We have a pope. The white smoke curling up from the Sistine Chapel’s chimney on April 19, 2005, sent the signal: The College of Cardinals had selected Pope John Paul ii’s successor.

Who was it? the world wondered. An unprecedented 2 billion people had watched the media spectacle that was John Paul ii’s funeral, an event Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry called a “gigantic turning point in the history of man. The Vatican’s power has never been increased by so much, so fast.” Many gasped when the announcement was made from the balcony over St. Peter’s Square: Joseph Ratzinger.

He was a man the Trumpet had been watching for years. We first cited the ultra-conservative German cardinal in 1997 for his reputation as the controversial arch-conservative Vatican enforcer who helped John Paul ii remove or demote liberal cardinals. He held the most powerful Catholic office after the pope: prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly the Office of the Holy Inquisition. People were worried. Even many Catholics were anxious that a man known as “God’s Rottweiler” was now the most powerful man in the church—and one of the most powerful men in the world.

With that huge question mark hanging over his head, the new pope knew what to do. He appeared reserved in public. He advertised his quiet, intellectual demeanor. He called himself “a simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord.” He calmed critics by focusing people’s attention on his popular predecessor and fast-tracking him to sainthood.

The man who had spoken like a dragon was looking more and more like a lamb.

But over his 4½-year papacy, the real Benedict has emerged. This pope wants to unite the European church and state. It has happened before—six times. The six resurrections of the “Holy” Roman Empire, a combination of military might and spiritual glue, have been history’s bloodiest institutions. Bible prophecy says this empire will come together for a seventh time. And the Trumpet is watching the man who is trying to make it happen.

After assuming office, Pope Benedict xvi began placing handpicked conservative troops in the top spots within the Catholic Curia (governing body). He eliminated two senior positions and chose a notoriously shy, controllable man to fill his old job as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He switched out the cardinal in charge of Vatican relations with the developing world, replaced the Vatican’s longstanding press officer with a Jesuit priest, and shuffled the Vatican City governate and foreign-policy offices. He also replaced the Vatican secretary of state with his trusted former deputy in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

On July 24, 2005, he quoted his predecessor: “I, bishop of Rome and pastor of the universal church … send to you, age-old Europe, a cry full of love. Return to yourself. Be yourself. Discover your origins. Revive your roots. Revive those authentic values that made your history glorious and your presence beneficial among the other continents.” In other words, return to Catholicism.

On Feb. 19, 2007, the Vatican summoned Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi for supporting homosexual couples. Two days later, Prodi resigned. He wasn’t allowed the support he needed to regain office until he dropped his quest to ramrod homosexual civil unions through the Senate. In the subsequent elections, Benedict commanded his faithful followers not to vote for laws that went against the church’s “non-negotiable values.” Now the world knew who rules Italy.

March 25 that year was the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, the agreement that led to establishing the European Union. Benedict took the occasion to warn that Europe is sliding into “apostasy” because recognition of “Christianity” (Catholicism) had not been written into law sufficiently.

In June 2007, Pope Benedict called Catholic missionary work an “urgent need” and “the church’s primary service to humanity today.” The message was clear: The church’s most important job is to convert the world; if you’re not Catholic, you need to be.

In a homily in September, the pope said Sunday worship is a “necessity” for all. “Without Sunday, we cannot live!” he declared, then chanted, “Give the soul its Sunday, give Sunday its soul!”

The Vatican went back to king-breaking in January 2008, when it forced Prodi to resign, bringing down the government of Italy. Prodi lost a vote of confidence in the Senate after the Catholic leader of Italy’s Udeur Christian Democrat Party withdrew the party’s support from the coalition government, taking away Prodi’s majority in the Senate. According to the Italian newspaper La Stampa, this was directly the work of the Vatican. “Prodi’s government dared to challenge the ecclesiastical hierarchy for the second time and this time it has had its hands burned,” it wrote.

In March, the Vatican again meddled in national politics, launching a large campaign against Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero, another supporter of homosexual “marriage,” abortion and easier divorce. The Vatican’s political campaign cut Zapatero’s lead drastically and nearly won the election single-handedly.

Benedict xvi again pushed in early September for “the birth of a new generation of Christians involved in society and politics” rather than “falling asleep” when it came to society and political involvement. The same month, the pope traveled to France, where he convinced President Nicolas Sarkozy that the country needs to rethink and redraw its church-state relations, a change that would be the biggest since the French Revolution—moving France from a staunchly secular society to one that accepts, as the pope said, “the irreplaceable role of religion.”

In November, newswires reported that the Catholic Church wants Sunday observance enshrined in EU law, specifically a clause in the Working Time Directive that would force every citizen in the European Union to rest on Sunday. The directive that says the minimum rest period “shall in principle include Sunday” is not enough. Catholic officials said the directive should state “the minimal weekly rest must include Sunday.”

As the world economy came apart at the seams like a cheaply sewn liturgical vestment, the pope descended from on high to suggest his own solution: “a true world political authority.” On July 7, the pontiff released a 144-page encyclical, “Charity in Truth,” which took a swipe at the U.S.-style capitalism that many blame for the financial crisis. He called for regulation with “real teeth,” administered by a global political authority. Biblical prophecy shows this is exactly what will happen: That authority will be European, and the Vatican will have control.

The record is impressive: Pope Benedict xvi has been active, determined and aggressive in asserting Roman Catholic authority and positioning the church to play a larger role within Europe and globally. He even seems to view his actions in their historical context—as filling the spiritual component of what he hopes to be yet another revival of that ancient church-state union.

Benedict has said that his namesake, St. Benedict, “exercised a fundamental influence on the development of European civilization and culture” and that the Benedictine order he inspired established “a new cultural unity based on Christian faith.” The pope praised St. Benedict for helping the Continent emerge from the “dark night of history” after the fall of the Roman Empire. This pope identifies strongly with his namesake, whose monastic system galvanized Europe during Justinian’s revival of the Roman Empire. Benedict xvi is trying to spark a similar revival today.

By referring to the period between the fall of the Roman Empire in a.d. 476 and its revival under Justinian in a.d. 554 as the “dark night of history,” Benedict implies that modern Europe has endured a similar “dark night” from which it is now emerging under his influence.

The “cultural unity” St. Benedict sparked was embraced by Justinian, who saw its power to unite an otherwise disunited European populace into a mighty empire. Ever since, Roman Catholicism’s “cultural unity” has helped Europe unify into the Holy Roman Empire. Benedict xvi wants to resurrect that empire.

The Bible informs us that he is destined to succeed. Herbert W. Armstrong, using the biblical prophecies, forecasted it precisely. “I have been proclaiming and writing, ever since 1935, that the final one of the seven eras of the Holy Roman Empire is coming in our generation—a ‘United States of Europe,’ combining 10 nations or groups of nations in Europe—with a union of church and state!” he wrote in the January 1979 edition of the Plain Truth. “The nations of Europe have been striving to become reunited. They desire a common currency, a single combined military force, a single united government. … Yet, on a purely political basis, they have been totally unable to unite.

“In only one way can this resurrected Holy Roman Empire be brought to fruition—by the ‘good offices’ of the Vatican, uniting church and state once again, with the Vatican astride and ruling (Revelation 17:1-5).”

The European Union is already the greatest united trading entity in the world and is aggressively developing a combined military force and a ratified constitution that will help weld it together politically as one supra-European continental government. Yet it still lacks the superglue. As Mr. Armstrong wrote in the Aug. 28, 1978, Good News magazine, European leaders “well know there is but one possibility of union in Europe—and that is through the Vatican. … [T]his political union will put the Catholic Church right back in the saddle as it was from 554 to 1814—with the power of police and military to enforce its decrees!”

Today we see Pope Benedict working feverishly to provide that spiritual lifeblood of European unity. The resulting wave of evangelism will sweep the Continent into Rome’s arms in a bonding of church and state.

It is all now so close to coming to pass. We are witnessing the beginning of the seventh and final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire.