
Imagining the Antichrist: Bishop Fulton Sheen and Vladymir Solovyov
In the recent years of these turbulent times, the number of articles presenting the insights of Bishop Fulton Sheen regarding the anti-Christ has multiplied. His interest is particularly linked to the impact that the Marxist-Leninist ideology, globally spread by the Communist Party, had both before and after the Second World War. Speaking about the polarization that will characterize that final period of history before the second coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ, he seems to see in the “red” ideology the binding force that will unite all those who will form the (anti)mystic body of the ultimate enemy of the Savior. This is what he implies when he refers to those united in evil as “comrades in anti-Christ.” However, of the greatest interest is the description he proposed for the “son of perdition.” Presented for the first time in a radio broadcast on January 26, 1947, and later included in the texts collected in the volume Communism and the Conscience of the West published in 1948, he begins by emphasizing how the anti-Christ will not be: