In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, Saint Malachy supposedly said, who will feed his flock amid many tribulations, after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people. These chilling words serve as the opening passage of a captivating book by Jorge R. Araujo-Matiz, The Roman Peter II: The Last Pope?, which taps into the frightening possibility that Saint Malachy’s prophecy about the last Pope may prove just as accurate as those of the preceding popes. In Araujo-Matiz’s breathtaking thriller, the Catholic Church ignites the fuse of Saint Malachy’s unsettling prophesy by breaking with tradition in selecting a successor to Pope Benedict XVI. Instead of choosing a church leader to serve as the new pope, they select a member of the laity, who also happens to be a rich man as opposed to a devout ascetic and, most remarkably of all, a Judeo-Palestinian rather than a Catholic. Born Simon Rosenthal, the new Bishop of Rome and earthly head of the Roman Catholic Church becomes Pope Peter II and begins a monumental process of changing the focus of the Catholic Church to achieve impossible good: devoting its enormous financial assets, in addition to his own, to try to stop and even reverse the most significant problems facing humanity and the planet itself, including global warming, widespread poverty and unending hunger. Not surprisingly, with all of the vested interests in the world taking one side or the other in the pivotal debates about the new policy of the Catholic Church, unprecedented conflict erupts among various special interest groups, leading to bloodshed, terrorism, and other forms of violence. When Pope Peter II makes his best effort to avoid disaster, partially by organizing a global meeting in Israel to bring together the leaders of the world’s religions, he is taken hostage by opposition groups. In this nail-biter of a novel, the stakes are frighteningly high as Special Forces attempt to rescue the pope in time to prevent world calamity. Yet even if they succeed there is no guarantee that Pope Peter II will be able to negotiate the history-changing peace among the world’s competing religions and governments that he has envisioned. The Roman Peter II: The Last Pope? Pulls readers into a story as Fast-paced and compelling as anything penned by author Dan Brown. A compelling and well-researched story, Jorge R. Araujo-Matiz’s work of fiction is made all the more chilling by the real-life visions of Saint Malachy, which just may turn out to be more accurate than even his supporters might fear.
