Four disgruntled dairy farmers from Germany loaded their tractors, kissed their families good-bye and began wending their way southward last week. Their goal? To visit the Vatican and “gain a brief audience with Pope Benedict xvi so that they can urge him to help Europe’s dairy farmers,” reported Spiegel Online.

The four men left their farms in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, in northeast Germany, Friday last week and have been embraced by fellow farmers and many others who sympathize with their plight. Dairy farmers in Germany and across Europe are suffering from a significant drop in milk prices, with many facing bankruptcy and the loss of their livelihood.

The farmers, like thousands of their counterparts across Europe, are losing faith in the ability of European politicians—both nationally and in the European Union—to solve their problems and rescue them from the brink of disaster. According to Spiegel, the “convoy of two tractors and a VW bus is traveling under the motto: ‘We have lost our faith in politics, but not in the church’” (emphasis ours throughout).

Interestingly, two of the farmers are not even Catholic. But that doesn’t mean they don’t recognize Benedict’s authority, and the influence he wields in Europe. “The pope is there for everyone,” said one of the non-Catholic farmers.

Albert Kobrow is one of the two Catholics in the motley quartet, and although he only goes to church for christenings, weddings and funerals, he believes the 1,100-mile trek will yield results. “We wanted to do something new, a change from the usual demonstrations,” he said. “We hope that society and politicians will finally wake up.”

Jacob de Vries, who left 500 cows on his farm back home, told a local newspaper that although he had no belief in politicians, he had not lost faith in the “up high above.” He mentioned that he felt sure Pope Benedict would give the farmers a few minutes—after all, they will have traveled by “tractor from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean.”

It’s a comical picture: four farmers from villages tucked away in northeast Germany on their tractors, VW bus in tow, headed to the Vatican to chat about their cows with one of the most powerful men in the world.

Chuckle though we may, this image highlights a major Bible prophecy and what will increasingly become a major trend on the Continent: Europeans of all shapes and sizes, with varying levels of faith, looking to the Vatican for guidance and assistance. Revelation 17 describes a political power extant in the end time that will be guided by a great false church, symbolized by a woman. Europe, right now, is being prepared for the fulfillment of this prophecy. Read Germany and the Holy Roman Empire to learn more about this historically recurring church-state arrangement in Europe and where it will lead.