"The world will end because there is not enough space on the wall for pedo-featuring medallions."
Quote:Why the popes’ mosaics spark end-of-the-world fears
At Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, the awaited arrival of Pope Leo XIV’s mosaic is sparking fresh fascination — and for some, old superstitions. As artisans prepare the golden medallion to join the long line of papal portraits above the nave, a familiar question reappears: What happens when there’s no more room?
These medallions — called tondi — encircle the church’s interior like a visual history of apostolic succession. But the sequence also fuels a curious legend: When all the empty spaces are filled, the world will end.
The legend has circulated for decades, if not centuries, drawing attention each time a new pope is elected. It gained momentum after the 1823 fire that destroyed much of the basilica, and the images.
With Leo XIV, the 267th pope, the basilica grows a bit closer to its architectural limit (though as tourists who have heard the legend might be surprised to find -- there are dozens of spaces still available).
Some visitors still quietly wonder: Will there eventually be no more room? And if there isn't?
https://aleteia.org/2025/07/11/why-the-p...rld-fears/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
