Wednesday, April 20, 2005

A Dream of the Catholic Papacy

On the night of April 17, 2005, I had the following dream, which was originally posted on April 20, 2005:

I was in a building, and I saw a man who was guarding a person. He looked at me, and decided to let me pass. I walk through a door out onto a balcony. The balcony is high up, perhaps in a tall tower or mountainside. I looked ahead, I saw a tall waterfall that was divided by a rock at the top pouring down into a lake far below. I look to my left, I see another waterfall that is also divided by a rock at the top. I look to my right, a third waterfall that looked the same as the other two. In all, three waterfalls pouring down into a lake. The scene was very powerful.

I turn around, and I see an old man sitting on a throne on the balcony. It was Pope John Paul II. I realized I was seeing him in the afterlife. I approach him, and for some reason I form the sign of the cross in the space between us, which I did to expell any evil influence. None was present. I then come closer, perhaps I kneel, and then I read his thoughts and he wants to know who I am. I first say in my thoughts, "King Robert Baldwin." Then I thought, no, people will not understand. He understands, and then I kiss him. Air flows out of his mouth into me, into my body. The man who was guarding him then leads me away.

The following morning I told my wife I thought the man who was guarding the Pope was Cardinal Ratzinger - he seemed to always be hovering next to the Pope during his illness in all his public appearances. I did not even think that the dream might be saying that the papacy would pass from John Paul II to Cardinal Ratzinger. He is the first German Pope in almost a thousand years - the last one reigned during the eleventh century. I decided to find out who King Baldwin was, it turns out there was a King Baldwin I of Jerusalem, who reigned from 1100 to 1118. He was the brother of Godfrey de Bouillon, who had fought for the German Emperor and went on the first crusade. St. Malachi calls this Pope "The Glory of the Olive" which may refer to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, where Jesus foretold his second coming.

Later that year, on the four year anniversary of September 11, I made a visit to Niagara Falls. I stepped out on the balcony on the mountainside on the Canadian side, and then it hit me: this was the mountainside balcony I had seen in my dream. I realized then that Niagara Falls is not one waterfall, but three waterfalls, which were pouring into the ravine below. Moreover, the President of China then made a visit, and all entrances to the balcony were then closed off.

Could the next Pope after Benedict XVI be from Canada, perhaps?