We will illustrate in the section End of the world the interpretation of such a phrase. Here we want only to stress the impressive adherence between the phrases and (in particular) the last 11 Popes; but we anticipate that, almost surely, the 111th motto and the final statement refer to the same Pope: so, Benedict XVI would be the last Pope in the History, followed by the "Judgement of God".

Here are the mottos corresponding to the most recent Popes (below this list you'll find also that describing the 111th Pope, Benedict XVI):

110) John Paul II (1978-2005) - Motto "The Labor of the Sun"
The motto, attributed to Pope Wojtyla (b. 5/18/1920 d. 4/2/2005), “De labore solis”, clearly refers to the fact he was born in the day of a solar eclipse and that also his "good-bye" clashed with a solar eclipse, an extremely rare double circumstance. 

109) John Paul I (1978) - Motto "Of the Half Moon"
The Prophecy of St. Malachy (“De medietate lunae”) seems to have forecasted with an impressive precision, also in the case of Pope Luciani (b. 10/17/1912 d. 9/28/1978), the fact that his very short pontificate (which lasted 33 days) began and finished when the Moon was visible exactly for one half. More precise of this...

108) Paul VI (1963-1978) - Motto "Flowers of Flowers"
Pope Montini (b. 9/26/1897 d. 8/6/1978) was the “Flos florum”, and indeed his family had tre lilies in its coat-of-arms. An other typical kind of motto very adherent in the Prophecy of the Popes. 

107) John XXIII (1958-1963) - Motto "Pastor and Mariner"
He (b. 11/25/1881 d. 6/3/1963) was Patriarch of Venice before becoming Pope, hence “Pastor et nauta”. Without doubt one of the many mottos pefectly adherent to the person. 

106) Pius XII (1939-1958) - Motto "An Angelic Shepherd"
This Pope (b. 3/2/1876 d. 10/9/1958) caracterized by a great spirituality, considered in some his encyclics, as the most safe guide for the Catholic doctrine, the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, traditionally known as "The Angelic Doctor". Therefore, perhaps, "Pastor angelicus".

105) Pius XI (1922-1939) - Motto "Unshaken Faith"
He (b. 31/5/1857 d. 2/10/1939) challenged without fear Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler, undergoing, as shown by some recently published Vatican documents, very strong pression from the last two. In 1937 he published the Encyclic Mit Brennender Sorge to denounce the Nazi racism and antisemitism. Hence, is well choiced "Fides Intrepida".

104) Benedetto XV (1914 -1922) - Motto "Religion Laid Waste"
Pope (b. 11/21/1854 d. 1/22/1922) during the massacres of the Great War and the epidemy of "Spanish" flu, event causing the death of millions of Christians, and in 1917 saw the beginning of the Russian Revolution, that caused the end of the religious life in this previousl Christian country. Therefore, the motto "Religio depopulata".

103) Pius X (1903-1914) - Motto "The Burning Fire"
This Pope (b. 6/2/1835 d. 8/20/1914) was probably the most zealous propagandist at that time and his efforts were directed to promote the pity and the faith. So "Ignis ardens" describes very well Pius X, very active in the spiritual rebirth of the Church. 

102) Leo XIII (1878-1903) - Motto "Light in the Sky"
The last Pope in the XIXth century (b. 3/2/1810 d. 7/20/1903) was "Lumen in coelo", and indeed the symbol of his family, that of the Pecci, was a comet. Please note that in his motto it is not used the word "star" beacause already used in an analogous previous motto.

101) Pius IX (1846-1878) - Motto "Cross of the Cross"
The Pope of the Renaissance (b. 5/13/1792, d. 2/7/1878), who underwent vexations and sequestrations by the Savoias, was "Crux de cruce", i.e. "The cross (hence, the suffering) coming from the cross": and a great white cross is the coat-of-arms of the Savoias

100) Gregory XVI (1831-1846) - Motto "From the baths of Etruria"
Papa Gregory XVI (b. 9/18/1765, d. 6/1/1846) began his religious life in the Camaldolian order, founded in the XIIIth century in Etruria, in a place called "bath" in Latin. Therefore, the motto "De Balneis Etruriae".

Of course, it is not theorically correct try to interpretate the motto of Pope Benedict XVI in this moment, as some other mottos of the list can be understood only at the end of the pontificate. However, we report a possible interpretation to satisfy your curiosity:
 
111) Benedict XI (2005-reigning) - Motto "The Glory of the Olive"
The motto of Pope Ratzinger (b. 4/16/1927), "De gloria olivae", seems to be a clear reference to the name Benedict, as the members of the Benedictine order are also known as the Olivetans, and their symbol is a branch of olive. But, mainly, he is born on the Holy Saturday in the year 1927, on April 16, at the top of the Eastern period, whis is notoriously under the sign of the olive.

Go to the next section of this website

*   *   *

THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE...

Here you'll find the classical objections by a skeptical person...

1) Each motto of the Prophecy could suit to other Popes... 

No. It's true only for a few mottos, while for the others the adherence is impressive. Some mottos of the Prophecy contains very precise indications, often regarding the geographical origin or the coat-of-arms of the Pope's family, or historical or astronomical events. Of the 11 mottos listed here, the 100th (De balneis Etruriae), the 101th (Crux de cruce), the 104th (Religio depopulata), the 105th (Fides intrepida), the 107th (Pastor et nauta), the 109th (De medietate lunae) and the 110th (De labore Solis), i.e. 7 of 11, perfectly suit to the corresponding Pope. On the other hand, if those mottos be simple "jolly" phrases, they should suit quite well to every Pope: can you do it?


2) Surfing for curiosity on the Web, I found in many websites that the "Prophecy of the Popes" by St. Malachy is a fake.

The Web is plenty of words used to concentrate on aspect absolutely IRRELEVANT of the question, like: (1) the fact whether the Prophecy of the Popes was written or not by St. Malachy; (2) whether it was written in 1100 or in 1590. The really absurd thing is to consider the Prophecy not interesting because probably "fake", the sense that probably it was not written by St. Malachy. Indeed, please pay attention! The Prophecy, independently from who wrote it, is a document that it is historically proved being not posterior to the 1590, and this is the important aspect! Indeed, the Prophecy was forgotten in the Roman Church Archives till its "discovery" in 1590. The text began to circulate in 1595 with the name Prophetia de summis pontificibus because the Prophecy was published for the fist time that year from the Benedictine monk Arnold Wion in his book Lignum vitae. But, as in the previous four centuries it wasn't cited by anyone, including St. Bernard, who wrote the Life of St. Malachy, probably the document wasn't written by St. Malachy but by an other person, probably in '400 or '500.

Also this is a wrong problem. Analyzing the mottos of the Popes historically very distant from us means concentrating on the, in a certain sense, "wrong" - or, at least, less relevant - part of the Prophecy, because the most important is without doubt that regarding the last 10-20 Popes and his final phrase. Hence, saying that the Prophecy is not true because in some part the mottos are not as adherent as the most recent (or also the most ancient) is like to say that the DNA is not the molecule of the life only because the major part of the DNA (in our analogy, for example, the mottos anterior to 1590) doesn't codify anything (i.e., it is "junk-DNA", like, as a matter of fact, is): reasoning in this way is, evidently, absurd. The important thing is the analysis - that each of us can do - of the recent mottos, which show an IMPRESSIVE (not to say perfect) adherence. 

*   *   *

Warning! This website is the translation into English of a my very famous Italian website. So, even if I am a professional science writer, my English is surely not as good as my mother language. I'm sorry!