The pope officially backed Croatia’s bid to enter the European Union on Saturday. The announcement, which he made while en route to the Croatian capital city of Zagreb, highlights a disturbing Vatican history.

Speaking to reporters, Pope Benedict xvi said: “I think it is logical, just and necessary that [Croatia] enters.”

“Croatia is a nation at the heart of Europe, its history and its culture,” he continued. “From its earliest days, your nation has formed part of Europe, and has contributed, in its unique way, to the spiritual and moral values that for centuries have shaped the daily lives and the personal and national identity of Europe’s sons and daughters.”

The pope then went on to give Croatia a mission. He told the nation of 89 percent Catholics to reverse the tide of secularism washing across the continent. “It seems to me that this aspect could be the very mission of this nation that joins now: to renew a unity within diversity. The European identity is an identity, precisely because of the richness of the different cultures which converge in the Christian faith and in the great Christian values,” he said.

Reinvigorating Europe’s Christian identity will require a “convinced witness and active dynamism aimed at promoting the fundamental moral values that underpin social living and the identity of the old continent,” he said.

But the pope’s enthusiastic support of Croatia belies some disturbing recent history between the Vatican and the breakaway republic. This history is extremely important because it clearly illustrates who is dominating Europe and why it will not lead to peace.

In 1991, Germany recognized the Yugoslav breakaway states of Croatia and Slovenia. Almost immediately, the Vatican likewise recognized these states. Germany and the Vatican did this despite the stated opposition of the United States, Britain, France, most of Europe and the United Nations—and knowing full well that it would mean the outbreak of a full-scale civil war and the disintegration of the nation of Yugoslavia.

Germany and the Vatican were opposed by virtually the whole world—yet they went ahead and ignited a civil war. Why would they do such a thing? It all goes back to World War ii.

The New York Times reported on these events in 1991 with these words: “Germany has stirred troubling historical associations …. Nazi Germany dominated the two Yugoslav regions during World War ii, absorbing Slovenia into the Third Reich and creating a puppet regime in Croatia” (Dec. 16, 1991; emphasis mine throughout).

A December 8 New York Times article from the same year, titled “U.S. Is at Odds With German Backing for Slovenia and Croatia,” explained Germany’s historical ties with the Yugoslav “breakaway” republics:

Germany has long historical ties, both glorious and shameful, to Slovenia and Croatia. Slovenia was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and many people there still identify with the German-speaking world. There has also been German influence in Croatia, and during World War ii,Croatia was ruled by a pro-Nazi regime.This aspect of Croatian history, and the fact that the Tudjman government has refused to disassociate itself from the Croatian fascists who ruled the republic in the 1940s, has made European leaders unwilling to move quickly toward recognition. German public opinion is strongly pro-Croatian and anti-Serbian.

As was the case with Germany, the Vatican too was deeply involved with the Nazi regimes in these regions.

As Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry brought out in 1999, Franjo Tudjman, Croatia’s president at the time of its breakaway from Yugoslavia, was a Nazi sympathizer who refused to disassociate himself from the Croatian Nazis of Hitler’s day. This is a man who has written apologetics for concentration camps and forced extermination. He has publicly stated that his country was right for supporting Hitler. Yet Germany and the Vatican, and eventually the U.S., went on to support him.

“Isn’t it also disturbing that a Croatian leader who will not disassociate himself from the Croatian fascists or Nazis of the 1940s can be a respected leader in a Roman Catholic country?” asked Mr. Flurry. “If these people are good Roman Catholics, how can they still be fascists? Shouldn’t this strike us as rather alarming?”

If people truly understood history—especially German history—they would be alarmed at what has happened to the former Yugoslavia. In that 1999 article, Mr. Flurry continued:

How quickly the world has forgotten that Germany has historically considered it a primary duty to protect the Roman Catholic Church! During the various reigns of the Holy Roman Empire, they have felt it was their duty to enforce the church’s desires—good and bad. That helps us to understand why Germany will stand up against the European Community, the United Nations, the United States, and the entire world! There is something very dark and sinister stirring in Europe. What is now happening in Croatia is only a small sample of what is about to spread over the entire continent! This is the “straw that is going to stir the drink” to unify all of Europe. It will not be long before Europe is reunited as the Holy Roman Empire. It will be led very assertively by Germany.Two republics now have their independence because of Germany and the pope. The whole world would have been against the independence of these two republics had not Germany and the pope spoken out in support of them! That reveals a great deal about the power Germany has today. But more importantly, it projects where Germany and the Vatican are headed in the future!

Those who are watching Germany and the Vatican know that as a result of the current economic crisis, Europe has become a virtual colony of Germany—a modern-day Holy Roman Empire. It may still officially be a secular organization, but if the Vatican has its way, it won’t be for long.

Croatia’s entrance into the European Union would be the culmination of this German-Vatican plot. Germany’s old World War ii ally is about to enter the European Union. The EU will gain 4 million more Roman Catholics. And America’s betrayed World War ii Serbian allies will find themselves in a situation startlingly reminiscent of the 1940s.