BTW, Struthio's basic blunder on that thread, and I'm not sure if anyone called him out the entire time ... was, yeah, he was focused on the Latin ... but then mistranslated the Latin constantly, assuming that it was correct.  saeculum does NOT mean "the world", but rather an epoch of time, an age, and era, so that "end of time" is a perfectly legitimate translation, but it could also mean the end of an epoch, as in one of the ages of the Church.  Yet by context, if at the consummation (completion or filling out or perfection) of this age, Christ returns, then it's more than just the end of any epoch, but in fact the final epoch or the larger epoch that includes all of human history (my personal favorite), so IMO "end of time" might just actually be the best translation.

The abomination of desolation, which is the beginning of the consummation of the world, would be the Robber Council 1962-1965 where virtually all apostolically authorized shepherds met to declare their revolt (2 Thess 2,3) and apostasy and adherence to the "synthesis of all heresies" in a most solemn act. They found a new religion of man and make fire to come down from heaven unto the earth (Apoc 13,13) for their new pentecost.


The Vatican Council explains the promise of our Lord (Mt 28,20) that there shall be apostolically authorized sheperds until the consummation.

The consummation is lasting more than 50 years now. It may last 70 years like the babylonian exile (Dan 9,2), or end before the generation of witnesses of the abomination will pass (Mt 24,32-34).

This understanding has crossed my own mind many times over the years.

Just as everything involved in Our Lord's final period on earth (Passion until Ascension) far outstripped the grasp of mortal minds, why would it not be the same where His Mystical Body is concerned?  No one would have thought He could die, but He did.  Was He somehow less Divine for dying?  Of course not.  The Church, as She has existed since Her founding, is no longer as She was and no one has any idea how She will be resuscitated, so to speak.  What shall we call such a state of affairs?  Mystical death?  Real death for His real Body, mystical death for His Mystical Body?

Gladius,

If you haven't read Struthio's thread, you might want to take a look:

https://www.cathinfo.com/the-sacred-catholic-liturgy-chant-prayers/vatican-council-says-there-will-be-shepherds-'usque-ad-consummationem-saeculi'/

No, I'm not missing the point at all ... saeculum is not a reference to the world in the sense of the world, which is the impression get when it's mistranlated, but an epoch of time, and the filling out or consummation of time is in fact the same thing as when time ceases.  End of Time is a very good translation, as the expression refers to "until everything has all been wrapped up" and it's all over in terms of this world, and we fade into the saecula saeculorum, aka eternity, aka the end of time.  In other words, it's precisely the mistranslation that might in English give the impression that it's come kind of process, but the Latin doesn't indicate that at all, but simply means until this world or age (in time) has been "wrapped up", when everything's done and over with.  It's not referring some kind of Teihardian process of moving toward an Omega point.