Totus ilicet?

Like most of the people around the world, I have followed closely the last few days of Pope John Paul II’s mortal life and eventually the Mass celebrated for his funeral on Friday as the rest of the world bid farewell to this great person. In my opinion, his greatness is mostly reflected in his personal motto, Totus Tuus (Completely Yours) … his faith was so impressive! Even if you were not interested in what was happening in Rome this week, it was impossible not to follow what was going on. “Il futuro del mondo risplende nei vostri occhi” (The future of the world shines in your eyes), what Pope John Paul II said about the young generation is the phrase that is and will always remain imprinted in my mind. May he rest in peace.

All has been said and told on our Pope … but now what is left? Just some time after the Mass celebrated for Pope John Paul II’s funeral ended, I was online speaking to some of my friends who were quite disturbed about some material they found online regarding Nostradamus’s prophecies related to the Catholic Church’s Pope’s death and the aftermath. Several leading sources have all reported the same report which basically says that “according to an interpretation of Nostradamus's prophecies by a leading Colombian author, the pope elected to succeed John Paul II will be assassinated and his death will spark a Muslim invasion of the west that will split the Catholic Church”.

Furthermore, on a personal note from an unknown source (I still haven’t managed to find his or her name!), in his or her explanation of Nostradamus’s prophecies, it is mentioned that amongst the mortal calamities that will hit the world in the very near future, the one that struck me the most was that “Lybia shall capture Malta and surrounding islands”!! Oh Oh! I wonder! Is it really the case to alarm the world with such reports and opinions? Does the death of a holy man as was Pope John Paul II really mean that for the world everything is totus ilicet and that all he has built during his pontiff will crumble down?