. The theory that the Third Secret consisted of two parts was confirmed by Archbishop Capovilla, the personal secretary of John XXIII who was present when the secret was first opened in 1959, during an interview with Solideo Paolini in 2005, and was sensationally covered in Antonio Socci's book The Fourth Secret of Fatima.

In my book, I theorise that the real reason the hidden part of the Third Secret was suppressed is due to it containing reference to an exact date, thus explaining Pope John XXIII's stipulated reason for not publishing the secret, because it “does not concern the years of my pontificate” (cited in De la Sainte Trinite, M. The Whole Truth About Fatima Vol. III p557). This statement clearly suggests that the Third Secret contained a date for its fulfilment in the future, well outside the expected lifespan of John XXIII (see also the previous post The Fourth Secret of Fatima). Additionally, further reasons for the pope's refusal to publish the Third Secret at the date specified by Sr. Lucia was given by Mgr. Capovilla, which also suggests that its contents were of an exact nature:


“Pope John imposed the silence for two reasons: (1) it did not seem to him ‘to consist entirely of things supernatural,’ (2) he did not dare to risk an immediate interpretation, in the midst of the complex ‘Fatima phenomenon, ’prescinding from minute precisions….” (cited in Socci, A. The Fourth Secret of Fatima p154)


The inclusion of an exact date would make it impossible for the Church to release such material before the prophecy had taken place at the date specified, lest it open itself to scorn and ridicule if the prophecy failed to take place.

As I suggest in the book, this date could have referred to the turn of millennium, and evidence suggests that this part of the message is largely based on the struggle between the Dragon and the Woman adorned with the Sun in Rev 12. I argue that the Vatican has refused to publish it because some members of the hierarchy believe that it could be perceived to be a failed prophecy, since nothing immediately obvious occurred around this time period (however as I show the posts The Fall of Satan, Signs in the Sky, and The Year of the Dragon, the various prophecies concerning the turn of the millennium may be correct after all). And in the earlier post The Two Towers and the Sixth Seal, I show how Cardinal Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, publicly stated that he believes that the "signs in the sky" described at the opening of the sixth seal in Rev 6 is connected to the 9/11 attacks at the turn of the millennium.
Yet it is also possible that the "hidden text" of the Third Secret contains another future date separate from the turn of the millennium - a date still yet in the future. This would give an additional motive for the continued refusal to fully divulge the entire contents of the Third Secret.

So it appears that Cardinal Romeo's prediction that Pope Benedict would die within the next 12 months is based on a prophetic source, rather than implicating him as being privy to the machinations of some sinister cabal within the Vatican. Could his prediction be based on the prophecies of authoritative Catholic visionaries? Such as those of Fatima, or some other prophetic source? This is of course speculation on my part - but the fact that the "12 months" deadline was given at the very beginning of the year suggests that his knowledge is limited to the confines of a specific year - this year - 2012, which is of course vague and precise at the same time. This would suggest that the height of his knowledge concerning this event is it would take place during the year 2012 - which is generally thought of as a prophetic turning point.

As I argue in the previous post Prophecies of the Martyr-Pope, the portion of the Third Secret concerning the assassination of a pope appears to be related to the martyrdom of the Two Witnesses  described in the Book of Revelation. And this in turn appears to be related to St. Malachy's list of popes, whose motto concerning Pope Benedict XVI is "Glory of the Olives", which I argued in last year's post St. Malachy's Glory of the Olives is a direct allusion to the Apocalypse's description of the Two Witnesses as the "two olive trees... that stand before the Lord of all the earth" in Rev  11:4. The martyr-pope prophecies can also be found in St. John Bosco's Dream of the Two Pillars, as well as the secrets of Our Lady of La Salette. And the fulfilment of the vision of Fatima is inextricably linked to the prophecies of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the dawn of the Second Pentecost.

UPDATE:

It is now the New Year (2013), and the concerns of an assassination plot against the Holy Father in the year 2012 have thankfully subsided. It turns out that the most likely prophetic source of information that Cardinal Romeo would have used to point to the year 2012 was in fact the "Worthy Shepherd Prophecy", allegedly made by Bl. Tomasuccio de Foligno, which runs as follows:

"One from beyond the mountains shall become the Vicar Of God. Religious and clerics shall take part in this change. Outside the true path, there will be only disreputable men; I shrug my shoulders when the Bark of Peter is in danger and there is no one to lend it help... The schismatic shall fall into the scorn of the Italian faithful... By about twelve years shall the millennium have passed when the resplendent mantle of legitimate power shall emerge from the shadows where it was being kept by the schism. And beyond harm from the one who is blocking the door of salvation, for his deceitful schism shall have come to an end. And the mass of the faithful shall attach itself to the worthy Shepherd, who shall extricate each one from error and restore to the Church its beauty. He shall renew it."


The above prophecy could be used to suggest that a papal election would take place around 12 years past the millennium, thus bringing about the pontificate of the "Worthy Shepherd". The clause "by about twelve years shall the millennium have passed", is rather more loose, and could just as easily point to the year 2013 as to the year 2012.

FURTHER UPDATE:

With the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI today, on Feb 11th, 2013, it seems that the Worthy Shepherd Prophecy may in fact have some truth behind it. This means that a papal election will indeed take place by "about twelve years shall the millennium have passed" (it is just over twelve years and one month past the millennium). Will this be the beginning of the Second Pentecost?
In the post A Medjugorje Link to the "Heavenly Annunciation"?, I attempt to show how the Worthy Shepherd Prophecy may tie into the 2000th anniversary of the "Finding in the Temple" - which will occur this year, at around the same time as the election of the new pope, on Easter 2013.