Is Pope Francis the Final Roman Pontiff?

An article by the apologist Tim Staples, published by Catholic Answers Magazine on June 3, 2013, three months after the election of Pope Francis, responding directly to popular claims that Francis fulfills the Prophecy of the Popes' final entry, "Petrus Romanus." Staples opens by naming a book making that argument, then states his own conclusion in plain terms: "the so-called 'prophecy of St. Malachy' appears to be a fraud." He rejects the specific case built on Francis's chosen name and his father's given name Pietro as a stretch, restates the case against Malachy's own authorship, and closes by urging readers to keep their focus on Christ and the Church rather than on private, unapproved prophecy. Catholic Answers is a lay Catholic apologetics organization, not an academic press; this is the tradition's own response to a claim made about it, not outside scholarship.