Fr. Herman Kramer in 1956:

“If Satan would contrive to hinder a papal election, the Church would suffer great travail.”

In 1956, Fr. Herman Bernard Kramer published a work called The Book of Destiny, which is an explanation of the Apocalypse, the last book of the Holy Bible (otherwise known as the book of Revelation).

In Apocalypse 12:1-5, we read:

And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars: And being with child, she cried travailing in birth, and was in pain to be delivered. And there was seen another sign in heaven: and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads, and ten horns: and on his head seven diadems: And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to be delivered; that, when she should be delivered, he might devour her son. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with an iron rod: and her son was taken up to God, and to his throne.

Catholic biblical scholars typically see “the woman” as a symbol of both the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Catholic Church. Applying this prophecy to the Church, Fr. Kramer comments as follows:

However, the text demands a more specific application to the definite future event to which the prophecy obviously points, and in which the Church suffers the keenest pangs passing at that time through the greatest crisis of her whole life. In that travail, she gives birth to some definite “person” who is to RULE the Church with a rod of iron (verse 5). It then points to a conflict waged within the Church to elect one who was to “rule all nations” in the manner clearly stated. In accord with the text this is unmistakably a PAPAL ELECTION, for only Christ and His Vicar have the divine right to rule ALL NATIONS. Furthermore, the Church does not travail in anguish at EVERY papal election which can be held without trouble or danger. But at this time the great powers may take a menacing attitude to hinder the election of the logical and expected candidate by threats of a general apostasy, assassination or imprisonment of this candidate if elected. This would suppose an extremely hostile mind in the governments of Europe towards the Church and would cause intense anguish to the Church, because an extended interregnum in the papacy is always disastrous and more so in a time of universal persecution. If Satan would contrive to hinder a papal election, the Church would suffer great travail.

…As a dragon, Satan through the evil world-powers of that time will enter the Church, interfere with her liberty and perhaps by stealthy suggestions having long before directed the choosing of candidates for the episcopate will now endeavor by threats of force to hinder the election of the worthiest candidate for the papacy.

(Herman Bernard Kramer, The Book of Destiny [TAN Books Reprint, 1975], pp. 277-279; underlining added.)

Let us keep in mind that what Fr. Kramer says here is not based on, and has nothing to do with, some alleged apparition, locution, vision, or other private revelation. Published in 1955 with the required imprimatur, this is a proper Catholic interpretation of the biblical text by a competent Roman Catholic authority, one who had no knowledge of future events nor the hindsight we have today. In other words, he was not trying to read a known particular event into the biblical text; rather, he simply interpreted the passage according to the teaching of the Church and the laws of scriptural hermeneutics.

We mention this interpretation of Apocalypse 12:1-5 because it appears that it may have been fulfilled in the disputed papal conclave of 1958, which met from October 25-28 to elect a successor to Pope Pius XII. Instead of producing a true Pope, however, it produced Anti-Pope John XXIII, the former Cardinal Angelo Roncalli of Venice, who called the Second Vatican Council and prepared the way for the Novus Ordo religion by laying its foundations. Since Pius XII’s death, there has been no (known) valid Pope, and the result is precisely the “extended interregnum in the papacy” which Fr. Kramer warned against, causing “intense anguish to the Church” and “great travail.”

More information on the 1958 conclave can be found in the following links and the video that follows:

We share this video not to support the claim that Cardinal Giusseppe Siri was definitely Pope Pius XII’s successor, but to make people aware of the mysterious goings-on at this conclave, to get people to investigate it, and to pinpoint the moment in Church history that appears to contain the cause of the eclipse of the Catholic Church and the introduction of the Novus Ordo Church and its false “Popes” and false new religion.

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