Interesting indeed: Pope Benedict as the Katechon? Seewald seems to think so.

23 thoughts on “Interesting indeed: Pope Benedict as the Katechon? Seewald seems to think so.”

  1. The Katechon is Peter. All Peters AND the Petrine Office, and this divine authority extended throughout the secular world, giving peace and keeping the powers of hell at bay. This power was given representation in the papal tiara, its three crowns, however Peter took this off, gave it away and rebuked any suggestion of such temporal authority, divinely given. Thus, the Katechon is gone and, while it has taken nigh on sixty years for the edifice to erode to such a point, as is patently clear, we now live under Leviathan. The Katechon is gone.

    https://onepeterfive.com/mystery-antichrist/

  2. Interesting … you picked up on this too.

    I saw this comment in an interview reproduced in Rorate in the context of a possible explanation for Benedict’s strange failed abdication and subsequent unprecedented shared expanded “Papacy”, which was still more strangely blithely accepted by almost all Catholics.

    https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-dam-burst.html?m=1

    I read the section of this Rorate interview on the Katechon, which also delves into a previously unknown (to me) discussion on Benefict’s Augustinian-based belief of light and dark co-existing within the Church – and I just had this immediate sense that this was important.

    Now, the current moment, was the time of separation between the two (light and dark / good and evil), now was the time of judgement … and thus Benedict’s/Seewald’s reference to Katechon.

    This is discussed in Benedict’s final Seewald biographical book interview “A Life”, in the chapter titled “Last Questions”. And it is also discussed as the entire subject of an Italian book I’ve never heard of before titled “The Mystery of Evil” by Giorgio Agamben (translated into English).

    I am now going to read this book, to find out more about this thesis, because it makes intuitive sense as a possible explanation for the otherwise utterly inexplicable. I have no opinion on it yet, except that I am going to learn more.

    Here is a link he book, in case you are interested in it.

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1503602737?ref=ppx_pt2_mob_b_prod_image

    We have had an “expanded” Papacy by design for the first time in history and almost every Catholic seems strangely ok with that. Now, after the death of the true Pope, we have the mystery of evil remaining. And the one responsible for starting this sequence “allegedly” referred to himself as the Katechon of biblical prophecy.

    I will conclude with this excerpt from Seewald’s final interview with Benedict (2020). He makes this observation as part of a subsequent question:

    “”The Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, in his book “The Secret of Evil.” Benedict XVI and the End of Times”, formulates the belief that the real reason for the resignation was a wake-up call for eschatological conscience. In the divine plan of salvation, the church also has the function of being at the same time “Church of Christ and Church of the Antichrist”. The resignation was an anticipation of the separation between “Babylon” and “Jerusalem” in the church. Instead of committing yourself to the logic of maintaining power, you, by renouncing the office, also emphasized and finally strengthened your spiritual authority … (etc)”

    Huh 🤔!

  3. Thinking about Katechon, it also struck me that the concept of Babylon/Jerusalem; dark/light; evil/good, coexisting in the world together, source of all conflict pending final resolution by the King of Kings, is the core concept of the book I am re-reading – Lord of the World … the book recommended by antipope Bergoglio himself as an explanation of current events.

    It contains as its key characters who are physical and spiritual mirror-image copies of the other – everyone marvels that they are essentially twins – identical in appearance, opposite in intent. And the one representing “Jerusalem” (Kingdom of God), the Pope, in hiding for his life from his dark twin Antichrist representing Babylon (kingdom of Man) acts specifically as … Katechon – restraining in his Office, though *utterly hidden from the world* (and Antichrist) the mighty Hand of God’s wrath.

    This book was written over 120 years ago – now more obviously prophetic than ever.

  4. Benedict as Katechon does not explain the U-turn of the VII false religion. Nor can it explain the canonizations of “Paul VI” and “JPII”. Nor societies worldwide deep dive into moral depravity these past six decades.

    It’s VII and ALL it’s false popes that get to the root. Bergoglio is a gift from God to open the eyes of the faithful. Take advantage of it.

    1. V2 is not a false religion. It wasn’t dogmatic, and things only changed because people let them change. ANd many who opposed V2 quit and started a false religion called Sedevacantism.

      You fight for the CHurch from within.

    2. Kono,

      Benedict cannot be “Katechon”, if he is himself heretic forerunner of Antichrist, removed from Office and indeed from the RC Faith by virtue of his many “manifest heresies”. If he is a heretic apostate, then he is removed from that conversation. In the Sede world, everything is explained by religious rigor mortis – it’s all dead.

      But that is not what this tweet assumes, nor the Rorate article, nor is it my premise based on observable facts … not to mention my Christian faith.

      Read the Rorate article upon which this Tweet is based. It takes the same set of facts, as I’ve said to you myself, and arrived at an entirely different and much more reasonable explanation than you do. It sets the current condition of the Church within the context of clear Scriptural and indeed Gospel
      warnings, not to mention Doctor of the Church Augustine warnings, expanded upon by Pope BXVI himself – evil coexisting with good within the same ecclesial space … evil eclipsing good pending imminent judgement from God.

      1. For instance, the example occurred to me, Judas. Yes, he was an Apostle before the official birth of the RC Church at Pentecost. But he was also at the side of the Lord Jesus Himself, at His will and by His invitation.

        And the point of the story of Judas was not whether he did or did not cease to be Apostle when he refused belief in Messiah and Messiah’s revelations about Holy Eucharist and poverty and the true meaning of the Kingdom of God. Judas could have repented annd remained Apostle of Christ all the way up to and including the moment he jumped to his death at “Hakeldama, that is, the Field of Blood” (Acts 1:18-19).

        I see the current Church in the same light. Yes, she (her Apostles) has betrayed Christ most grievously. Yes, it is not too late, she (the Apostles) can still repent.

        Just as Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss, but remained Apostle, even as Ge was carried away to His (chosen) destiny … so also it is not too late for the Conciliar betrayers. They retain their Apostolic Office, though unworthy (aren’t we all?) and may yet repent of their grievous sins.

      2. “In the Sede world, everything is explained by religious rigor mortis – it’s all dead.”

        What’s dead and void of all Divine inspiration and protection is the Novus 🌍 Ordo brought to us by John XXIII thru Francis. The great apostasy attests to this truth.

      3. I don’t read Kono saying Benedict was the Katechon, in fact, quite the opposite. Thus, Kono’s comment is not contradictory (Benedict was not Katechon because the restraining fell apart at V II).

        As for VII itself, I see it as more slight of hand than heretical per se. It used vague word salads mixed in with enough Catholic sounding things so it could later be used by the modernists to wreak havoc, which they definitely did (just as St. Pius the X said they do).

        V II contained no anathemas or doctrinal definitions, so I am not sure what value it really has. The best thing that can be done with it is to ignore it. Just as Benedict once commented that there is nothing true in Islam that hasn’t been already taught in Catholicism, there is nothing Catholic in V II that isn’t better taught in prior councils.

        As for Benedict being Katechon, perhaps of a limited sort – he may have been one Katechonical finger plugging one hole in the dike, but there were 50 other holes. Or to use a pagan metaphor, he was holding back the last demon from Pandora’s box; the others were long gone. Maybe it was the worst demon, the final boss. Who knows.

  5. There’s a lot happening here. This definitely lends credence to the “substantial error” hypothesis, and/or that he “renounced” under duress. He gave the idea that he just couldn’t do the job anymore, and had to retreat to a life of prayer, writing, and playing the piano. When did he realize that he was, actually, the “katechon?” My guess is that it happened when he heard Cardinal Tauran announce Bergoglio’s name. Whatever really happened, I believe that it has all been in keeping with Vatican II.

  6. You have got to read the prophecies of Anne Cather8ne Emmerich. In the end it predicts a one world church where everything is democratic (say discussing church policy and voting in synods. It talks about a true pope and a false pope, not six false popes. After the schism the True Church will go underground.

  7. B16 would’ve done a better job at simply not fake-resigning. His faux resignation opened the gates of hell. Remember that Pachamama was consecrated while B16 was the “katechon”. In other words, B16 may have saw himself as that, but if he’d not quitf/fake quit things would be far better.

    1. jmy1975,
      In my view the Church has been infiltrated for centuries – sapping, tunneling, sneaking. Pope St Pius X wrote about it over 100 years ago. It was hidden. Now it is open. It was restrained. Now it is unbound. This evil, as suggested by St Paul to the Thessalonians:

      “3 Let no man deceive you by any means, for unless there come a revolt first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition,
      4 Who opposeth, and is lifted up above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself as if he were God.
      5 Remember you not, that when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
      6 And now you know what withholdeth, that he may be revealed in his time.
      7 For the mystery of iniquity already worketh; only that he who now holdeth, do hold, until he be taken out of the way.
      8 And then that wicked one shall be revealed whom the Lord Jesus shall kill with the spirit of his mouth; and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, him,” (II Thess 2:3-8)

      Like the Parable of the Cockle (poison) and wheat (nutritious), the Cockle will not be gathered to be burned until at the Word of the Gardener, at the end, just prior to harvest … *Matthew 13:24-30*. The time is of His choosing. The burning is only according to His power and will. The evil has to be fully exposed and revealed, before it is judged, separated, burned and the good thereby purified in the threshing, made fit for the granary.

      There wasn’t a thing Pope Benedict XVI could have done except what he did, what he was likely told to do *as holder of the sacred Papal Office* – prepare a Church corrupt with evil, now in the “fullness of its time”, for judgement and purification … just as foretold by messages and dire warnings from heaven over centuries!

      1. And if you know anything about cockle, the way it grows in the field, it look IDENTICAL to the wheat, no way to tell them apart, until the kernels emerge.

      2. Sounds compelling, but Ratzinger had a history of being a coward. Don’t we have martyrs anymore?

    2. Unless he happened to suddenly become dead, which was certainly a possibility. Since SWIFT had blocked all financial transactions to and from the Vatican, a block which was immediately removed when Benedict announced that he would resign, he would have understood that nothing was off the table. If he suddenly died, Bergoglio would have been legitimately elected pope at the conclave.

      If this is what he understood, his resignation was certainly under duress. The resignation would then keep Benedict alive and he would continue to be the katechon as long as he lived.

      I suspect that his death was not natural. He supposedly died of a kidney problem. In the days preceding this, the Vatican repeatedly announced that he was being carefully “watched” by doctors. Not a word about his being taken to a hospital! Nothing about dialysis, or any form of treatment.

      Bergoglio is whisked off the the hospital whenever he is ill. Benedict was just left in his room to die, while being “watched” by doctors.

      Scripture does say that the katechon will be “taken away.” Apparently so.

      1. “Scripture does say that the katechon will be “taken away.” Apparently so.”

        The Katechon could be the papacy and not a specific “pope”. If we are not very, very close to the end times and we get another false pope, Bergoglio II, this would make more sense.

        1. that would be quite a conundrum for neovacantists (those who believe BXVI was the last proper Pope). The See is now truly vacant, so if a new Pope is elected, is he valid? Does it depend on whether non-Bergoglio appointed cardinals elect him? Say, for example if X is elected only because the Bergoglio appointed cardinals put him over the top, is he valid (in this hypothetical, Y would have been elected Pope if the Bergoglio appointed cardinal votes are disregarded)?

          1. c Matt – it’s not my problem any more.

            One thing I’ve noticed is that no one ever talks about Jesus Christ, Mary, the Angels and Saints, the power of the Gospel of Christ to convert from our trespasses in sins to life everlasting … the power of the Gospel to inspire Christians to great deeds if sanctity and love.

            Instead – pope, pope, pope, pope, pope, pope, pope, pope, controversy, argue, counterpoint, argue, controversy, pope, pope, pope, pope, pope, pope, pope, pope.

            Christ established the gate through which we are redeemed from death to eternal life. The Pope was established to help us find the path and the gate and most importantly Jesus Christ – the object of all Christian desire.

            I no longer care about the Pope controversy because I don’t worship the Pope. It has become a distraction from my primary Christian duty to worship and follow Jesus Christ, and I for one am not playing that “who-is-the-Pope” game any more.

            The Papacy is screwed up for the foreseeable future. I’m done worrying about it. There’s 265 other Popes, all with an equal say, and 2,023 years of Sacred Tradition, endless infallible resources and a Holy Bible. And that is enough for me.

          2. If Bergoglio has a successor. It’s the only Catholic position I see, because the last bishop instituted by Benedict has not died yet. Supplied jurisdiction does not make someone a formal successor of the apostles, valid
            consecration or not. The Church defects if it loses apostolic succession.

            On the other hand when the synodal church is built will paleovacantists realize they understood prophecy wrong? When the words of consecration change and all Christians worship together without the true presence? Will they realize the false church warned about is not the Vatican II church, but the synodal church?

  8. I’ve been listening to many interviews on youtube with Joshua Charles. Very interesting stuff and highly recommended.

  9. I am convinced, upon re-reading this book now after 15 years, that Lord Of The World (Fr Robert Benson) is a prophetic novel that precisely fits the essence of trouble afflicting our present age of apostasy. It was first published in 1907, during the prophetic Papacy of Pope St Pius X (1903-1914). It directly warns of the coming conflict between the religion of Man and the religion of Jesus Christ – True God, True Man. These religions are in existential conflict. The conflict is primeval – dating to the first challenge to God of Lucifer, through Eve, Adam, to God … who prophesied his own entry into the conflict and ultimate victory.

    Can’t recommend this book enough … especially now.

    https://www.abebooks.com/9781905574674/Lord-World-Robert-Hugh-Benson-1905574673/plp

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.