The Last Day

other side sat four cardinal officials. The rest of the Curia were dispersed irregularly around the long table, somberly conferring with one another in small groups. Several cardinals were not in attendance today, having resigned their positions in the aftermath of the past week's revelations, either because of complicity or indignation.

“I understand the Church is being investigated for international securities fraud,” one grim cardinal said to another.

“Yes,” his confidant replied ruefully, and added, “we're also the subject of a criminal grand theft investigation. What problems poor Nicholas has inherited.”

They shook their heads forlornly.

Di Concerci, however, was surprisingly relaxed and collected under the circumstances. “Your Holiness,” he said, rising from his seat to open his address. “And my distinguished fellow cardinals. God's blessings upon us that we may achieve the great purpose for which we are assembled here today.”

A chorus of solemn “Amens” answered.

The prefect peered into the eyes of his colleagues assembled around him. “As we are all painfully aware,” he framed the problem, “our beloved Church is enduring the onslaught of its most formidable challenge since the Roman persecutions of the first century A.D. Allegations have been raised that focus world acrimony upon us and jeopardize the very continuation of our sacred apostolic mission.

“Unfortunately, there are some parishioners throughout the world who are willing to simply accept everything they see and hear at face value; all too ready to abandon their faith in despair. Indeed, there are even clergy of this disposition. Some who once sat among us at this very table, who are not with us today.

“To them I say,” and he shouted this in a thunderous condemnation, jolting his audience, “O ye of little faith! God has sent us these travails to test us, to try our beliefs and to verify our true love of our Lord, Jesus Christ! Just as God tested Job and Isaac and the apostles and the holy martyrs who persevered in their faith down through the centuries under the most horrible of physical and mental afflictions Satan could visit upon them.

“Has our great religion endured all of this over the millennia only to resign itself suddenly, overnight, because of the acrimonious words of some unknown, untested girl? This Jeza? This self-ordained spokeswoman of God who preaches destruction and lashes out against us and all religions? I stand before you today to say that the Catholic Church will endure only if we truly believe in the power and the glory of our Almighty. I challenge each of you. Do you have the strength and the faith to persevere?”

The prefect was met with less-than-enthusiastic agreement.

“Do you have the strength and the faith to persevere?” he asked again, but did not wait for an answer this time. “Because I come before you now with the most disturbing revelation of all. A revelation that will bring fear to your hearts and require far greater courage than has been demanded of you heretofore!”

He paused, satisfied now that he had their complete attention.

“Last Monday evening, in the aftermath of Jeza's attack, I entered, alone, the catacombs of St. Peter's. I took with me this,” and he held up a copy of a small, very old and worn book with a faded burgundy cover.

“This is a fifteenth-century, hand-lettered Latin manuscript of the Gospel of Saint John. Once the property of Joan of Arc, this is the very testament that the Maid of Orleans carried with her in the breastplate of her armor as she rode into battle. The stains on these pages are of her own blood when she was once wounded in combat. A peasant girl, unable to read, Joan carried this Book of the Gospel as a sacred talisman to inspire her triumphs over seemingly insurmountable odds.

“Before the tomb of our first pope, I fell to my knees and invoked the sacred power of this Bible. I called upon our beloved Great Fisherman for deliverance from our enemies in this hour of darkness; for a way to preserve the legacy of Peter that has endured for two millennia. I prayed for the love of Jesus Christ for the blessings of God the Father, and for the wisdom and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

“I prayed for an answer, and an answer was delivered to me.”

At this, even the pope had brightened somewhat. All eyes were upon the prefect in desperate hope.

“At the end of my prayer,” di Concerci told them, “there suddenly came into the catacombs a brilliant light, and around me a resounding clap of thunder, and I was momentarily blinded and deafened. In my shock, I dropped the testament And from inside me I heard a voice as deep and ancient as the sepulchres. It proclaimed, ‘Behold your answer!’ Instantly, I could see again, and before me I found my testament lying on the ground, in the consecrated dust of the martyrs, open to this page, chapter and verse.”

Di Concerci held the book in his outstretched hand, deferentially displaying it first to Nicholas, then rotating slowly for all to inspect. The pontiff, and those close enough to translate the page heading, gasped as the cardinals further away leaned forward and appealed to their neighbors for an explanation.

“This is the answer given to me, gentlemen,” di Concerci announced to the disrupted hall. “In the Apocalypse of Saint John the Apostle! As you can see, this page shows the brown stain of the very blood of Saint Joan, martyr. Remarkably, the stain has highlighted all the verses of chapter seventeen of the Apocalypse, as well as a single passage from chapter two. The other chapters and verses surrounding these bear no bloodstains whatsoever!”

Di Concerci lowered the book slowly and adjusted it in front of him. “Here, my pontiff and my fellow cardinals, is the verse that has been given us. And in this verse we find our special answer.” He translated from the Latin:

THE BOOK OF THE APOCALYPSE OF SAINT JOHN THE APOSTLE Chapter 17, Verses 1 -16

The Woman on the Scarlet Beast:

“¹And there came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, and he spoke with me saying, ‘Come, I will show thee the condemnation of the great harlot who sits upon many waters, ²with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.’

“³And he took me away in spirit into a desert.And I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. ⁴And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet…. ⁶And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered with a great wonder.

The Angel's Explanation:

“⁷And the angel said to me, ‘Wherefore dost thou wonder? I will tell thee the mystery of this woman and the beast that carries her which has seven heads and the ten horns. ⁸The beast that thou sawest was, and is not, and is about to come up from the abyss, and will go to destruction. And the inhabitants of the earth-whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world-will wonder when they see the beast which was and is not. ⁹Here is the meaning for him who has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains upon which the woman sits; and they are seven kings; ¹⁰five of them have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a short time. ¹¹And the beast is moreover itself eighth, and is of the seven, and is the Evil One and will go to destruction.

“ ‘¹²And the ten horns that thou sawest are ten kings, who have not received a kingdom as yet, but they will receive authority as kings for one hour with the beast. ¹³These have one purpose, and their power and authority they give to the beast. ¹⁴These will fight against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is the Lord of Lords, and the King of kings, and they who are with Him, called, and chosen, and faithful.’

“¹⁵And he said to me, “The waters that thou sawest where the harlot sits, are peoples and nations and tongues. ¹⁶And these peoples will come to hate the harlot, and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up in fire.’”

There was a low murmuring in the hall as the full meaning of this rather abstract passage failed to take hold. Di Concerci looked up at his colleagues with an expression of optimism and faith. “And now, Holy Father and my