And on the Eighth Day, God Created Europe
Since the fall of the Roman Empire, there have been numerous attempts to rebuild a unified Europe. The vision of one empire under one emperor, belonging to one church under one God, has caused more bloodshed than anything in the history of the world.
The modern successors of the Roman Caesars are intent on constructing a new empire, and understand the vast importance of the papacy in achieving this. Europe’s leaders and the Roman Catholic Church are working together towards the common goal of unity, with Rome providing a powerfully cohesive common religion to hold Europe together politically.
The vision of a Holy Roman Empire under a Roman Catholic aegis has been a favorite theme of Pope John Paul ii. Indeed, he believes it is his literal calling from God to preside over these crucial years in order to witness it. In Poland, in 1979, he declared, “Europe, despite its present and long-lasting divisions of regimes, ideologies and economic systems, cannot cease to seek its fundamental unity and must turn to Christianity. Economic and political reasons cannot do it. We must go deeper.”
Political Agenda
The pope’s calls for spiritual unity are echoed by leading politicians all over Europe, especially those allied to the Vatican’s political wing, the so-called Christian Democratic parties. One of the most prominent Roman Catholic meps (Ministers of European Parliament) is Dr. Otto von Habsburg, the eldest son of the last Austro-Hungarian emperor. He advocates a strong religious role for the Roman Catholic Church, which he terms “Europe’s ultimate bulwark.” He also sees a potential role for Charlemagne’s crown of the Holy Roman Empire, which today resides in the Art History Museum of Vienna.
According to Malachi Martin, a former Jesuit priest who was at the heart of the Vatican, there is no doubt that John Paul ii claims the right to lead the emerging system. With its embassies, emissaries, institutions and networks around the world, the Vatican is in a remarkably powerful position to influence global affairs. Martin states: “What captures the unwavering attention of the secular leaders of the world in this remarkable network of the Roman Catholic Church is precisely the fact that it places at the personal disposal of the pope a supra-national, supra-continental, supra-trade-bloc structure that is so built and orientated that if tomorrow or next week, by a sudden miracle, a one-world government were established, the Roman Church would not have to undergo any essential change in order to retain its dominant position to further its global aims.”
In the knowledge of this, it is noteworthy that the Vatican has a special status at the United Nations and is able to use its influence in that sphere. The pope has a privileged right to address the UN General Assembly, while the Holy See has full rights to participate in and speak at UN meetings. No other religious body, Christian or otherwise, is in such a position.
While visiting Austria in 1983, Pope John Paul ii spoke out against the “national and artificial borders” all over Europe. He added, “Europeans should overcome the menacing international confrontations of states and alliances, and create a new united Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals.” In 1988, he continued this theme when he addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg, an occasion at which many asked why a perceived spiritual leader was addressing the issues of political unity. The Sunday Telegraph summed up his plans for the “evangelization” of Europe, stating, “He is calmly preparing to assume the mantle which he solemnly believes to be his divine right—that of new Holy Roman Emperor, reigning from the Urals to the Atlantic.” It must be noted that the term “evangelization” is a euphemism for the advancement of the social policy and other aims of the Vatican, rather than the proclamation of the gospel.
Among European leaders who have been influential in furthering this social agenda are former Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers, and the former presidents of the European Commission, Jacques Delors and Jacques Santer—all Jesuit educated. The former leaders of both Germany and Spain, Helmut Kohl and Felipe Gonzales, were also devout Roman Catholics. For them, there was no nobler task than the unifying of the European continent. A German colleague of Jacques Delors described the idea of a united Europe as “essentially a Catholic concept,” of which an inevitable result would be the subjugation of Britain’s Protestant ethos to Roman Catholic social, political and religious teachings. The Catholic churches in many continental countries are influenced by a desire to see a shadow Holy Roman Empire recreated in Europe, and the Christian Democrat and Christian Socialist traditions in Europe are working to that end.
The “Catholic concept” is given further credence when one examines the address given by Cardinal Maria Martini of Milan, who was invited to speak to the European Parliament in a symposium on “Remembering the Origins of the Process of European Integration.” He outlined the importance of a single faith (Catholicism), and emphasized that religions must not support nationalisms (i.e. the Church of England must not defend the English Constitution), and Europe must recognize the “primacy of the divine” (i.e. the primacy of the pope). His address included demands for a new welfare state, on the model of Roman Catholic social doctrine, and his rejection that European integration was ever about economic and monetary issues alone. He said, “The Europe we must build is a Europe of the spirit,” and reminded the Parliament, “If the process of European integration is not anchored in truly religious foundations…it will seriously compromise the future of all Europeans.”
Divine Right
It is no surprise, therefore, that the European Foundation concluded: “On the eighth day, God created Europe,” reporting the Vatican’s pronouncement of the canonization process for the so-called founding fathers of the European Community, Alcide de Gasperi, Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer. The “sainthoods” are a reward for founding the European Community “on Roman Catholic principles.” A supporter of their canonization said that the opening of the cases would show that Europe “was built upon a rock,” adding: “I think that the European Union is a design not only of human beings but of God.” Thus the European Union exists by “divine right.”
A bidding prayer at the closing mass of the Synod was that the political leaders of Europe would “courageously encourage the process of European integration and development.” The text released at the end of the Synod was addressed to Christians and “fellow citizens of Europe” who were invited “to be committed Europeans…treasuring the precious heritage left us by the founding fathers of a united Europe.” It was necessary to “pursue, with courage and urgency, the process of European integration.”
A consequence of this has been the extraordinary lengths the EU has gone to in order to protect itself from criticism. In a judgment on October 10, 2000, the European Court of Justice deemed that political criticism of the EU and its leading figures is akin to the most extreme forms of blasphemy. It is therefore possible to suppress it without violating freedom of speech. This astonishing ruling affords the EU an undefined and seemingly unlimited power to restrict political criticism. Since the court is supreme, accountable to no one, the sole arbiter of citizens’ “rights,” it is consistent with the EU’s infallible papal aspirations to become a deity in its own right.
The Roman Catholic Church desires to direct Europe’s social thinking and has a self-perceived divine mission to preside over a unified continent, achievable through a dominating German state. Successive German chancellors have believed it is German destiny not merely to lead a European union, but to dominate it. Former Chancellor Helmut Kohl said, “The European Union Treaty introduces a new and decisive stage in the process of European Union, which within a few years will lead to the creation of…the United States of Europe. There is no alternative to a policy which aims at combination, unless we wish to challenge fate.”
In stating this, Kohl was merely following his predecessor Konrad Adenauer, who stated, “Germany has a divine mission to save Western Europe.”
Since the era of Charlemagne, the notion of a German destiny or fate has been deeply ingrained in the German psyche; it is an instinct which has driven Germany in the past, and one to which Hitler frequently referred in his speeches.
Money and Power
This “divine mission” can only succeed by the control of mammon. The control of money is at the core of politics, self-government and sovereignty itself. The monarch’s head upon a nation’s currency is a symbol of that sovereignty: If a denarius (a Roman coin) bears the head of Caesar, then it belongs to Caesar; if sterling bears the head of Queen Elizabeth ii, then her authority in Parliament is absolute; if the euro bears the insignia of the European Union, then it should be rendered unto the European government because it will belong to the European government.
Former British Prime Minister William Gladstone, writing in 1891, saw that money and power are inseparable. He said, “The finance of the country is ultimately associated with the liberties of the country. It is a powerful leverage by which the English liberty has been gradually acquired. If the House of Commons by any possibility loses the power of the control of the grants of public money, depend upon it, your very liberty will be worth very little in comparison. That powerful leverage has been what is commonly known as the power of the purse—the control of the House of Commons over public expenditure.”
When the EU’s leaders agreed that the single currency would be called the “euro,” the Spanish finance minister of the day, Pedro Solbes, made a play on Jesus’s words to the Apostle Peter about building the church by affirming that the euro would be the very foundation of a united Europe.
This remark needs to be evaluated in the context of the EU’s past use of a poster of the Tower of Babel, over which the EU flag’s circle of stars are displayed in the inverted form of a pentagram. It was used by the Council of Europe to promote “European construction.” These biblical images and allusions are becoming as commonplace as expressions of an EU deity or its existence by “divine right,” though the symbolism and significance are often perverted.
Biblical Imagery
Roman Catholic imagery is endemic in Europe, and has been wholeheartedly embraced by the European government. The design of the European flag was inspired by the halo of 12 stars around pictures of the Madonna, and appears prominently on the Council of Europe stained-glass window in Strasbourg Cathedral (reproduced on the cover of the book The Principality and Power of Europe). The window was unveiled to the world on December 11, 1955, coinciding with the Roman Catholic feast of the Immaculate Conception.
The Flag Institute has examined the evolution of the Council of Europe flag. Its director, Dr. William Crampton, confirms a report that Léon Marchal, the then secretary-general of the Council, said, “It’s wonderful that we have got back to the Introit of the new Mass of the Assumption. It’s the corona stellarum duodecim [the crown of the 12 stars] of the Woman of the Apocalypse.” Dr. Crampton goes on to state, “It was Marchal, the supreme partisan of the Virgin Mary, who suggested the number 12.” He also mentions a magazine article on the flag’s design, which confirmed, “No one can deny that under these symbols Catholics recognize the presence of the infinitely merciful Queen of Peace in Christ.”
When the European Union was expanded to 15 nations, the European newspaper ran an article responding to those who had expected the flag’s design to incorporate 15 stars—one star for each state—similar to the flag of the United States of America. It was confirmed that the 12 gold stars on a blue background were inspired by a picture of “Our Lady” in Strasbourg, and that they were constant as they were drawn from the 12th chapter of the book of Revelation.
As portentous as such obvious Roman Catholic symbolism is, the British postage stamps issued in 1984 to commemorate the second election to the European Parliament went even further. They depicted a woman riding a beast over seven mounds or waves. Such imagery has startling similarities to passages from the book of Revelation which a succession of theologians from Wycliffe to Spurgeon has identified as representing papal Rome.
Religious Persecution
Much of what passes for the embryonic European Constitution is wholly humanist in content, and asserts that in a multi-faith society, Christian beliefs cannot be the foundation of law or custom. Evangelical Christians are perceived by the EU as a “sect,” and any group which does not belong to the majority church is viewed by many meps with suspicion. This classification is nothing new. The early church was branded an heretical sect, and this was the earliest basis of persecution (Acts 24:5, 14; 28:22), a fact which ought to alarm members of evangelical “sects” throughout Europe.
Of course, any impending persecution will not be on overtly religious grounds: An enlightened EU would consider that abhorrent. Persecution will be political, as it was with the early church, with accusations of “disturbing the peace” or “inciting sectarianism” (Acts 16:20; 17:7). A European resolution on sects and cults permits the European police force (Europol) to carry out surveillance on such groups’ activities.
Whereas most meps have said there is no threat to “bona fide religions” (institutionalized churches), during the debate on this resolution one speaker did lump evangelicals in with satanists—a fact which demonstrates that the ramifications of this resolution are serious. For Britain, a nation which has been proud of its freedom of speech and which long ago banished religious persecution from its shores, there is a very real threat in a socialist-Catholic Europe which undermines centuries of hard-won liberties and which may be sowing the seeds of future social discontent.
Spiritual Darkness
There needs to be a profound and urgent consideration of the darkness of the principality which holds power over Europe. It is a principality which has warred against liberty, justice and truth for centuries, and once again is rearing its ugly head with a different strategy for domination.
A former president of the Council of Europe, Paul-Henri Spaak, once made a plea for a deliverer. He stated, “We do not want another committee. We have too many already. What we want is a man of sufficient stature to hold the allegiance of all people, and to lift us out of the economic morass in which we are sinking. Send us such a man and, be he god or the devil, we will receive him.”
As long as the European Union witnesses its emerging self-deification, few would contend that the Union is a design of God. The political philosopher Edmund Burke said: “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” For those who have eyes to see the emerging and very present evils, doing nothing is no longer an option.
