Fr. Ripperger: Abomination of desolation refers to Catholic Church becoming ‘compromised’

(LifeSiteNews) — Exorcist Father Ripperger shared in an explosive recent interview that Scripture’s reference to the “abomination of desolation” taking its place in “the temple” is “actually a reference to the Catholic Church being compromised.”

Fr. Ripperger explained the reference in an interview with podcaster and former U.S. Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan while refuting Protestants who mistakenly believe that the Book of Daniel’s reference to the “temple” in which the abomination of desolation will stand at the time of the Antichrist is the Jewish Temple.

These Protestants want to help rebuild the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in an effort to usher in the Antichrist, and by extension, the Second Coming of Christ, Fr. Ripperger noted.

“The Fathers of the Church are clear that it will never be rebuilt and that the reference to the abomination of desolation taking its seat in the temple is actually a reference to the Catholic Church,” explained the exorcist priest.

Fr. Ripperger: The Abomination of Desolation taking its seat in the Temple is actually a reference to the Catholic Church being compromised. https://t.co/vrJBa7Xf15 pic.twitter.com/WYeXeYnMYK

— Sign of the Cross (@CatholicSOTC) March 8, 2026

READ: Exorcist Fr. Ripperger: ‘The situation for the Antichrist is just about present’

This means that “there’s going to be some way in which the situation in the Church will become compromised,” he added.

This interpretation of the Church Fathers is supported by the fact that Christ Himself warns of the abomination of desolation referred to by the prophet Daniel as something to come in the future: “When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place: he that readeth let him understand. Then they that are in Judea, let them flee to the mountains.” (Matthew 24:15-16)

Because Christ’s new covenant supersedes the Old Covenant, the “holy place” refers to the Catholic Church, not the Jewish Temple.

Moreover, the Book of Daniel refers to the abomination of desolation as tied up with the cessation of a public “daily sacrifice.” 

“They shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. (Daniel 11:31)

“And from the time when the continual sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination unto desolation shall be set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred ninety days.” (Daniel 12:11)

Referring to Antichrist, the Book of Daniel says, “And he shall confirm the covenant with many, in one week: and in the half of the week the victim and the sacrifice shall fail: and there shall be in the temple the abomination of desolation: and the desolation shall continue even to the consummation, and to the end.” (Daniel 9:27)

As Catholics understand, the daily sacrifice of lambs upon the altar of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem derived their value and meaning from their fulfillment by the Sacrifice of Christ, the Messiah, renewed daily in an unbloody manner in the Holy Mass. 

Such a “daily” and “continual” sacrifice after Christ became incarnate and established His Church can then only refer to the daily sacrifice of Christ on the altars of Catholic churches during Holy Mass. The “desolation” referred to in the “holy place” could therefore refer to the absence of Jesus Christ’s presence in churches.

This meaning of the abomination of desolation is affirmed explicitly by the Douay-Rheims commentary, as shared by Father David Nix during the last Rome Life Forum:

“It specifically shall be fulfilled by Antichrist and his precursors when they shall abolish the Holy Mass which is the sacrifice of Christ’s Body and Blood, and the only sovereign worship due to God and His church.”

Fr. Nix added that this refers only to the public Mass, not private Mass. He noted that if the words of consecration in the Novus Ordo Mass are changed, it “will not be valid.”

Fr. Ripperger himself clarified in an interview with Dr. Taylor Marshall about his book The Limits of Papal Authority on the Liturgy, that “the pope, because of divine positive law, he does not have the authority to change the words of consecration to something other than what they were as Christ initiated them.” 

An abomination of desolation in Catholic churches at the time of Antichrist also comports with a prophecy from Our Lady of La Salette, as written by one of the visionaries, Mélanie Calvat, that “Rome will lose the faith and become the seat of the antichrist.”