Christianity is under attack in Britain. A high court judge ruled on February 10 that local councils cannot pray during their meetings. The next day, two Christian guesthouse owners lost their appeal against paying damages to a homosexual couple that they refused to let share a double bed. All this is part of what Conservative Party Chairman Baroness Sayeeda Hussain Warsi called “a militant secularization.”

The Conservative Party has put up a limited fight for the faith. On the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible last December, British Prime Minister David Cameron said: “We are a Christian country and we should not be afraid to say so.” The outlawing of prayers at council meetings was done because of a technicality in the 1972 Local Government Act. The government’s new Localism Act, which could come into force soon, will give councils back the power to pray.

On February 14, the Conservatives began a new alliance with a far more outspoken critic of secular society—the Roman Catholic Church.

In an article titled “We Stand Side by Side With the Pope in Fighting for Faith,” Baroness Warsi announced that in leading Britain’s largest ever ministerial delegation to the Vatican this week she will argue that nations must not deny their religious heritage.

This is what the Vatican has been saying for years, calling for a “new evangelization” to rescue the West from materialism. It’s been trying to muscle its way into a position of influence in the European Union and has exhorted the Continent to get back to its Catholic roots.

Apparently, it is now British government policy to support it.

This little meeting at the Vatican represents an earth-shattering change in position for Britain. For centuries the nation has opposed the development of a Catholic power in Europe. Now, not only has it abandoned the ancient policy of opposing a united power on the European mainland, it is encouraging that power to be more Catholic.

Baroness Warsi said, “I will be arguing for Europe to become more confident and more comfortable in its Christianity.” She even argues for this Christianity to be enshrined in the European constitution.

Where Is the Church of England?

Perhaps the biggest reason for this sudden shift toward Rome is the division and liberal lunacy rampant in the Church of England. Rather than standing up against materialism, it’s too busy fighting for the right of the poor to receive handouts or speaking out against global warming.

The church most recently made the news for being on the brink of splitting over a disagreement about women bishops. Before that it was priests demanding the church allow homosexuals to marry in its churches. And before that, the bishops were fighting the government over plans to stop families on welfare receiving more than £26,000 (us$39,300) a year. To have that much after tax, a working family must earn around £35,000 (us$55,000). The government argued that no family should get more than that without working, but the Church of England bishops blocked the proposals in the House of Lords. The Bible says, “if any would not work, neither should he eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). The government supports this principle, as does 74 percent of the population—at least in this instance—while the church that claims to represent God fights against it.

The Church of England is an irrelevant, dying institution—simultaneously out of touch with the Bible and the popular mood. Many in Britain can see the mess caused by the loss of Christian values. Of course Britain never really obeyed the Bible, but the decency and discipline of its old moral code was better than the materialism and lawlessness of the present. With the Church of England in disarray, the conservatives (both big and small “c”) are turning instead to the Vatican to restore those values. The Church of England won’t stand up for them, so they are turning to someone that will.

And so we reach this monumental turning point, where Britain is promoting a Catholic Europe. One of the first nations to break away from Catholic power has sent a delegation to tell the pope that Europe must get back to its Christian (i.e. Catholic) roots.

This is exactly as Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of the Trumpet’s predecessor, the Plain Truth,forecast decades ago. “The final—albeit short-lived—triumph of Catholicism is recorded in literally dozens of Bible prophecies. Right now—whether we want to believe it or not—the stage is being set for the greatest revolution in religion the world has witnessed,” he wrote in 1963.

Two years earlier, he wrote: “Europe will go Roman Catholic! Protestantism will be absorbed into the ‘mother’ church—and total abolished.”

Today, the Church of England is busy abolishing itself, and one of the oldest Protestant nations on Earth is turning to Rome. Europe is beset by materialism. Just like Britain, it’s waking up. It sees only one organization that it can turn to in the fight against secularism—the Vatican. The Catholic Church has posited itself as the champion of Christianity. When even Britain sees it that way, you know it’s set for success.