Prediction: Pope Francis will not survive the year; a new pope who will forsake Christ is crowned. Instead, this successor to the Prince of Peace will hold the reigns of the Four Horsemen, ushering in ages of the past.
The fact that Pope Francis is going to die this year requires no great insight. It’s obvious. What may be least apparent is that the new Pope will take the Church backward. Dare I say backward in the direction of the rest of the world, which is being dragged to a yesteryear where hate and bigotry reign supreme and the super-rich steal from the rest of us. Now, the Catholic Church will want to get into the game lest they be left behind, poorer and less relevant. To be sure, religion in this day and age — if ever — is not the beacon of righteousness by which humans aspire to do good and be better. No, it is the mirror of humanity’s collective flaws magnified and beautified to the rest of the world, lending peoples’ failings a veneer of acceptance and morality as they abhor with abandon. Where the people are, this new Pope will follow.