Bishop Bernardo Bastres Florence of Punta Arenas, Chile has an interesting suggestion for those convinced that the world will end on December 21, as predicted by the Mayan calendar, reports the Catholic News Agency.
The bishop said that those who believe the Mayan prophecy should donate their worldly goods to the Church, according to local newspaper La Prensa Austral.
“If there are many who believe the world will end on Dec. 21, as the Church, we have no problem with them naming us as the beneficiaries of their possessions in their wills,” he quipped in an interview on December 9.
Doomsday predictions about the end of the world, as documented by the Mayans, have circulated in recent years and grown in popularity. The Mayan Long Count calendar begins in 3,114 B.C., which accounts for time in 394-year periods known as Baktuns. The Mayans allegedly believed that the last, or 13th Baktun, ends on December 21, 2012.
To those who are convinced that the world is ending next week, Bishop Bastres said “I assure them that after December 21, we will eternally pray for them.”
“Because I am sure that we will all be alive after that date. If they wish to pass on, they could do enormous good by donating their properties to the Church.”
Adding to criticism of the prophecy, Father Jose Funes – who directs the Vatican Observatory – wrote in the Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano that “it's not even worth discussing” the predictions.
FULL STORY Bishop says Mayan prophecy believers should donate to church before world ends (CNA)