Cause and effect. There’s a binding universal law that connects the two. So it is with Pope Benedict’s most recent, long-awaited encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate” (“In Charity and Truth”). That encyclical is inherently joined to a consistent theme that has run through Catholic social doctrine over the past 120 years, finding its most extreme political outlet in the National Socialism that gripped Europe in the wake of the great global crisis of the 1920s and ’30s.

Is it entirely coincidental that this pope would choose the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression to profoundly endorse those same principles that laced the economic theories of fascism and Nazism just one lifetime ago during a similar crisis?

Pope Benedict’s encyclical is the latest contribution to Catholic economic theory, traditionally known as Catholic social doctrine. That doctrine is founded upon Pope Leo xiii’s encyclical “Rerum Novarum” (“On the Condition of Labor”), issued in 1891 in response to the tensions that resulted between capital and labor in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. It endorsed an essentially socialist approach to economic control.

Building upon the theme established in “Rerum Novarum,” Pope Pius xi issued his encyclical of May 15, 1931, titled “Quadragesimo Anno” (“On the Reconstruction of the Social Order”). The text of that encyclical introduced the concept of subsidiarity that has long since become a catch cry of the European Union.

Pope John xxiii followed up with the introduction of the theme of globalism, calling for all peoples to live as one community working for the common good, in his encyclical titled “Mater et Magistra” (“Christianity and Social Progress”), issued May 15, 1961. This publicized the concept of a global “common market,” working for the good of the “global community,” themes that are deeply embedded in the general philosophy that is behind development of the EU.

The theme of solidarity then threaded its way into Catholic social doctrine with the release of the encyclical “Populorum Progressio” (“The Development of Peoples”) by Pope Paul vi, March 26, 1967. Twenty years later, “Solidarity” became the motto of the Vatican-sponsored Polish workers movement, which was the prime mover behind the effort to break the Communist yoke on Eastern Europe thus enabling the EU to build its long-awaited eastern leg (Daniel 2:33). On the eve of that momentous change in the map of Europe, Pope John Paul ii marked the 20th anniversary of “Populorum Progressio” with the release of his own encyclical on social doctrine, “Sollicitudo Rei Socialis” (“On the Social Concerns of the Church”), Dec. 30, 1987. That encyclical, produced less than two years prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, was a reflection on the great social changes that had affected the world over the previous 20 years, destined to consummate in the collapse of Communist rule in Eastern Europe at the turn of the last decade of the 20th century.

In his latest encyclical, Pope Benedict xvi expresses the conviction that Pope Paul vi’s “Populorum Progressio” “deserves to be considered ‘the “Rerum Novarum” of the present age,’ shedding light upon humanity’s journey towards unity.”

It is a peculiarity of papal encyclicals on social doctrine that—from the founding document defining Catholic social doctrine, Leo’s “Rerum Novarum,” to Paul vi’s overtly socialist “Popularum Progresso”—all support the intervention of the state in economic planning and control, as against the free enterprise system. This, of course, has ancient origins tracking back to the interventionism of the Holy Roman Empire, and even more anciently to old Babylon.

Knowing the history of Rome’s approach to economic theory and, more importantly, the Bible prophecies that bespeak its effect on our immediate future, it ought to come as no surprise to our readers to see that Pope Benedict has endorsed such a central role for the state. In fact, reading both the lines and in between the lines of his latest encyclical, this pope is calling for a world order regulated and controlled by a central power that would govern the world economy.

And what does he think that central power should be?

Here’s a hint. Check the vocabulary of the public communication surrounding the one institution—a “common market”—that possesses an overwhelming lust to become a recognized world power despite its present hodgepodge of 27 differing bickering nationalities. Which great trading empire has used the following terms in the process of its evolution to global power status: “one community,” “solidarity,” “subsidiarity”—terms that come right out of encyclicals on the global economy emanating from Rome?

If you guessed the European Union, you’re right on the money!

Now, which institution has maneuvered to have all 20 of the world’s greatest economies sign up to one central power, one governing global authority, to regulate their individual and collective national economies?

You got it right if you again guessed the EU!

Finally, which head of a powerful religious institution has recently recommended that the world submit to a singular central authority to govern the world economy?

Very obviously, Pope Benedict xvi in his recently released encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate.”

Join the dots.

The cruncher is contained in paragraph 67 of chapter 5 of this latest papal missive. It is a statement that has been anticipated by many, ever since Herbert Armstrong prophesied over 70 years ago of its coming reality “in our time.” Here are relevant excerpts from that section of Benedict’s message released last week to coincide very directly with the meeting of the leaders of the top eight economies of the world at the G-8 summit in L’Aquila, Italy (emphasis mine):

[T]here is a strongly felt need, even in the midst of a global recession, for a reform of … economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth. … This seems necessary in order to arrive at a political, juridical and economic order which can increase and give direction to international cooperation for the development of all peoples in solidarity. To manage the global economy … there is urgent need of a true world political authority …. Such an authority would need to be regulated by law, to observe consistently the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity, to seek to establish the common good ….

Where is there, today, a political, juridical and economic order, a common market, established for the “common good” under central control, incorporating the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity? We need look no further than that very German-Roman Catholic idea that has become a political reality in the form of the European Union.

If we truly can connect the dots between Pope Benedict’s latest encyclical, the Germanic European Union, the EU-controlled Financial Stability Board (to whose regulatory power all major world economies must now submit) and the origins of Catholic social doctrine, then we will begin to understand that we are being led by the nose down the road to global disaster.

Here’s the real shocker. Pope Benedict’s call for a global “new financial order” is based upon the very foundational tenets of fascism and Nazism!

The connection between the fathers of both National Socialist doctrine and modern Catholic social doctrine is irrefutable. One of the principal minds that crafted the earliest economic philosophy of 20th-century Nazism belonged to German theologian and politician Wilhelm Emmanuel Freiherr von Ketteler.

As bishop of Mainz, von Ketteler had profound influence on the framing of Pope Leo xiii’s encyclical “Rerum Novarum.” He was a disciple of Ferdinand Lassalle, German Jewish socialist and political activist of whom it was said, “Lassalle was the first man in Germany, the first in Europe, who succeeded in organizing a party of socialist action. Nevertheless, if he had not unfortunately been born a Jew, Lassalle could also be hailed as a forerunner in the vast halls where National Socialism [Nazism] is acclaimed today” (Cambridge Encyclopedia). Lassalle founded the first Workers Party in Germany, the adev, which later changed its name to the Social Democratic Party under Hitler’s finance minister, Dr. Hjalmar Schacht. It is said Schacht played a crucial role in bringing the Hitler regime to power, laying the economic and financial foundation for the Third Reich (Executive Intelligence Review, July 16, 2004).

It is a fact of our own very recent history that, to use Benedict’s own terms, “a political, juridical and economic order which can increase and give direction to international cooperation for the development of all peoples in solidarity [to] manage the global economy” has already been tried. It was aggressively pursued between 1939 and 1945 by those who slavishly followed that same social doctrine as propounded by Lassalle, von Ketteler and Pope Leo xiii.

The result was the annihilation of over 60 million souls and the devastation of the economies of literally dozens of nations!

If you are still with us, here’s the big one. Where can you find, in your own Bible, divinely inspired prophecies of a world power that reflects such ideological origins, forecast to be extant in our day, today?

Our long-time readers will go straight to Revelation chapters 12, 13 and 17. There’s a very direct connection between those prophecies and Pope Benedict’s latest encyclical. Believe it or not, Pope Benedict xvi’s encyclical released July 7, titled “Caritas in Veritate,” is the most powerful sign that we have yet seen of the rise of that power prophesied in your Bible as destined to exert its rule, quite brutally, for a brief moment in time, over the whole global economy!