The Book Three Popes Recommend: “Lord of the World” and the Prophetic Warning of a Godless Society

The Book Three Popes Recommend: “Lord of the World” and the Prophetic Warning of a Godless Society

Praised by Benedict XVI, Francis, and now Pope Leo XIV, Robert Hugh Benson’s apocalyptic novel offers a stark vision of secularist totalitarianism and the consequences of a world without Christ.

A century-old novel is enjoying a remarkable resurgence—not due to marketing or modern adaptations, but because it has been consistently recommended by three successive pontiffs. Lord of the World, written in 1907 by Fr. Robert Hugh Benson, a former Anglican who became a Catholic priest, has been cited with high regard by Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis, and now Pope Leo XIV.

The book envisions a future in which secular materialism, relativism, and technocratic state control dominate the world, eradicating Christianity and replacing it with a false, global peace under the reign of a charismatic Antichrist figure. The themes, long thought fantastical, are now being recognized by Church leaders as uncannily prescient.

Benedict XVI: “Much Food for Thought”
Long before his election to the papacy, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger referenced Lord of the World in a 1992 lecture at the Catholic University of Milan. He praised it as a work that “gives much food for thought” and implicitly recognized its theological significance in critiquing the modern loss of transcendence.¹

Pope Francis: “Prophetic in a Certain Sense”
Pope Francis has spoken publicly about the novel on multiple occasions, including a 2023 speech in Budapest, where he called it “prophetic in a certain sense.” He warned that the society Benson portrays—a world driven by technological control, homogenized human culture, and the abolition of religion—mirrors present-day ideological colonization:

“In the society described in the book, all differences are eradicated… a new ‘humanism’ is preached that suppresses differences, nullifying the life of peoples and abolishing religions.”²

Francis was especially struck by the passivity and moral disintegration of such a society, in which euthanasia becomes routine and human dignity is subordinated to the pursuit of false peace:

“It seems obvious that the sick should be gotten rid of… that national languages and cultures should be abolished… peace is transformed into oppression based on the imposition of consensus.”³

He first recommended the book publicly in 2015 during a press conference returning from the Philippines and has since returned to it as a key literary example of how progress can become tyranny when severed from God.

Pope Leo XIV: “What Could Happen If We Lose Faith”
Now, Pope Leo XIV (formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost) has added his name to the list of readers who regard the novel as vital. In an interview with the Augustinians prior to his papal election, he reflected on Benson’s warning:

“It speaks about what could happen in the world if we lose faith… it presents challenges about the importance of continuing to live with faith and a deep appreciation of who we are as human beings… in relationship with God and His love.”⁴

Leo XIV specifically acknowledged that both Benedict XVI and Francis had referenced the book, and he praised its value in highlighting the spiritual dangers of a dehumanised, post-Christian order.

A Novel for Our Times
Though written in 1907, Lord of the World is now widely regarded as a literary prophecy. It anticipated many 20th- and 21st-century ideologies: globalism without God, a technocratic elite suppressing dissent, and a world unified not by truth but by forceful consensus. Benson’s Antichrist is not monstrous, but charming and efficient—a reflection of modern temptations to worship the State, technology, or emotional consensus instead of the living God.

For Catholics today, especially those grappling with cultural decline and ecclesial confusion, Lord of the World offers not merely dystopian fiction but a call to spiritual vigilance. The novel warns that when man no longer believes in God, he does not believe in nothing—he believes in anything, even in the deification of power itself.

As Pope Francis put it: “Mechanical complexity is not synonymous with true greatness,”⁵ and as Leo XIV reminds us, without faith, humanity forgets who it is. 🔝

1. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Lecture at the Catholic University of Milan, Feb. 1992.
2. Pope Francis, Address to the Academic and Cultural World, Budapest, Hungary, April 28, 2023.
3. Ibid.
4. Interview with Cardinal Robert Prevost, Order of St. Augustine, Rome, 2024.
5. Ibid., Francis, Budapest, 2023.