The apostasy and destruction of Rome Foretold by Catholic Prophecy

Rome consumed by fire (Grok)

Some hold that, towards the end of the world, Rome will abandon the Christian faith and reject her Pontiff. She will restore her ancient power, wealth, greatness, and dominion, and return to paganism and persecution of the Church. Lastly, the great city will be consumed by fire and reduced to ruins.

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Rome as Babylon in the Apocalypse

Certain contemporary scholars argue that the term Babylon in the writings of Saint John refers to Rome. They have devised a remarkable interpretation of these oracles. The dreadful things foretold by the evangelist do not concern the Roman Church or the Christian Rome. In the last days of the world, God will remind all of the transgressions once inflicted on the Church under her pagan monarchs. They further assert that, in those latter days, she will accumulate a host of new offences, equal to or even surpassing her former transgressions. Then God, gravely offended and provoked by such manifold and grievous abominations, both old and new, will inflict the most severe punishments upon that most ungrateful city, which shall be annihilated. This, they argue, is how events will unfold.

For as long as the Eternal City remains orthodox and obedient to her shepherd, the destruction foretold by Saint John cannot possibly befall her. Indeed, she is preserved from those impieties on account of which, according to the Apostle, she is destined to perish. Rather, she is holy, devout, and the most faithful promoter of the true religion.

The Last Days of the Eternal City

On those days, she will fall away from the Christian faith, repudiate her Bishop, restore the former idolatry, and renew her assault against the Church, adding to her former injustices many new and more heinous ones. Then, once the Pontiff has been driven into exile and the ranks of the Church either exiled or slain, she will, for a short time, attain immense power, opulence, luxury, magnificence, and imperial grandeur.

The Great Harlot and the Ten Kings

During this time, she shall have under her dominion ten of the most powerful kings, who will serve as her ministers and allies. With her flourishing power, a war against the Church of Christ, more cruel than those under Nero, Domitian, Decius, Diocletian, and others, will be unleashed. The blood of martyrs shall be poured out, and all that is sacred in Christianity will be brought to nothing.

Yet, when she seems to have reached the pinnacle of her power and fortune, her greatness shall be revealed as fleeting and fragile. For those very ten kings, once subject to her authority, will rise against her, dividing the world and the empire among themselves. They will wage war upon the City and cast her down from her very foundations, leaving her desolate: an astonishing example of divine vengeance.

These oracles may be summarised as follows: Rome, in the consummation of the world, because of her apostasy and rejection of her pastor, and on account of her atrocious crimes, shall be annihilated at the hands of the ten kings.

The Apocalypse of Saint John and the Destruction of Rome

We have already sufficiently demonstrated that John spoke of the corruption of the Christian religion. Moreover, on account of her ancient idolatry and the blood of martyrs once so profusely shed there, she is destined to be consumed by fire:

'…having a golden cup in her hand, full of the abomination and filthiness of her fornication: And on her forehead a name was written: A mystery; Babylon the great, the mother of the fornications, and the abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.' (Revelation 17:4-6)

'Because all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication; and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her; and the merchants of the earth have been made rich by the power of her delicacies'. (Revelation 18:3)

'…And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.' (Revelation 18:24)

'And the great city was divided into three parts; and the cities of the Gentiles fell. And great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the indignation of his wrath.' (Revelation 16:19)

'For her sins have reached unto heaven, and the Lord hath remembered her iniquities.' (Revelation 18:5)

'Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine, and she shall be burnt with the fire; because God is strong, who shall judge her.' (Revelation 18:8)

'Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath judged your judgment on her.' (Revelation 18:20)

'For true and just are his judgments, who hath judged the great harlot which corrupted the earth with her fornication, and hath revenged the blood of his servants, at her hands. And again they said: Alleluia. And her smoke ascendeth for ever and ever.' (Revelation 19:2-3)

As if to say: God will, in the final days(for it seems that John speaks of the future), remember all the wickedness and impieties once committed by her under Nero, Domitian, Trajan, and the other pagan emperors, when they promoted and propagated idolatry to an enormous extent, oppressed the Church, slaughtered the Apostles and Martyrs, and shed Christian blood without end. Then God will finally pass judgment upon the impious Harlot, severely avenge the blood of the saints, and make her desolate. For this vengeance, the saints will rejoice with marvellous exultation, praising divine justice for all eternity.

Rome will eventually defect from the Christian faith and return to the ancient idolatry, pomp, luxuries, pride, arrogance, sumptuousness, and the greatness of empire; she will cast down the Pontiff, fiercely persecute the Church of Christ, and cruelly shed the blood of martyrs. Finally,  she will restore the former state of power and impiety that she had under the pagan monarchs or even a greater one, for which she shall at last perish.

Firstly, God will not punish the ancient city solely because of her ancient sins. If the city, so long as she continues, as at present, to uphold the Christian faith and remain obedient to the Vicar of Christ. For what punishment could the Orthodox-Roman people and the devoted children of the Church deserve for the sins committed by their forefathers against the Church of Christ?  Why should they be guilty of that decadent paganism and impious idolatry if they remain steadfast in the true Catholic faith? Therefore, when the time comes, she will add to her ancient paganism a new apostasy, followed by the most savage attacks against the Church, for which the just judgment of God will exterminate her.

Secondly, those words in chapter 18, verse 5, concerning the downfall of the once-holy City: 'For her sins have reached unto heaven, and the Lord hath remembered her iniquities', suggest that, she will augment the heap of her ancient sins with new and heinous ones, and that the monstrousness of her present sins will revive in God the memory of her former transgressions.

Thirdly, John adds in verses 9 and 19: 'And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication, and lived in delicacies with her, shall weep, and bewail themselves over her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning; Standing afar off for fear of her torments, saying: Alas! alas! that great city Babylon, that mighty city: for in one hour is thy judgment come.'

 The coming destruction will happen due to her recent crimes, when even the kings of the earth, who in those final days will be defiled by her in equal impiety, will be the cause of her ruin. Those who, many centuries before, undoubtedly under pagan Roman rulers, shared in Rome’s sins, and were involved in the idolatry and the Church’s persecutions, will then no longer be able to lament.

Fourthly, in chapter 18, verse 7: 'As much as she hath glorified herself, and lived in delicacies, so much torment and sorrow give ye to her; because she saith in her heart: I sit a queen, and am no widow; and sorrow I shall not see.'

Having cast out her lawful spouse, the Roman Pontiff and swollen with impiety she will utter these words, as if to say: Although I have rejected my spouse and Bishop, I am not a widow, for I am the mistress of the world and have reached the pinnacle of greatness and happiness, having so many kings under me who can serve as husbands, brothers, and sons.

Finally, at that time, she will have ten kings under her authority, who, when she is at the height of her prosperity, will cast her down from the pinnacle of power and reduce her to ashes, dividing her empire among themselves. This is described in John chapter 17, verse 12: 'And the ten horns which thou sawest, are ten kings, who have not yet received a kingdom, but shall receive power as kings one hour after the beast.'

And in verse 16: 'And the ten horns which thou sawest in the beast: these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her with fire.'

After the fall of that ancient city, when these kings bear the sceptres of the empire, each ruling his own region, the Antichrist will appear.

John offers a detailed account of the extinction of the Eternal City in chapters 17, 18, and 19. That this event is to take place near the end of the world is evident from the sequence of the oracles, the coherence of the passages when read together, and the trajectory of their prophetic meaning.

Modern commentators hold a similar view

Having considered what the Apostle says of Rome under the figure of Babylon, it is clear that the interpretation put forward by recent commentators is neither unreasonable nor unfitting. Andreas of Caesarea, in chapter 52 of his commentary on Revelation 17, expresses a similar view: 'We believe this Babylon refers to a noble and present city, which will hold primacy in the world until the coming of Antichrist.' This is almost exactly the position held by Ribera and other modern commentators.

The Pseudo-Sibylline Oracles on the Annihilation of Rome

Even the apocryphal Sibylline Books agree with the words of John and with this more recent interpretation:

'Then will appear the tenth human era,

When the creator of the stars shakes the earth,

and shatters the love of statues;

And the people of Rome,

Kept within seven fortresses, will strike,

The power of wealth, destroyed, shall perish,

As Vulcan mingleth fires with flames.'  (Book II)

And in Book 3:

'A great pain will arise from Europe,

Born of the illegitimate race of Saturn, and created by slaves.

Which  will conquer the mighty Babylon,

And upon all the lands where the sun shineth, called queen of the earth.

Unhappy and overthrown, she shall perish in sorrow,

Nor thereafter shall he any longer restrain his wandering descendants by law.'

Shortly before:

'O Rome, rich in gold, offspring of Latin stock,

Tender virgin longed  by many suitors,

Drunken, yet not with any wine of the world,

And shrouded in a cloud like a slave.

Often would a harsh mistress seize thy delicate locks,

And in exacting vengeance, hurl you down from on high to the earth.

Rome shall become a ruin: thus fate arranges all things.'

And in Book 7:

'Fierce-hearted Rome, after the Macedonian arms are broken,

Shall strike the heavens with lightning-flash;

Yet God shall strip thee of all strength,

Even when thou seemest most secure.'

And in Book 8:

'From heaven shall it come upon thee, O Rome, lofty in thy pride:

Ruin shall descend, and with thy head bowed low,

Thou that wert first shalt be laid level with the dust,

And shalt be utterly consumed with fire,

Falling in upon thyself alone; thy riches shall perish,

And foxes and wolves shall make their dwelling in thy desolations.

Then, abandoned and forlorn, as though thou hadst never been born, shalt thou lie.'

These words agree with those of St John concerning Rome, in Apocalypse, chapter 18, verse 2:

'Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and she is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every unclean spirit, and the hold of every unclean and hateful bird.'

And verse 8:

'Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be burned.'

The Sibyl furthermore declares:

'Then draweth nigh the end of the world, and the final light approacheth,

And the judgment of the eternal God upon the just and the reprobate.

But she shall first endure the inescapable wrath.

Unhappy life shall come, and a time of bloodshed.'

And again:

'Rome, beholding the first of thy torments and thy groanings,

Nevermore shalt thou bend thy neck beneath a servile yoke,

Neither Syrian, nor Greek, nor barbarian, nor any other

Shall again inflict upon thee the plagues which thou didst once commit.

And, trembling, thou shalt weep until thou hast paid the last farthing.

Thou shalt be a triumph unto the world—and a reproach unto all the earth.'

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🔎SEE ALSO: 

✅ Is the Book of Mormon Catholic? YES — Just Read It in the Light of Tradition!

✅The Mystery of Iniquity: A Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 2

✅ On the Multitude of the Condemned

✅ On Apostasy from the Christian Faith: An overview

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REFERENCES

Malvenda Setabitani, De Antichristo, Tomus Primus, Liber V, Cap. VII, pp. 348–350 (Lugduni: Societatis Bibliopolarum, 1647). Translated and adapted by us.