The Vatican is one of the most powerful political forces in the world. It has one of the most respected and established intelligence agencies. It is the leader of over a billion Catholics. When the Vatican acts, nations take notice. But this time it was what the Vatican didn’t do that is significant. This deafening inaction should send chills down the spine of anyone who cares to notice.

The United Nation’s Durban ii conference in Switzerland was ostensibly held to promote human rights and to combat racism, discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance. In actuality, the conference exposed the UN as a Third-World-regime-dominated forum committed to lashing out at America and other Western countries that actually make efforts to respect human rights and fight against racism.

For proof of the farce it was, just look at the show’s officials.

Who was host of the Durban ii anti-racism conference? Libya. Libya: one of the world’s worst perpetrators of racism, discrimination, and human rights abuses. Libya: the nation that abducted five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor then starved and beat them over an eight-year period until they confessed to intentionally spreading hiv to Libyans. Libya: the home of unrepentant Jew-hater and master terrorist Col. Muammar Qadhafi.

Who was the vice chair at the UN human rights anti-racism conference? And who was chosen to give the opening address? None other than Iran and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The same Ahmadinejad who openly says the solution to peace in the Middle East is to wipe Israel off the map. The same Ahmadinejad who pays terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah to strap bombs to Arab women and children so they can blow up Israeli women and children. The same Ahmadinejad who believes it is his duty to speed the return of the Islamic savior, the 12th imam, by igniting World War iii.

Who was the official anti-racism rapporteur for Durban ii? Cuba—another less-than-pristine example of a human-rights-supporting nation.

If there is still any question as to whether or not Durban ii had in fact a racist, anti-American agenda, all the proof you would ever need is Durban i. The whole purpose of Durban ii was to reaffirm and ratify the findings of Durban i—the original UN-sponsored America-bashing hate fest that singled out Israel alone, out of literally all countries in the world, as the example of a racist state.

In the U.S. State Department’s own words, “The [Durban ii] text still contains language that reaffirms in toto the Durban Declaration and Program of Action from 2001, which the United States has long said it is unable to support. Its inclusion in the … document has the same effect as inserting that original text into the current document and re-adopting it” (emphasis mine).

Is it any wonder that the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic boycotted the conference along with Israel? These countries knew that even just attending the Durban ii conference would be tantamount to a vote of support for Durban ii’s racist agenda. (The racist agenda was this: Anybody who isn’t Arab, African or Asian is guilty of racism—especially America and Israel.)

However, 23 European Union nations, including Britain, decided to attend Durban ii anyway, even though they knew exactly what the agenda would be!

Yes, those 23 nations also staged a big show by walking out of the conference hall when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave the opening speech, in which he said the Holocaust did not happen and that it was a conspiracy made up by Jews. The spectacle made for good headlines. But the bigger point is that after the speech ended, 22 nations walked right back in to ratify the agreement!

The walk-out was nothing but a big exhibition to distract from what they were actually doing—supporting the enemies of America and Israel.

But, as if the performance of those 22 nations wasn’t repulsive enough, the performance of the Vatican was even worse.

The Vatican delegation didn’t even walk out. They just sat there. They listened to Ahmedinejad’s hate speech, and stayed in place as the remaining delegates erupted in applause.

It was as if Pope Pius xii had returned to silently watch the crowds jeering as the Nazis fed the Jews to the lions.

Pope Pius xii earned the title “Hitler’s pope” for his cooperation with the German and Italian governments and his refusal to speak out against Nazi racism, the death camps and the mass extermination of Jews across Europe during World War ii.

But this isn’t 1940. Today, Pope Benedict xvi reigns, and people imagine the Vatican to have repented of its World War ii shortcomings, its post-World war ii ratlines that smuggled Nazis out of Europe, the Inquisition, and several hundred years’ worth of Crusades.

Then why is it that the number-one religion in the world didn’t feel it had a moral responsibility to speak out against racism? Why didn’t it do anything besides just sit there and take it all in? By absenting themselves, secular representatives acted more morally than the Vatican did at Durban ii.

But the Vatican was sending a message.

It is the same message it sent earlier this year when Pope Benedict xvi lifted the excommunication on the bishops of the ultra-conservative Society of St. Pius x. They included Richard Williamson, an outspoken skeptic of the Holocaust who says that only a tiny fraction of 6 million Jews died, and there were no gas chambers or efforts to target Jews. Williamson has also stated that “Jews are adversaries of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and that they aim at world domination.

It is the same message Pope Benedict xvi sent when he revised the “Good Friday Prayer for the Jews” to include a call for the conversion of the Jews and that God lift the veil from their eyes.

And it is the same message Pope Benedict is sending by not permanently halting the beatification of Pope Pius xii (the last step before being made a saint), claiming that Pius spared no effort in “the defense of the persecuted, with no distinction of religion, ethnicity, nationality or political affiliation” and that Pius saved the “largest possible number of Jews” by acting in silence. Meanwhile, Benedict has quietly ordered that all Vatican archives relating to Pius’s war-time action remain sealed.

The message sent—by word and deed—is this: The Vatican is going to betray the Jews again.