Paul VI Just Before Closing Vatican II: ‘I Am About to Blow the Seven Trumpets of the Apocalypse’

Testimony of personal friend Jean Guitton…

Paul VI Just Before Closing Vatican II:
‘I Am About to Blow the Seven Trumpets of the Apocalypse’

The French philosopher and theologian Jean Guitton (1901-1999), a layman, was a personal friend of Giovanni Battista Montini (1897-1978), the man otherwise known as ‘Pope Paul VI’ (r. 1963-1978).

In 1992, Guitton was interviewed by Maurizio Blondet for the Italian progressivist ‘Catholic’ newspaper Avvenire, which is backed by the Italian Bishops’ Conference. The interview was released on Oct. 11, to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).

The French academic was one of the very few laymen who were invited to participate in the council as observers. Angelo Roncalli (‘Pope John XXIII’) had extended this invitation to him. The two had known each other since the 1940s when they were both working in Paris.

Guitton’s friendship with Montini goes back to Sep. 8, 1950. His 1949 book La Vierge Marie (English: The Virgin Mary, 1952) was going to be put on the Index of Forbidden Books, but Montini prevented it: “…I had tried to write an ecumenical book on the Virgin, addressed first and foremost to those who deny—rationalists—and also those, so numerous since the Reformation, who see in the Marian cult evidence of superstition. The book was dedicated to our Protestant brethren”, Guitton explained (The Pope Speaks: Dialogues of Paul VI with Jean Guitton [New York, NY: Meredith Press, 1968], p. 4).

It was Roncalli who had suggested that Guitton contact Montini, who was then working in the Vatican Secretariat of State, regarding the concerns over his book.

While John XXIII invited Guitton to attend the council, Paul VI went one step further and had him, a mere layman, address the assembled council fathers on the topic of ecumenism, which he did on Dec. 3, 1963.

With this background information, we can appreciate better why Guitton was interviewed for the 30th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II.

The beginning of the Guitton interview as it appeared in ADISTA, Oct. 21, 1992 (p. 10)

The interview in Avvenire was reprinted ten days later in the pages of the Italian news service ADISTA, a leftist Novus Ordo publication similar to the National Catholic Reporter in the United States. It is from this secondary source that we were able to get the full text of the exchange, of which we now present the following explosive portion:

[Interviewer:] And what was the culminating moment of the Council [for you]?

[Jean Guitton:] “The pivotal moment was the last day [Dec. 8, 1965]. The day the Pope summoned statesmen, workers, intellectuals, women, and people with disabilities, and gave each one a program for life. It was the Council’s final session—the most essential one—in which the Pope bequeathed the Council’s teaching to all humanity. He himself announced this to me that day, saying, ‘I am about to sound the seven trumpets of the Apocalypse.’”

[Interviewer:] The Apocalypse? It is strange that Paul VI viewed the Council in the light of the Apocalypse. So little is spoken of the last things today…

[Guitton:] “There are two great books in Scripture: Genesis, about the world created by the Word of God, and the Apocalypse [Revelation], about how the world will end. The Book of Revelation is what we celebrate on All Saints’ Day: the mystery of the preservation, in unity and charity, of all humanity. The drama of humanity unfolds between these two books, Genesis and the Book of Revelation. And I believe that the Book of Revelation is more important than Genesis, just as everything that is final is more essential than what comes first. Revelation is a book full of enigmas: but in its final pages, it speaks of the triumph of the Lamb, of Christ sacrificed. It speaks of the triumph of the Church.”

We used DeepL.com for this translation. For the sake of accuracy and verification, here is the original Italian as it appears in the ADISTA reprint:

E quale fu il momento culminante del Concilio?

“Il momento fondamentale fu l’ultimo giorno. Il giorno in cui il Papa convocò uomini di Stato, operai, intellettuali, donne, handicappati, e consegnò a ciascuno un programma di vita. Era la sessione finale del Concilio: la più essenziale, in cui il Papa dato in eredità l’insegnamento del Concilio all’umanità tutta. Lui stesso mi annunciò quel giorno, dicendo: “Sto per suonare le sette trombe dell’Apocalisse”‘.

L’Apocalisse? E’ strano che Paolo VI vedesse il Concilio nella luce del l’Apocalisse. Si parla così poco, oggi, delle cose ultime…

“Ci sono due grandi libri nella Scrittura: la Genesi, sul mondo creato dalla Parola di Dio, e l’Apocalisse, su come il mondo finirà. L’Apocalisse è ciò che celebriamo nel giorno di Ognissanti: il mistero della conservazione, nell’unità e nella carità, dell’umanità intera. Il dramma dell’umanità si stende fra questi due libri, la Genesi e l’Apocalisse. E credo che l’Apocalisse sia più importante della Genesi, come tutto ciò che è finale è più essenziale dell’iniziale. L’Apocalisse è un libro pieno di enigmi: ma nelle ultime pagine, parla del trionfo dell’Agnello, del Cristo immolato. Parla del trionfo della Chiesa”.

(Source: Maurizio Blondet, “Guitton: ‘Nel segno dei Dodici'”, ADISTA, vol. XXVI, n. 5208, Oct. 21, 1992, pp. 10-11.)

This is how the explosive part appeared in the print edition of Oct. 21, 1992 (p. 11):

We must thank Jean Guitton for disclosing what Paul VI told him that day. Clearly, the French academic understood Montini’s announcement in a positive sense. But whether the false pope really meant to be heralding “the triumph of the Lamb” with his cryptic words, is rather questionable.

Seven trumpets appear only twice in Sacred Scripture, once in the Old Testament book of Joshua (Josue) and the other in the New Testament book of Revelation (Apocalypse).

In Josue 6, the seven trumpets are sounded to bring down the walls of Jericho.

In the Apocalypse, here is what transpires:

And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven, as it were for half an hour. And I saw seven angels standing in the presence of God; and there were given to them seven trumpets.

And the seven angels, who had the seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound the trumpet. And the first angel sounded the trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mingled with blood, and it was cast on the earth, and the third part of the earth was burnt up, and the third part of the trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded the trumpet: and as it were a great mountain, burning with fire, was cast into the sea, and the third part of the sea became blood: And the third part of those creatures died, which had life in the sea, and the third part of the ships was destroyed. And the third angel sounded the trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, burning as it were a torch, and it fell on the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters: And the name of the star is called Wormwood. And the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. And the fourth angel sounded the trumpet, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars, so that the third part of them was darkened, and the day did not shine for a third part of it, and the night in like manner. And I beheld, and heard the voice of one eagle flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice: Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth: by reason of the rest of the voices of the three angels, who are yet to sound the trumpet.

(Apocalypse 8:1-2,6-13)

Thus far the first four trumpets. The text then continues with the fifth and sixth:

And the fifth angel sounded the trumpet, and I saw a star fall from heaven upon the earth, and there was given to him the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit: and the smoke of the pit arose, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke of the pit. And from the smoke of the pit there came out locusts upon the earth. And power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power: and it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree: but only the men who have not the sign of God on their foreheads. And it was given unto them that they should not kill them; but that they should torment them five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he striketh a man. And in those days men shall seek death, and shall not find it: and they shall desire to die, and death shall fly from them. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle: and on their heads were, as it were, crowns like gold: and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women; and their teeth were as lions: and they had breastplates as breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was as the noise of chariots and many horses running to battle. And they had tails like to scorpions, and there were stings in their tails; and their power was to hurt men five months. And they had over them a king, the angel of the bottomless pit; whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek Apollyon; in Latin Exterminans. One woe is past, and behold there come yet two woes more hereafter.

And the sixth angel sounded the trumpet: and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before the eyes of God, saying to the sixth angel, who had the trumpet: Loose the four angels, who are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, who were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year: for to kill the third part of men. And the number of the army of horsemen was twenty thousand times ten thousand. And I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision: and they that sat on them, had breastplates of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone, and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions: and from their mouths proceeded fire, and smoke, and brimstone. And by these three plagues was slain the third part of men, by the fire and by the smoke and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths, and in their tails. For, their tails are like to serpents, and have heads: and with them they hurt. And the rest of the men, who were not slain by these plagues, did not do penance from the works of their hands, that they should not adore devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and wood, which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: neither did they penance from their murders, nor from their sorceries, nor from their fornication, nor from their thefts.

(Apocalypse 9)

The seventh and final trumpet, and the third woe, are anticipated in chapter 11:

The second woe is past: and behold the third woe will come quickly. And the seventh angel sounded the trumpet: and there were great voices in heaven, saying: The kingdom of this world is become our Lord’s and his Christ’s, and he shall reign for ever and ever. Amen. And the four and twenty ancients, who sit on their seats in the sight of God, fell on their faces and adored God, saying: We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, who art, and who wast, and who art to come: because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and thou hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest render reward to thy servants the prophets and the saints, and to them that fear thy name, little and great, and shouldest destroy them who have corrupted the earth. And the temple of God was opened in heaven: and the ark of his testament was seen in his temple, and there were lightnings, and voices, and an earthquake, and great hail.

(Apocalypse 11:14-19)

The details of the third woe are described in chapters 15-19. It essentially consists of God’s wrath being poured out upon the earth by means of seven plagues to punish mankind.

We will not attempt to interpret these mysterious prophecies but simply let the text speak for itself. A Church-approved interpretation of Revelation can be found in Fr. Herman Bernard Kramer’s The Book of Destiny (1955), for example, among others.

Let’s recap what follows the blowing of each trumpet:

• First Trumpet: hail and fire, mingled with blood cast on the earth
• Second Trumpet: great fiery mountain cast into the sea
• Third Trumpet: star ‘Wormwood’ falls from heaven
• Fourth Trumpet: darkening of sun, moon, and stars
• Fifth Trumpet: bottomless pit opened, plague of locusts (first woe)
• Sixth Trumpet: four avenging angels loosed (second woe)
• Seventh Trumpet: seven angels pour out seven vials of wrath, triggering in seven last plagues (third woe)

So these are the seven trumpets of the Apocalypse Paul VI himself thought he was blowing by bestowing Vatican II upon the world. No doubt, the world and the Church have been afflicted since then like never before.

Paul VI was, at least effectively, the founder of the counterfeit Catholicism we call the Novus Ordo religion. John XXIII was its forerunner, the one who prepared the way. At this point, of course, both of them are considered canonized saints in the Vatican II Church. It is preposterous!

Jean Guitton (1901-1999)
(image: Getty Images/Etienne Chognard/Sygma)

As for Guitton (pictured above), the apostate Capuchin Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa once quoted him thus: “The Council Fathers have rediscovered the sacrament of poverty, that is the presence of Christ under the species of those who suffer.”

Enough already.

Some of the biographical information about Jean Guitton in this post was taken from the following sources:

• Albert Raffelt, “Guitton, Jean”, in Michael Quisinsky and Peter Walter, eds., Personenlexikon zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil (Freiburg: Herder, 2012), p. 123
• Franz Norbert Otterbeck, “Guitton, Jean”, in Traugott Bautz, ed., Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, vol. XXVIII (Nordhausen: Traugott Bautz, 2007), cols. 702-706
• The Pope Speaks: Dialogues of Paul VI with Jean Guitton (New York, NY: Meredith Press, 1968)

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