AHC: Fulfill St. Malachy's Prophecy of the Popes

[Alternate History]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophecy_of_the_Popes

Anyone who knows about this prophecy can realise how fake it is, obviously. The short explanations of the popes' reigns stop somewhere in the 16th century, which is incidentally when this prophecy was published. Besides, it's an extremely vague prophecy and those short titles attributed to the popes can all be twisted to suit just about any pope. But hey, disregarding all of that, wouldn't it be cool if the prophecy was actually fulfilled? That would mean that the next pope is the last, and after that... well, interpreted literally, the city of Rome will be destroyed, but this destruction can also be taken figuratively, and maybe simply the Papacy will be abolished.

So, the question is: is there any way this prophecy could be fulfilled? You can take some artistic liberty with the interpretation of the next pope's description in the prophecy, but be reasonable - the next pope must be the last, at any rate. My first thought when reading this was - "a communist revolution in Italy could abolish or marginalise the Papacy and expel the Pope from Vatican City", but that's only because of my personal political bias - I know that's pretty unlikely. What are some more likely, and most importantly, not ASB explanations that could account for this, though?

 

[Turquoise Blue]

OK... Peter II "the Roman". Maybe it could be Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone? After all, his middle name is Peter, and he was born in Romano Cavenese in Piedmont.

Hmm... Have anti-religious feelings increase due to the Church flaunting their wealth a little more snobbishly? That would explain it...

 

[Alternate History]

He sounds like a good candidate to be "Petrus Romanus"... but I'm not so sure about the second part. Even if it would get to the point of scandals and riots, would the wrath of the people be enough to dissolve the Papacy? Wouldn't there need to be some greater event in politics to aid in this?

 

[The Ubbergeek]

OK... Peter II "the Roman". Maybe it could be Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone? After all, his middle name is Peter, and he was born in Romano Cavenese in Piedmont.

Hmm... Have anti-religious feelings increase due to the Church flaunting their wealth a little more snobbishly? That would explain it...

Maybe the prophecy then would be the fall of the Church, not religion - and so, increases in converting to maybe the native protestant church of Italia, the.. I forgot the name... or weird curve, the Orthodoxy, south specially maybe. ASB, I know.