Some compilations of twentieth-century alternative popes include a Julius Tischler, who asserted that he was Pope Peter II. Joachim Bouflet,who briefly described the case in his Faussaires de Dieu, is the only
researcher who offers some details. Bouflet stated that the claim was made in 1972, that Julius Tischler was a pseudonym, and that he was not a papal claimant in the strict sense but a claimant to a future papacy; he would be the last pope in history.

The person behind the pseudonym was Ferenc Egerszégi (1908–1982), a Hungarian Catholic priest who had lived in West Germany since the early 1960s. There, he officially changed his name to Franz Engelhardt. Apart from stating that he would be the pope of the End time, he made other far-reaching spiritual claims. He had been mystically present at Fatima in 1917, thus directly receiving the most known Marian apparitions of the twentieth century. Apart from the three Portuguese children, known to many Catholics, there was a “fourth seer”–himself. Unlike the other seers, Engelhardt received another, more important message from the Virgin in 1923. It was a continuation of the Fatima message and the starting point of his End time mission.

These claims are almost unknown today, even in apparitionist circles. If Franz Engelhardt is known at all today, it is probably as a sexual predator who was sentenced to prison for the abuse of minors. This
report will address Engelhardt’s background and apocalyptic teachings, as well as his life after the mystical claims in 1972.