First U.S. Pope Elected - Branham's Prophecy Falls Apart

On May 8, 2025, white smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel, and the world heard the words Habemus Papam. The newly elected Pope, Robert Prevost of Chicago—affectionately known as “Father Bob”—stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica and greeted the crowds with a simple phrase: Peace be with you. With that, Cardinal Prevost became Pope Leo the Fourteenth, the first American to ever hold the papal office in the two-thousand-year history of the Catholic Church.

For many, it was a moment of joy and historic significance. But for others—especially those familiar with the prophecies of William Branham—it revived a chilling sense of déjà vu. Decades ago, Branham claimed that the United States would one day give rise to a pope, ushered in by a confederation of churches, who would embody the image of the beast described in the Book of Revelation. Now, as an American pope steps into power for the first time in history, one question looms large: Was this prophecy fulfilled?

The "Female President" Doomsday

In 1955, William Branham claimed he had seen a vision more than two decades earlier, dating back to the year 1933. In this alleged prophecy, he warned that the United States would one day elect a female president—and that this event would immediately precede the nation's total destruction. At that point in his evolving public persona, Branham—like many self-proclaimed prophets emerging from the healing revivals—tied his apocalyptic warnings to fears of communist Russia, portraying it as the force that would ignite Armageddon. Followers were expected to accept his claims without question, in part because Branham insisted he had buried the original list of prophecies beneath his church in Jeffersonville, Indiana, beyond public scrutiny.

A—a woman...I—I better leave it alone. But just remember this. I predict this: that a woman will be president before we're annihilated. That's right. I said that in 1933 by a vision.[1]
- William Branham

During the communist scare, many evangelicals used fears of the Communist threat to hold converts captive. Branham was no exception. In that version of Branham's doomsday prediction, which he continued to claim had come to him in a vision in 1933, Branham claimed that Communist Russia would destroy the Vatican just before the destruction of the United States and the end of the world. Like all cult leaders, Branham told his converts that they would escape this doomsday scenario if they accepted his ultimate authority on doctrine, scripture, and adhered to his extra-biblical rules. He could not have foreseen the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, which marked the end of communist rule in Russia and led to the formation of independent republics under the Russian Federation.

If Mussolini ever goes towards Ethiopia, mark this down, there will never be peace till Jesus Christ comes.' And I said, 'There'll be three great isms, Communism, Fascism, and Nazism." And I said, "They'll wind up in one ism, and that one ism will dominate the world and will burn the Vatican City.'[2]
- Branham

Moving Prophecies: Catholic Doomsday

Years later, as this belief gained popularity among other self-proclaimed apostles and prophets, Branham shifted his narrative once again. He began rebuking those same ministers for stoking fear of communism—despite having done so himself for years—and recast his doomsday scenario with a new villain: Rome and the Catholic Church.

I believe, one of these glorious days, when this united confederation of church goes together, and the new pope is brought out of the United States and put over there according to prophecy, then they'll form an image like unto the beast. And I tell you, the true Church of God will be drove together. The real, true believers out of Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Nazarene, Pilgrim Holiness, whatever they'll be, will go together, and cemented by the love of God, that'll make the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ, all the believers. And agnostics and shallow-minded will be cast to one side; they'll go right on into the confederation of churches.[3]
- William Branham

Branham admitted that his campaign team was actively revising the so-called prophecies of nineteen thirty-three, even altering the date to nineteen thirty-two in later retellings. This revision not only changed key details but also opened the door to alternate interpretations, allowing for a scenario in which the rise of a female president might no longer be necessary. In this rebranded version of his prophetic persona, Branham framed the Catholic Church as the ultimate source of evil and positioned himself as the righteous figure chosen to lead. By the end of his life, Branham claimed he would personally restore Israel—an event he now placed immediately before the final apocalypse.

I'd like to read you a prophecy that was given. I got on...And may...By the way, Mr. Mercier and many of them are going to take some of these old prophecies, and dig them out, and revise them a little, or bring them up to date, and put them in papers. I'd like to read some things that I'd like for you to—to...This one, first. I'd like to read something to you. 33 '1932.' Listen to this. 'As I was on my way, or as I was getting ready to go on my way to church this morning, it came to pass that I fell into a vision.
{...}
I got THUS SAITH THE LORD. 'In her voting, she will elect the wrong person.  {...} 'Then when these women help elect the wrong person, then I seen a great woman rise up in the United States, well-dressed and beautiful, but cruel in heart. She will either guide or lead this nation to ruination.' I got, in parenthesis, '(Perhaps, Catholic church). {...} Women, given the right to vote, elected President-elect Kennedy, was the woman's vote, the wrong man; which will finally lead to full control, of the Catholic church, in United States. Then the bomb comes that explodes her.[4]

Branham's shifting prophecies—originally centered on a female president and later revised into a Catholic doomsday scenario—have failed to withstand historical scrutiny. His apocalyptic claims were rooted in Cold War anxieties, conspiratorial interpretations of Scripture, and a fluid prophetic narrative that changed as political fears evolved. The prediction that Communist Russia would destroy the Vatican is incompatible with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the rise of post-Soviet nationalism under a Russian Orthodox identity that is now more anti-Catholic than ever. Likewise, Branham's vision of a "United Confederation of Churches" enforcing religious conformity has no modern equivalent. Ecumenical efforts, such as the World Council of Churches, remain voluntary and diverse, lacking the political or coercive power Branham imagined. The first American pope, Leo the Fourteenth, was not elected through political manipulation or Protestant capitulation, but by the long-standing processes of the Catholic Church's internal hierarchy. While one may not align with the doctrines of the Catholic Church or its history, Pope Leo demonstrates a far more coherent understanding of the Christian faith than William Branham ever exhibited.  Branham's predictions, shaped by conspiracy, fear-mongering, and theological distortion, are the opposite of the instructions of Christ and the apostles. 

Perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. - 1 John 4:18