To be perfectly honest, RR, I don't waste my time on these self-made Prophets of Doom and here's why:

First - "But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Mark 13:32).

St. Malachy, Tom Horn and Cris Putnam are no exception to this rule.

Second - Tom Horn has made all kinds of fallacious statements, particularly about the future. In this article, he made all kinds of dire projections about the year 2012 - none of which ever happened, by the way. Some were gleaned from the Zohar (Kabbalah), Cherokee Rattlesnake Prophecies, the Mayans and the Hindu Kali Yuga calendar.

He and his friend Cris Putnam predicted Pope Benedict would retire in 2012 (oops!), but then a lot of other people did too because the Pope himself had certainly floated enough "trial balloons" about doing just that.

Their new book, Exo-Vaticana, takes doomsaying to breathtaking new heights. It details the Petrus Romanus prophecies - aka the Prophecy of the Popes - which are allegedly based on the 900 year old prophecies of St. Malachy. These prophecies consist of 112 short phrases or mottos that are supposed to represent the popes from St. Malachy's time onward. The phrases end with Pope Benedict XVI, which is why his resignation in 2013 sparked a new rash of rumors by Malachy fans that Pope Francis is the last pope before the end of the world.

Although there really was a St. Malachy - he was the Archbishop of Armagh, Ireland in the 1100s - his writings are considered to be forgeries by both the Church and historians, which explains why they never received approval by the Magisterium. They were not published until 1595 even though Malachy died in 1148, raising the question of where they were for the intervening 447 years. Some say they were hidden away, but historians say the language and other indicators point toward a 16th century authorship.

The book also maintains that the Pope is going to soon announce the coming of an alien savior (you can't make this stuff up - well, not unless you're Cris Putnam and Tom Horn) and is being assisted by the devil in this process.

Apparently, this ludicrous prediction is based on the existence of a large telescope located on Mt. Graham in Tucson, Arizona which has been given the name LUCIFER - an acronym for the scope's rather lengthy name - “Large Binocular Telescope Near-infrared Utility with Camera and Integral Field Unit for Extragalactic Research.” It's connected to the University of Arizona's Large Binocular Telescope (LBT).  A telescope owned by the Vatican - the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT) - is right next door. Putnam and Horn claim that they visited with Jesuit astronomers at the VATT, including Guy Consolmagno, a self-confessed science fiction fan who allegedly revealed documents showing that the Vatican believes “that we are soon to be visited by an alien savior from another world.”

Some of their evidence for this ridiculous announcement includes a statement made by Consolmagno who said: "Perhaps it’s not so far-fetched to see the Second Person of the Trinity, the Word, Who was present “In the beginning” (John 1: l), coming to lay down His life and take it up again (John 10: 18) not only as the Son of Man but also as a Child of other races?"

Putnam and Horn leap to conclusions about this statement, saying Consolmagno may believe Jesus is the "Star Child of an alien race". I'm not sure how they made that leap but it's obvious what Consolmagno meant - that Jesus may be recognized as relevant to other worlds and races.

Of course, they only use (and distort) quotes from Fr. Consolmagno that seem to support their theories while neglecting any that don't, such as how he thinks the chances of finding an alien life form that can communicate with Earthlings are "very low." This is hardly the statement of a man who is awaiting an alien savior.

The good news is that we'll all know the truth in time as Putnam and Horn claim the pope is going to make an announcement about the coming of the alien savior - an event which is scheduled to happen simultaneously with the day pigs fly and hell freezes over.