Vatican City - AN arch-conservative cardinal chosen by the Pope to deliver this year's Lenten meditations to the Vatican hierarchy has caused consternation by giving warning of an Antichrist who is "a pacifist, ecologist and ecumenist".
Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, 78, who retired as archbishop of Bologna three years ago, quoted Russian philosopher and mystic Vladimir Solovyov (1853-1900) predicting the Antichrist "will convoke an ecumenical council and seek the consensus of all the Christian confessions".
The "masses" would follow the Antichrist, "with the exception of small groups of Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants" who would fight to prevent the watering-down and ultimate destruction of the faith, he said.
The Pope traditionally withdraws from public view during the first week of Lent, conducting "spiritual exercises" in retreat with close advisers.
The choice of Cardinal Biffi raised eyebrows in the Vatican, given his eccentric views. He warned of the coming of the Antichrist during his two decades as Archbishop of Bologna, and said an "invasion" of Muslims was undermining Europe's Christian values.
Cardinal Biffi said that the Antichrist was not necessarily a person but "the reduction of Christianity to an ideology".
"The teaching that the great Russian philosopher left us is that Christianity cannot be reduced to a set of values. At the heart of being a Christian is the personal encounter with Jesus Christ," he said. But he quoted Solovyov's Three Dialogues on War, Progress and the End of History, suggesting the Antichrist is a real figure.