Word’s coming out of Rome that a new pope may be elected by Thursday. If you’ve been reading what I’ve been reading and hearing what I’ve been hearing, that could be bad news for all of us.

Especially if you subscribe to the Armageddon school of thought. I know, I know, we just went through the whole Mayan calendar-thing a couple of months ago, but this other dire warning has been lurking in the shadows for centuries, ready to take hold if the Mayan heed proved bogus.

Back in the 12th century, an Irish saint named St. Malachy related prophecies to the papacy much in the same way Nostradamus did with world events.

Not that it will serve anyone without a bomb shelter comfort, Nostradamus predicted World War III as happening this year. So did the heavily endowed Russian madman and womanizer, Rasputin.

For his part in this trifecta of tribulation, St. Malachy predicted that there would be 112 more popes from the time of his writings and that the last Pope would be known as Peter the Roman. And this is who the College of Cardinals is about to elect. Supposedly.

While I’m more inclined to keep track of baseball box scores, I’ll have to take the word of authors Tom Horn and Chris Putnam who wrote the book, “Petrus Romanus: The Final Pope is Here” based on the St. Malachy prophecies.

Authors Horn and Putnam claim St. Malachy’s been right on the nose with his predictions so far. And, during the reign of Peter the Roman, at least according to St. Malachy, Rome would be destroyed signaling the end of the world.

Whether he meant literally is up to interpretation because the Pope who just resigned, Benedict XVI, has done a pretty good job of dismantling the Vatican money-making machine with the role he’s played so far in the cover-up of sex abuse cases involving the clergy.

Adding a little food for thought, Horn and Putnam tell us that among the front runners for the pope job is Cardinal Tarcisio Pietro Evasio Bertone, the Cardinal secretary of state who was born – get this- in Romano, Italy. Pietro Romano, how’s that for a double-whammy?

The other front runner is Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana but I like that Pietro Romano idea a lot better. As a school kid I remember the nuns saying the last pope would take the name Peter, so bets are covered either way.

All I know is, if we get Peter on the throne, we’re all going to be taking it in the ass. At least according to St. Malachy.