In order to face the “major challenges” of culture, commerce and migration, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin called on Europe to “rediscover itself” in a February 15 interview with Eco di Bergamo.

“Europe currently has good antibodies to hold up under crises and challenges,” said Parolin. “But the most serious problem is the lack of ideas for the future that allow it to respond with determination to international competitors.” Parolin further believes that Europe’s weakness is a wrong relationship with its own history, “a deep, and partly justified, fear of its past.”

This history includes the persecution of Jews, the torture and killings of heretics, religious wars on the Continent, crusades and world wars. But Parolin believes that the Holy Roman Empire, which was a union of church and state, also had “many bright moments.”

Unless Europe reverts back to this past, Parolin claimed, it will fail at meeting its challenges. He criticized wording in the European Constitution that deliberately omitted the Continent’s Christian roots. “Instead of building Europe on its deep foundations and roots, a changing consensus of values ​​has been preferred,” he said. “But the future can only be built on the past.”

His words echo those of Pope John Paul ii, who famously said on Nov. 9, 1981:

It can be said that the European identity is not understandable without Christianity and that it is precisely in Christianity that are found those common roots by which the Continent has seen its civilization mature: its culture, its dynamism, its activity, its capacity for constructive expansion in other continents as well; in a word, all that makes up its glory. …

Find yourself again. Be yourself. Discover your origins, revive your roots. Return to those authentic values which made your history a glorious one and your presence so beneficent in the other continents.

Commenting on this appeal, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in the August 1998 Philadelphia Trumpet:

The pope is working feverishly to revive the Holy Roman Empire. … During the Inquisition, over 50 million innocent people were killed in the name of “Christianity”! That’s right—50 million! And you can add many millions more as victims of the Holy Roman Empire. Shouldn’t the whole world fear a pope who would say, “Discover your origins, revive your roots. Return to those authentic values which made your history a glorious one”? Those “origins” and “roots” and that “history” caused many millions of people to die!

Europe today stands at a crossroads. Threatened by the rising powers of Russia and China and abandoned by the United States, its future remains largely undecided. The Vatican sees an opportunity to lead Europe back to its roots. For this to happen, Europe needs not only new political leadership but also religious leadership.

Pope Francis may be on his deathbed and no longer able to provide this leadership. Parolin, who is seen as a strong contender to succeed Francis, may have the opportunity.

Whoever the next pope will be, the Holy Roman Empire is soon to be revived to its historic strength and more.

Revelation 17 refers to an empire, symbolized by a beast, controlled by a church, symbolized by a woman riding the beast. This is a prophecy of the Holy Roman Empire. But the chapter specifically reveals that the empire would rise seven times, leading right up to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (verse 14).

While many failed to recognize it, the last one who “rediscovered” Europe’s past was Adolf Hitler. He revered Charlemagne and other rulers of the Holy Roman Empire. He brought the crown jewels from Vienna to Nuremberg.

The Bible prophesies that this empire will rise one more time. Europe’s future will indeed be built “on the past,” exactly as Parolin calls for. While this prophesied revival will be bloody, it will also be short lived.

To learn more about these stunning prophecies and how they are to be fulfilled, read our free booklet Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.