The unofficial ambassador for world peace long sought to reach Italians with the good news of Christ’s message of the coming Kingdom of God. One of his paramount strengths was documenting those efforts and sharing them with his worldwide audience.

With the debut edition of the Plain Truth magazine in January 1934, Herbert W. Armstrong forecast the final revival of the Roman Empire, to be known as a “United States of Europe” under the spiritual sway of a universal church-state power which has long rested on the city of seven hills.

As early as 1944 Mr. Armstrong’s mind was on Italy amid the smoldering embers of World War ii, writing to co-workers January 19 of that year, “Last fall I foresaw a possibility of this war being brought to an armistice (temporary recess) in Europe, by conferences behind closed doors. I foresaw the possibility that the ‘trial balloon’ thrown up in Italy, in which the Italians received not only a separate peace but actually a ‘co-belligerent status’ with the Allies, might be tried out in Germany.”

His desire to reach the country expanded into communications between his emissaries and “men whose acquaintance I have made in the British foreign and colonial offices, and top government officials of Arabian and Syrian governments whom I know” (ibid, Feb. 21, 1952).

His mind was on pivotal prophecies of the Bible directly impacting the host country of the Catholic church-state. He continued, “They will study conditions in Europe, Germany, Italy, Palestine, the Near East. They will seek, and I know they have ability to obtain, inside information and facts about this ‘beast’ power in Europe which you never read in newspapers or hear in newscasts.”

Next, Mr. Armstrong visited Vatican City. He reminded Church members in a Dec. 28, 1982, sermon titled “Mark of the Beast”: “I’ve been inside of the Vatican library, and I’ve examined pages of one of the three oldest copies of the Bible in existence. The Codex Vatikinus, and I had to have a letter from—it was Mrs. Clare Luce who was the American ambassador in Rome at the time (1953-56), to sponsor me and guarantee that I wouldn’t destroy it or steal it or take it out or anything of the kind. And so they were very polite and they let me have it and hold it in my hands and read it. I could have spent two or three hours there reading it if I’d wanted to. But I just wanted to see it for the novelty of it, and because it’s one of the oldest copies. And it may be the oldest on the face on the Earth, of the Bible.”

Radio Luxembourg began airing the World Tomorrow program across Europe beginning 1953. A year later, one listener wrote from Genoa, Italy: “Dear Sir: Last Monday night I heard your very interesting broadcast and the sweet voice of your daughter singing. The program was a rather unusual one. I should like to know something more of it. It appears to be both religious and scientific. I have never heard a program like yours. Thanks for the broadcast. Perhaps you would send the magazine” (co-worker letter, March 17, 1954).

By March 5, 1957, Mr. Armstrong was concerned about the overall impact of the work, informing supporters, “But—we have not yet reached Germany, Italy, Spain.” By 1959 he was traveling into Italy seeking greater avenues of expansion of God’s gospel witness.

A breakthrough came two years later to reach larger sections of Italy. “Here is the tremendous news!!” exclaimed Mr. Armstrong as he wrote to co-workers Feb. 23, 1959.

“Radio Monte Carlo has just opened to us a choice half-hour broadcasting time every Saturday,” he continued. With its 400,000 watts of power, combined with two other strong shortwave stations, the three joined to blast the World Tomorrow program throughout Europe and Russia simultaneously at 7 a.m. Monaco time.

On May 22, 1963, he remained unsatisfied with overall progress, writing, “Somehow, Italy must be reached,” motivating supporters by appealing, “We still have much to do. And it is getting late! Freedom to proclaim Christ’s truth will be gone, over most of the world, in a very few years!”

In 1965 he was traveling the Italian Riviera, continuing negotiations for broadcast avenues reaching deeper into the country.

As with Radio Monaco in the ’50s, Cyprus radio opened up to The World Tomorrow in 1968 with a daily nighttime slot that reached other nations in Europe and the Mediterranean, including southern Italy.

By the decade of the 1970s Italy received God’s gospel via radio, television and publishing and most notably through its government’s ambassadors attending banquet dinners in Mr. Armstrong’s honor around the world. There, the country’s foreign representatives heard the gospel in person.

Throughout the decade he continued warning of the final, seventh recurring of the medieval Holy Roman Empire, writing April 22, 1976, to co-workers worldwide, “Here in Rome the big news is the Italian political crisis. Combined with other events, this could lead to an explosive world crisis such as never shook this world before.”

He reminded supporters that prophecies from the Bible reveal that a “new pope of iron will” will help guide Europe to a successful unifying of core nations.

“Sooner or later such a European union will take place. I have predicted this for 43 years!” He concluded, “It will astound and dumbfound the whole world when it happens. The time is now ripe!”

In the summer of 1980, Mr. Armstrong’s millions of readers continued to read of the coming 10-nation Catholic combine. “It now looks entirely feasible that Yugoslavia may be included in this revived Roman Empire. Also the pope’s native Poland and Romania, and possibly Hungary. Add Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and France. There will be a union of ten nations in the general area of the medieval Roman Empire in the new united Europe. Probably Holland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden will not be included. But Ireland may. Britain will not! Ireland would make up the ten!” (ibid, June 10, 1980).

So, intent on seeing the the reverberations of God’s gospel warning to Italians, he pleaded with supporters Dec. 18, 1983, “I had to make severe cuts in getting [out] the gospel by tv, radio and the Plain Truth ... Italy had suddenly opened to us. I have had to cut tv and the Plain Truth circulation in half there ….”

By late 1984 there were 14 baptized members in Italy—six on the mainland and eight on the nearby island of Sicily—plus 29 co-workers and 192 donors.

Circulation of the Italian-language version of the Plain Truth, La Pura Verita, reached 55,690 subscribers in 32 countries, with the greatest penetration in Naples, Rome and Milan.

Advertising through Reader’s Digest and major newspapers had succeeded in generating over 20,000 requests for the monthly magazine.

By 1985, television viewers throughout Monaco, northern Italy and the west coast of the country, including Rome, returned to watching the unofficial ambassador for world peace fulfilling Christ’s prophecy of Matthew 24:14 declaring the gospel witness message to all nations via the World Tomorrow program.

Italians can be thankful for the life service and sacrifice of Mr. Armstrong and his supporters who worked so hard to ensure they received God’s gospel message and the warning of the final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire.

Today, editor in chief Gerald Flurry continues in that same example and legacy, sounding the imminent warning of this biblically prophesied 10-nation church-state combine forming at this very moment in Europe.