Exactly one month ago, the Trumpet exposed the Vatican’s role in bringing down the government of Italy.In January, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi was forced to resign after Clemente Mastella, the Catholic leader of Italy’s Udeur Christian Democrat Party, quit his post as justice minister.
His resignation undermined Prodi’s coalition government, causing it to lose its majority in the senate.
Mastella, long recognized as a Vatican rook, was operating on the instructions of church leaders who were frustrated by Prodi’s liberal tendencies. “Prodi’s government dared to challenge the ecclesiastical hierarchy for the second time and this time it has had its hands burned,” wrote Italian newspaper La Stampa. Vatican fingerprints were all over Prodi’s political corpse.
Is the prime minister of Spain next?
General elections in Spain are less than two weeks away (March 9), and the Vatican has been nearly as large a campaign figure in the tight election race as the politicians themselves. The church’s attention has been solely focused on undermining one man: Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, leader of the Socialist Party and the prime minister of Spain.
Zapatero was elected in 2004 thanks largely to a groundswell of public emotion after an 11th-hour train bombing by al Qaeda in Madrid. The leftist, morally vacuous, terrorist-appeasing socialist leader whom shell-shocked voters flocked to has long rankled Pope Benedict and Vatican minders in Spain. Since his fortuitous election, he has pushed for more liberal abortion laws, legalized homosexual marriage, made divorce easier, and tried, in vain, to negotiate a peace accord with the Basque terrorist group eta.
Zapatero runs against the grain of the church on nearly every issue. For four years, he has been a thorn in the Vatican’s side. That’s why Catholic leaders, with great ardor and very little subtlety, have been working tirelessly to prevent his re-election.
On December 31, hundreds of thousands (some reports said upward of 1.5 million) of people gathered, at the behest of Archbishop of Madrid Antonio María Rouco, in the city of Madrid to celebrate mass and signal their support of the traditional family. It didn’t take long before the pro-family rally evolved into an anti-government demonstration, fueled by a stream of veiled and not-so-veiled slanders against the Spanish prime minister by the Madrid cardinal, fellow Catholic leaders and celebrities.
Even the keynote speaker, Pope Benedict xvi, speaking via video-link, used the rally to take a jab at the Spanish government and influence voters toward conservative parties. Referring to traditional marriage, the pope reminded the crowd that marriage is “founded in the indissoluble union between man and woman,” and is the institution “in which human life is sheltered and protected from its beginning until its natural end.”
Other Catholic leaders were sharper and more direct in their criticism of the Zapatero government. Cardinal Rouco, a lightning rod for leftist criticism, told the crowd he was saddened by the Spanish government’s rejection of what are fundamentally human rights issues, and called for a “new juridical civilization.” Bishop Agustín García-Gasco, prelate of Valencia, warned that the attacks against the family during the Socialist government disrespected the 1978 Constitution, and pushed the nation toward the “dissolution of democracy.”
The massive assembly, defined by the spirited ridicule and political assassination of the Zapatero administration, was more in the spirit of an American-style political campaign than an innocent gathering of churchgoers in support of the traditional family. And it was sponsored by the archbishop of Madrid and more than 50 Catholic leaders!
A month later, the church took another stinging shot at the Zapatero campaign. On January 31, the Spanish Bishops Conference released an unambiguous paper effectively directing Spaniards to vote against the government and in favor of the conservative Popular Party (PP). With very little nuance, the communiqué informed voters that they should not vote for parties that support homosexual marriage or other social reforms that conflict with Catholic doctrine. The statement also warned against voting for parties that would negotiate with Basque terrorists.
Catholic Online cited the statement from the Bishops Conference: “Although it is true that Catholics can support and participate in various parties, not all programs are compatible with the faith and obligations of Christian life or with the aims and values Christians should promote in public life” (emphasis mine throughout).
The message to Spain’s 38 million Catholics was clear: If it doesn’t gel with the church’s beliefs, reject it.
Spain is 94 percent Catholic. And while it has gravitated toward secularism in recent years, religion remains an influential lever in the lives of millions of Spanish, especially the middle-aged and elderly.
That reality is not lost on Prime Minister Zapatero, who is enraged by Vatican efforts to manhandle Spanish politics. Liberal politicians and commentators in America complain incessantly about the influence of Christian leaders over conservative, evangelical voters. Forget Pat Robertson and Joel Osteen—the Spanish prime minister is being forced into the ring with Pope Benedict xvi and the whole government-shredding Vatican propaganda machine.
The Spanish government reacted with fury after the January 31 statement, accusing the bishops of wanting the nation to revert back to the conservative, Catholic-sponsored dictatorship of Generalissim Francisco Franco. Within three days of the January 31 statement, the Spanish ambassador to the Vatican had met with Vatican officials to lodge the government’s complaint against the church’s meddling.
“It’s unheard of,” said Zapatero (with little regard for Vatican history), referring to the church’s political strong-arming. He demanded “more respect” from the clergy when debating with Spain’s elected leader. In a veiled threat, he said that the possibility of reviewing agreements under which the church gets millions of euros a year in state funding “is always open.”
“This is one of the most visible confrontations between the church and the government in the past 30 years,” said José María Martinez Patino, a Jesuit priest and head of the Meeting Foundation, an independent research organization. Patino believes the Spanish church’s position stems directly from the conservative thinking of Pope Benedict.
Nearly every week, attacks are being waged on the Socialist incumbent by Catholic leaders and even the pope himself. On Tuesday, the archbishop of Toledo, Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, said that, “like it or not,” Spain’s memory and identity were forged by the Catholic Church. Addressing the question of whether the Spain of tomorrow will be Christian, the cardinal said, “She will be if she sticks to her roots, if she keeps her memory and her identity alive.”
Spain’s leftward shift has been so intense that it is now perceived as one of the most liberal societies in Europe. That reputation infuriates Catholic leaders, and they are working untiringly to return Spain to its historically staunch Catholic, conservative roots. The election race is tight. Zapatero’s lead over Mariano Rajoy, the leader of the conservative, Catholic-backed People’s Party, is narrow.
But with elections still nearly two weeks away, plenty of time remains for the conservative opposition parties, with support from the Vatican, to cut the lead of the incumbent. Don’t be surprised to see greater Catholic meddling over the next two weeks. It would hardly be surprising if some of Pope Benedict xvi’s own messages in that time are tailored to papal ambitions in Spain’s general election.
Between Vatican interference and the broader trend toward the right sweeping European governments, it would not be surprising to see the election of a right-wing, conservative, Catholic-compliant government in Spain on March 9.
European history provides heaps of evidence showing the Vatican’s role as Europe’s king-maker and king-breaker. The church has been the dominant force behind Europe’s greatest leaders and states since the time of Emperor Constantine in the fourth century. The Vatican has been Europe’s single greatest constant.
Every dark and sinister force that has ever emerged from the European landscape has been empowered, legitimized and exploited by the Vatican. Charlemagne, Napoleon, Garibaldi, Hitler—the imperialistic ambitions of each of these tyrants was fueled by or assisted in some way by backers in the Vatican.
Time after time, Vatican meddling, most of the time by proxy, has resulted in the death of tens of millions of people, destroyed entire states, and undermined the European balance of power. The Vatican’s meddling in Italy and Spain today is rooted in this jolting history.
No other source reveals the reality of the Vatican as deeply or as presciently as the Holy Bible. It is the most authoritative source of knowledge about the Catholic Church. It gives a thorough understanding of the history and prophecy of the Catholic Church. For more information, read Mystery of the Ages.
In the book of Revelation, God speaks at length about the Catholic Church. In Revelation 13:11, He employs a striking analogy to describe this great religious beast. Here, He says this church looks like a lamb, innocent, just and righteous in the eyes of most people. It even appears as if it’s the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. But it speaks like a dragon! Study European history. Read about Charlemagne, the Crusades and World War ii Ustashi death squads. Then ask yourself, is there a better analogy for the Catholic Church’s role in European history?
It looks like a lamb, but speaks like a dragon! And as the Bible says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
The lessons of history can be among the hardest for the human mind to grasp. This is because history is mired in unspeakable brutality and unthinkable horror. Reconciling the past means admitting that the forces that made it inevitable are still prevalent today. Human nature is the one great constant. History teaches us that yesterday’s nightmares are tomorrow’s realities. Given the same or similar stimuli, the whole cycle of history will repeat itself.
That’s not something most people want to confront. So we continue to neglect to study and learn from the lessons of history.
But our failure to consider the past makes its future repetition no less inevitable.
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