Maybe the Mark will be something visible to angels and demons but not to men.

The Mark of the Beast? I vote for something more mystical and subtle, but still all too down to earth and nitty-gritty. I vote for assent to the Vatican II Pentecost. The mark of the Beast is he mark of that ultimate degradation on the would-be Catholic mind and will and soul.

Prophecy gets tweaked sometimes by Providence. Look at how Jesus would be Son of David even if the Blessed Virgin did not spring from the loins of David and only Joseph was of the house of David. Remember how on their walk down from Mount Tabor Christ remarked to the three apostles that John the Baptist, who was not Elijah, was Elijah enough for prophetic purposes.

Let's say that a cardinal archbishop with a sterling reputation for orthodoxy who may be the next leader of the Vatican City state perpetrates an unspeakable sacrilege against the Person of Our Blessed and Divine and All Holy Lord Jesus Christ and continues to justify it according to a Twilight Zone/Wonderland understanding of God and righteousness and common decency.

Let's say that our own natural reason assures us with infallible certitude ("within its sphere reason is infallible") that the common run of half way decent infidel or Mason or pimp or psychokiller or raving madman nonetheless feels strongly that the Person of the Carpenter is sacred and off limits from that kind of "theological/artistic" assault.

Let's say further that much to our horror we discover within ourselves not the natural, decent horror and indignation of these unregenerate outsiders but some kneejerk (or souljerk) compulsion to "doublethink" such an abomination of the New Pentecost and play them down and even to the slightest degree invoke pious parochial Romanist bromides that tend to favor them. ("Ours is not to judge prelates and their possible unfortunate deeds. Ours to humbly seek the good in all they do and pray for them when good we cannot find.")

Whatever the "mark of the Beast" really is in the literal sense as a physical tracking device that the likes of George Bush might want to employ if Condi or Dick told him it was a swell idea, it could not even begin to a worse evil than the evil of ratifying ultimate assaults on God and Goodness by Roman Catholic Churchmen in the name of some smarmy, fake little pretense of "Swiss Guard" style loyalty to clerics and the hierarchical operation.

I claim that the injunction "Ours not to judge etc...", thus misapplied, is the Mark of the Beast.

Sometimes First Philosophy is the way to the truth of Last Theology.

Rule #! About Apocalyptic Correctness:

If it sounds kind of like the Bible and kind of like something from Blessed Anna Maria Taigi but Arnold Schwarzenegger could star in a Hollywood Horror flick loosely based on it, chances are it's all wet and the real Apocalyptic horror is something a lot more subtle and a lot more SPIRITUAL.

I don't think that Arnold Schwarzenegger could star in a movie about how Rome approved the Dutch Catechism despit the fact that the Dutch Catechism teaches that Modern Man rightly takes offense at the doctrine of the Virginal Conception of Christ.

According to the Apocalypse:

[11] And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns, like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon. [12] And he executed all the power of the former beast in his sight; and he caused the earth, and them that dwell therein, to adore the first beast, whose wound to death was healed. [13] And he did great signs, so that he made also fire to come down from heaven unto the earth in the sight of men. [14] And he seduced them that dwell on the earth, for the signs, which were given him to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make the image of the beast, which had the wound by the sword, and lived. [15] And it was given him to give life to the image of the beast, and that the image of the beast should speak; and should cause, that whosoever will not adore the image of the beast, should be slain.

[16] And he shall make all, both little and great, rich and poor, freemen and bondmen, to have a character in their right hand, or on their foreheads. [17] And that no man might buy or sell, but he that hath the character, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. [18] Here is wisdom. He that hath understanding, let him count the number of the beast. For it is the number of a man: and the number of him is six hundred sixty-six.

Yes, it will be a physical mark, which will be the microchip.