I actually believe that by the time we have a Holy Pope, it'll coincide with the major chastisement and a conversion of the world, possibly including a 3 Days' darkness, where a lot of those who despise the Church will be eliminated.
There are multiple prophecies (like St John Bosco's vision of the ships on the stormy sea) which predict 1 or 2 orthodox popes (one of whom is martyred) who rule the Church during the chaotic times of social upheaval before the "Angelic Pope" is elected. Both of these popes are good men but their reign is VERY short, even less than a year. As soon as they are recognized as being orthodox, they and the Church are persecuted. But the Church survives this onslaught until the Angelic Pope's time arrives.
Almost immediately after he is elected, the holy man who is yet-to-be-crowned-king rises up to fight the evil forces and wins some battles in France, then outside Europe. Then the Angelic Pope elects him Monarch and Christendom rallies around him as he defeats our enemies. Then the Angelic Pope and the Great Monarch rule over the world during the period of peace.
Prophecies aren't set in stone, so who knows.
Agree, iirc prophecies of the GM and Holy Pope coincide with the 3 days, after which they work to restore Christendom and the Church among the remnant.
A Chastisement is literally the only way out of this mess at this point. The rot is too deeply ingrained.
The prophecies consistently say that both arrive before the 3 days of Darkness. The chastisement I think happens before the 3 Days - the spiritual part being the last 70 years of V2, the social part being the political/religious persecution to come, and the natural part being the scripturally foretold of natural disasters, famines, etc. The 3 Days happens once the good guys are already battling the bad guys out in the open; the 3 Days of Darkness is a good thing, in that it is God's judgement upon the wicked. It is the end of the evil of the 5th age, and the beginning of the period of peace of the 6th age. It is God "rebooting" society, so to speak.
The good news is, even if many of us don't live beyond the 3 Days of Darkness, we may see the hopeful (yet chaotic) times where we have an orthodox pope and a true 'white hat' leader in a future king.