Direction: Read the following passage and answer the questions set on it:
Pope Benedict's sudden resignation has stunned the world, and Pundits are searching for motivations beyond his plea of old age. To complicate matters, there is also a strange 900-year-old prophecy involved.
According to a famous prophecy made by St. Malachy, a clairvoyant Bishop of the 12th century, there would be 112 more Popes. Pope Benedict, who resigned, was the 111th. And whoever is elected Pope in the next few days will be the 112th. During the papacy of this final Pope, says the prophecy, Rome-and the Church-will be wiped out ! To quote its ominous words : “The City of Seven Hills shall be destroyed, and the dreadful Judge shall judge the people”.
Rubbish, one might say. We have heard a lot of lunatic Doomsday predictions, and the Mayan prophecy is still fresh in our minds. But this time there is one small difference - St. Malachy actually described each of the 111 Popes till date with eerie accuracy, summing up each one with a vivid Latin phrase. And so far he’s never been wrong.
For example, he described Pope Paul VI as ‘Flos Florum’, meaning 'Flower of Flowers' Paul VI's coat of arms, as it happened, featured three Iris blossoms. His successor, Pope John Paul I, was described as 'De Medietate Lunae', or 'Of the half moon'. This was puzzling, because the description just did seem to fit. But one month later, when John Paul I suddenly died, one realized that he had become Pope at the time of the half moon and died by the next half moon. His successor, Pope John Paul Il, was described as ‘De Labore Solis’, or ‘Of the eclipse of the sun’: it turned out he was born during a solar eclipse !
People have been talking about the prophecy of the Popes with increasing frequency since the 1970s, as the end of the line drew closer. In 2005, when John Paul Il, the 110th Pope, died, people looked at the prophecy again, in anticipation, and found the next Pope described as ‘Gloria Olivae’, or ‘The Glory of the Olive’. But what did this mean? Some people thought it signified Israel; others said it meant the new Pope would be a Benedictine, an order symbolised by the olive Sure enough, the conclave ultimately elected Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a Benedictine priest from Germany, who-to seemingly reinforce the Prophecy-took the name Pope Benedict XVI, after the founder of the order.