Last month, Vatican officials announced that the pope had revised the “Good Friday Prayer for the Jews,” which forms part of the Tridentine Mass. The new version, heard by Catholics celebrating mass in Latin last Friday, reads: “Let us also pray for the Jews: That our God and Lord may illuminate their hearts, that they acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Savior of all men.”

Jews are outraged.

The new wording is very similar to the original version of the prayer, which had been toned down at the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council. Jewish organizations around the world have condemned the revision as anti-Semitic. The pope, said German rabbi Walter Homolka, has lost all sensitivity: “[I]t is insulting to Jews that the Catholic Church … is once again praying for the illumination of the Jews …. Such statements are made in a historical context which is closely connected with discrimination, persecution and death. Given the weight of responsibility that the Catholic Church has acquired in its history with Judaism, most recently during the Third Reich, this is completely inappropriate and must be rejected to the utmost degree” (emphasis mine throughout). Alarm bells ought to be clanging in the hearts of Jews, given their long, painful, bloody history with the Vatican.

But Benedict’s revival of the old prayer for Jews rings other bells in other hearts.

“This opens the floodgates for the conversion of Jews,” Homolka continued. “This kind of signal has an extremely provocative effect on anti-Semitic groups. The Catholic Church does not have its anti-Semitic tendencies under control.” Benedict’s revision invigorates anti-Semites within the Roman Catholic fold.

Commenting on the reasons for the revision of the Good Friday Prayer, as well as Benedict’s 2006 Regensburg speech that sparked outrage and rioting among Muslims, Homolka said: “I cannot imagine that these were simple slips. What we have here is a captain on the bridge of his supertanker. A new course was set with the Second Vatican Council. Now the captain wants to turn around and set another new course within a short period of time. And one or two explosive devices are needed to get the ship into its new position. For the pope, the church of the Second Vatican Council has lost too much of its power to retain the faithful, and university theology has become too feeble. This is why we are seeing these massive changes in the Catholic Church.”

The pope is a highly educated man. He has written multiple books and is respected for his scholarship. He is the spiritual leader of more than 1 billion people. Benedict does nothing—especially when it involves altering church policy or delivering public speeches—without deep contemplation and calculation.

Few people on Earth possess as much influence or come under as much scrutiny as the pope. For a man in his position, ignorance, careless slips of the tongue or shallow thinking could do enormous damage.

The Regensburg speech; bringing down the Italian government; altering the Good Friday Prayer; and, most recently, the decision to baptize a renowned Muslim convert three days after Osama bin Laden accused the Vatican of promoting violence against Muslims—in addition to the multiple times the papacy has weighed in on issues like Sunday worship, abortion and same-sex marriage—these were strategically calculated decisions in what is looking like a grand strategy for increasing Vatican power.

That strategy?

First, some perspective. When Pope Benedict xvi surveys the European landscape, and also the broader vista of the Western world, he sees societies and a culture growing drunk on liberal, secular ideology and facing life-threatening external threats. He sees conservative Christian doctrine under attack from the armies of secularism; he sees societies overwhelmed by moral relativity and governed by politically correct, multicultural ideology; he sees radical Islam choking out what has historically been Christian territory; he sees a mainstream press that despises conservative, traditional ideology.

Worse, he sees an alarming dearth of leaders prepared to set European society back on track and confront the enemy on its doorstep. He sees a continent in desperate need of rescue. Ultimately, he sees an opportunity—of historic proportions. An opportunity to establish the Catholic Church as the savior of Europe.

Consider. These events may have angered Muslims and Jews. But they thrilled many Catholic and even non-Catholic Europeans. Why? Because the message emanating from each event was that the Vatican remains the bastion of conservatism and traditionalism, is prepared to defend Europe’s Christian heritage and is willing, even ready, to confront the war-mongering ambitions of radical Islam.

That’s a message that Europeans increasingly want to hear!

Moreover, the pope’s message will only gain greater traction in the hearts of Europeans as conditions worsen and Islam increases its belligerence.

Benedict may have infuriated Jews by rewriting the Tridentine Mass, but he spoke to the hearts of conservative Europeans, Catholics and the rising tide of anti-Semites across Europe. Benedict infuriated Muslims on Sunday when he baptized a Muslim convert; but that event infused a sense of hope and excitement into the growing number of Europeans alarmed by Islam’s hankering for conflict and in search of a leader to confront their fears.

The pope was searching for the same response from Europeans in his 2006 speech in Regensburg, as George Friedman from Stratfor noted at the time: “[T]he general thrust of his remarks has more to do with Europe. … There is an intensifying tension in Europe over the powerful wave of Muslim immigration. … [W]ith his remarks, [the pope] moved toward closer alignment with those who are uneasy about Europe’s Muslim community—without adopting their own, more extreme, sentiments. That move increases his political strength among these groups and could cause them to rally around the church” (Sept. 19, 2006).

Benedict applies the same strategy in his confrontation with Europe’s socialist elite and liberal leaders, such as in the case of Italy’s former Prime Minister Romano Prodi and Spanish Prime Minister José Zapatero, who was narrowly reelected earlier this month. The pope’s fervent opposition to such leaders’ liberal tendencies on subjects like same-sex marriage, divorce, abortion and even Sunday worship has infuriated liberal, secular Europeans.

At the same time, however, it has stirred and empowered conservative movements across Europe. In the Spanish elections, the conservative opposition party cut Mr. Zapatero’s lead drastically and very nearly won the election, thanks largely to Vatican interference.

Benedict’s deep loyalty to traditional, conservative doctrine is also appealing to Christianity at large. As Protestant churches around the world water down their beliefs in favor of liberal ideas (the Anglican Church under Archbishop Rowan Williams springs to mind), Benedict’s unwillingness to compromise with tradition makes him and the Vatican all the more appealing to conservative Christians losing faith in their leaders.

The Trumpet has forecasted for years that Protestant churches will return to the Roman Catholic fold. That forecast is based on a prophecy in Isaiah 47. The more liberal that Protestant churches become, the easier it is to see how disgruntled conservative members might turn toward Pope Benedict and the Vatican.

Pope Benedict xvi may be stirring the anger of Muslims, Jews and secularists through his controversial decisions and remarks. But the way he sees it, sacrificing the Vatican’s relationship with these groups (all historic enemies of Catholicism) is a small price to pay if it means igniting the sympathies and rallying the support of Catholics, conservatives and all Europeans looking for guidance and protection.

The pope knows that the more he can arouse the sympathies of Europeans—and the more he can cause Europeans to look to the Vatican for leadership—the more powerful and influential the Vatican will become. Through these controversies, which are becoming more and more common, Benedict is establishing the Vatican as the bulwark of conservatism and the champion of Western civilization.

It’s a masterful strategy. There is a gaping need in Europe, and the Western world in general, for solutions, for guidance, for leadership, for protection against all-too-real external threats. Slowly but steadily Pope Benedict xvi—the white-haired, soft-spoken scholar who regularly calls for peace between Catholics, Muslims and Jews—is positioning the Vatican to fill that need. He is promoting it as an institution of strength and fortitude, of solutions and answers—an institution possessing the will to confront the imperialistic motives of “more violent” religions.

Don’t believe the facade.

History shows that the most horrifying forces of destruction often come in sheep’s clothing. The Apostle Paul talks about this principle in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”

In the Bible, few prophecies are discussed in as much detail as the past and future role on the world scene of a great religious power. Anyone studying these prophecies with an open mind will experience a profound change in their understanding of history, and gain a thrilling glimpse into the future. To learn about the origins of the Catholic Church, read Chapter 4 of Mystery of the Ages; to learn about the recent history and future of the Vatican, read Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.