In the foregoing chapter [i.e. Apoc 12] St. John outlines the history of the Church from the coming of Antichrist until the end of the world…. In this chapter, he shows us the true nature of that conflict. It shall be war unto death between the Church and the powers of darkness in a final effort of Satan to destroy the Church and thus prevent the universal reign of Christ on earth.


Satan will first attempt to destroy the power of the Papacy and bring about the downfall of the Church through heresies, schisms and persecutions that must surely follow. Failing in this he will attack the Church from without. For this purpose he will raise up Antichrist and his prophet to lead the faithful into error and destroy those who remain steadfast.

…
The Church is ever in labor to bring forth children to eternal life. In the sad days here predicted the sorrows and pains of delivery shall be increased many fold. In this passage there is an evident allusion to some particular son of the Church whose power and influence shall be such that Satan will seek his destruction at any cost. This person can be none other than the Pope to be elected in those days. The Papacy will be attacked by all the powers of hell. In consequence the Church will suffer great trials and afflictions in securing a successor upon the throne of Peter.


The words of St. Paul to the Thessalonians [2 Thess 2:6-8] may be a reference to the Papacy as the obstacle to the coming of Antichrist: “You know what withholdeth, that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity already worketh; only that he who now holdeth, do hold, until he be taken out of the way. And then that wicked one shall be revealed.”


…Seven, the number of universality, indicates that in this final struggle to prevent the universal reign of Christ all forms of sin and error will be marshalled against the Church. A prelude to this may be seen in the errors of Modernism which has been rightly designated “a synthesis of all heresies” [by Pope St. Pius X]. The number seven is also appropriate since all sins are included in the seven capital sins. In like manner all errors that have afflicted the Church may be summed up in these seven: Judaism, paganism, Arianism, Mohammedanism, Protestantism, rationalism, and atheism.


The dragon is seen in heaven which is here a symbol of the Church, the kingdom of heaven on earth. This indicates that the first troubles of those days will be inaugurated within the Church by apostate bishops, priests, and peoples,–the stars dragged down by the tail of the dragon.
The tail of the dragon represents the cunning hypocrisy with which he succeeds in deceiving a large number of people and pastors — a third part of the stars. Arianism led away many bishops, priests, and peoples. The pretended [Protestant] Reformation of the sixteenth century claimed still larger numbers but these cannot be compared to the numbers seduced by Satan in the days of Antichrist.


The dragon stands before the woman ready to devour the child that is brought forth. In other words, the powers of hell seek by all means to destroy the Pope elected in those days.


…The Church deprived of her chief pastor must seek sanctuary in solitude there to be guided by God Himself during those trying days…. In those days the Church shall also find refuge and consolation in faithful souls, especially in the seclusion of the religious life.


…Those shall be days of great persecution in which the Church will suffer all the horrors of the early ages, but she will likewise be crowned with the glory of innumerable martyrs.


…In the faith and prayer of her children, and especially in the contemplative life of religious orders the Church shall find a refuge of consolation which Satan cannot violate.
 

(Rev. E. Sylvester Berry, The Apocalypse of St. John [Columbus, OH: John W. Winterich, 1921], pp. 120-124,126-127)

• Electronic version (free): The Apocalypse of St. John by Fr. E. Sylvester Berry (1921)
• Paperback edition: by Fr. E. Sylvester Berry (1921)
• Also by Fr. Berry: (1927/1955)

Of course Satan wants to rid the world of the True Pope who is restricting the plan of this evil one, his Antichrist who is working for evil that is going on right now BIG TIME.  Generating the Great Apostasy.   The enemy has reduced The Church to an era of having no visible head on earth, Christ who IS THE CHURCH, the Church being Christ we are not without a head who is Christ the Church.  He is allowing this absence of a Pope for a  short time, in God's eyes, to see the fulfillment of prophecy.  


 See quote from Pope Pius X - 1903 "9. Now the way to reach Christ is not hard to find: it is the Church. Rightly does Chrysostom inculcate: “The Church is thy hope, the Church is thy salvation, the Church is thy refuge.” (“Hom. de capto Euthropio,” n. 6.) It was for this that Christ founded it, gaining it at the price of His blood, and made it the depositary of His doctrine and His laws, bestowing upon it at the same time an inexhaustible treasury of graces for the sanctification and salvation of men."