Countries using the Euro de jure Countries and territories using the Euro de facto Countries in the EU not using the Euro (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
PARIS — French President Francois Hollande called on Thursday for an
economic government in the eurozone that would have its own budget, the
right to issue debt, a harmonized tax system, and a full-time president.
Speaking at a news conference marking his first year in office, a day
after economic data showed France had slipped back into recession, the
Socialist leader said he sought to create a full political European
Union (EU) within two years.
His proposals seemed likely to encounter stiff resistance from
Germany, Europe's leading power, which opposes mutualizing debt among
European states and is reluctant to give the eurozone its own
secretariat or create new divisions in the EU, of which 10 countries are
not in the 17-nation single currency.
It also comes as Britain's government faces growing domestic pressure to hold a referendum on leaving the bloc.
"My initiative has four points that I am putting to our partners. The
first is to create an economic government with the eurozone countries
which would meet every month with a real president appointed for a long
period and who would be devoted to this task," Hollande said.
Chancelor of the Federal Republic of Germany Dr. Angela Merkel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel has shrugged aside a new book that
suggests she may have been closer to East Germany's communist system
than previously thought, saying she's never hidden anything.
The 58-year-old Merkel grew up in East Germany and entered politics as communism crumbled in 1989.
It has long been known that, like many people, she joined the
communist youth organization, and she has said in the past that
"politically I lived an assimilated life. If I had always said what I
thought, then my life would have been very different."
A book being published this week revives questions about whether
Merkel was a propaganda secretary for the youth organization, which she
has denied. The book also says she was an active labor union official.
At that time, there were only state-approved unions in East Germany.
"What is important to me is that I have never hidden anything,"
Merkel said late Sunday after attending the screening of an old East
German film in Berlin.
"I can only rely on my memory," she said. If other things emerge, "one can live with that too," she said.
"Perhaps I have not talked about other things because no one has ever
asked me about them," Merkel said. She cited her membership of East
Germany's union organization as an example, news agency dpa reported.
Forward: The Bible plainy tells us that during the End Times there will be at least three superpowers. One is the King of the South - a Muslim alliance of states under the authority of one dictator. His enemy will be the King of the North, which will be the modern Holy Roman Empire, located in Europe (including Hungary). A third superpower may be from the east (China, Japan, or some new alliance). The rise of a beast in Europe will happen! Keep your eye on the Middle East AND EUROPE!
As the self-declared "capital" of the ultra-nationalist Jobbik
Party, the town of Tiszavasvári prides itself on being a showcase for how
the whole of Hungary might one day look.
Since winning control of Tiszavasvári's local council three years ago on a
pledge to fight "Gipsy crime", the party has been on a vigorous
clean-up campaign, banning prostitution, tidying the streets, and keeping a
watchful eye on the shabby Roma districts at the edge of town. It even swore
in its own Jobbik "security force" to work alongside the police,
only for the uniformed militia, which drew comparisons with Hitler's
brown-shirts, to be banned by Hungary's national government.
Yet Gipsies are not the only bogeyman that Jobbik has in its sights, as a sign
on the well-trimmed green opposite the Communist-era mayoralty building
suggests. Written in both Hungarian
and Persian, it proudly announces that Tiszavasvári is twinned with Ardabil,
a town in the rugged mountains of north-west Iran.
Gabor Vona delivers a speech during a rally against the World Jewish
Congress Plenary Assembly in Budapest (Reuters)
On the face of it, there is no obvious reason why a drab rustbelt town in
Hungary's former mining area should seek links to a city in a hardline
Islamic Republic 2,000 miles away. But this is no ordinary cultural exchange
programme, and friendship has very little to do with it. Instead, the real
purpose of Jobbik's links to Iran is to show their mutual loathing of the
Jewish state of Israel, which the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
notoriously declared should be "wiped from the pages of history". More>>>>>>>>>>>
Or How stupidity of leaders killed 20 million people
Forward by Bob Barney: We live in an EOE (equal opportunity employment) world, fed to us in dung piles by our worthless leaders. All major firms hire EOE employees. Most never really get any power, they just fill positions and do nothing---no harm done. Recently many firms have actually promoted inferior workers into high positions with disastrous results. JC Penny, being the last example. In 2008, America put an EOE into the White House, dumber than his predecessor, and only elected because of his color. In is my contention that we will not just experience one of the greatest depressions of all time in our very near future, I believe we will find ourselves in another war - maybe even a WORLD WAR. So I decided to run an article on the causes of WWI. The first World War was a totally unnecessary war, fought because of the enormous stupidity of the world leaders. Great Britain, France, Germany and Russia were all lead by complete morons that by shear stupidity allowed the assassination of a minor person from an even lesser known nation (Serbia) result in the First World War with millions of deaths. The great war produced the famous “lost generation” written about by Earnest Hemingway. The war destroyed France forever, reducing her into a laughing stock of all nations to this day, and took the greatest power in the world, Great Britain, and reduced her into a second rate power. The end result of WWI was WWII, and if America was not the growing world power on the scene in the 1920’s, when England declined in power - the English today would be speaking Germany saluting Hitler’s successor. For America, our own hubris and moronic EOE leadership will result in the destruction of us as a world power. The following is a piece on WWI causes ---- compare them to today!
We have conquered for ourselves a place in
the sun. It will now be my task to see to it that this place
in the sun shall remain our undisputed possession, in order that the
sun's rays may fall fruitfully upon our activity and trade in foreign
parts... The more Germans go out upon the waters, whether it
be in journeys across the ocean, or in the service of the battle flag,
so much the better it will be for us.
A speech by Kaiser
Wilhelm to the North German Regatta Association, 1901.
The argument which follows suggests
that Europe in 1914 was RIPE for war to break out - that the causes of
World War One went back long before 1914, and had so set Europe at odds
that it only needed a tiny spark to push all Europe into war.
You will need to understand, not only WHAT the
situation was in 1910-14, but HOW each element made war more
likely...
1.
Militarism
This is not just an arms race, but also a government's attitude of
mind, seeing war as a valid means of foreign policy. (This
often includes the influence of government by the generals.)
All the nations of Europe were militaristic, but
the governments of Germany and Austria-Hungary were especially
so.
In
this photo made available by the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore
Romano, Pope Francis greets director of the Holy See Press Office Rev.
Federico Lombardi, left, during a special gathering for thousands of
journalists, media workers and guests the at the Vatican, Saturday,
March 16, 2013. (Photo: AP)
(TheBlaze/AP) — The focus of Pope
Francis’ papacy began to emerge Saturday as he offered some intimate
insights into the conclave that elected him pontiff, describing how he
was immediately inspired to name himself after St. Francis of Assisi
because he wants to see a church that is “for the poor.”
His comments provided further evidence
that this first Latin American papacy would be one that looks beyond the
confines of the church itself to the most disadvantaged, named for a
13th-century friar who renounced a wealthy, dissolute lifestyle to
embrace a life of poverty and simplicity and go out in the countryside
to preach a message of joy and peace.
“Let me tell you a story,” Pope Francis
began in a break from his prepared text during an audience for a few
thousand journalists and Vatican communications officials in the
Vatican’s auditorium.
He described how during the conclave he
was comforted by his friend, Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, as the
votes were going his way and it seemed “a bit dangerous” that he would
reach the two-thirds necessary to be elected.
When the threshold was reached, applause erupted in the frescoed Sistine Chapel.
“He (Hummes) hugged me. He kissed me. He said, `Don’t forget about the poor!’” Francis recalled.
Pope Francis Portrait Painting (Photo credit: faithmouse)
Is Pope Francis (formerly known
as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio) a socialist who will allow
liberation theology to infiltrate the Catholic Church? This question,
when posed, caused Sam Gregg, research director at the Action Institute,
a conservative think tank, to chuckle. TheBlaze interviewed Gregg on
Friday to speak further about Francis’ take on poverty and social
justice.
As over-the-top as the aforementioned
curiosity sounds, since the pontiff’s election on Wednesday, some have
quietly been voicing concerns. And there’s no doubt that outlets,
pundits and political observers, alike, have spent the past week
exploring Francis’ background in an effort to better understand where he
stands on the economic front.
A LOVER OF LIBERATION THEOLOGY AND SOCIALISM?
So, what’s the verdict?
Well, it’s clear from his past and
present statements and behaviors that Pope Francis cares deeply about
the poor and that he lives a very humble and — by all accounts — modest
life (he cooked his own meals, took public transportation and decided
not to live in lavish quarters). But how far does this devotion to the
poor go? Is Francis concerned with government structure and taxation or
will he stick firmly to the faith and encouraging believers to help
those in need?
This quest for context and its
associated curiosities, of course, is nothing new. Whenever a new pope
is elected, the public and media, alike, look incessantly for any and
all information that will shed light on the new-found faith leader’s
character and a past actions. And considering that the Catholic Church
has 1.2 billion members across the globe, Pope Francis’ viewpoints
matter, mostly because of the control and influence he will have over
believers.
So the Catholic Church has a new leader. And the Vatican has a new head
of state. Two job descriptions, filled by just one single guy [1]: the Pope.
Until very recently, Jorge Mario Bergoglio's main concern was tending
to the spiritual needs of the 2.5 million souls in his flock, the
archdiocese of Buenos Aires. But since his election as pontiff by the
College of his colleagues [2] on March 13, the Cardinal now is Pope Francis, and thrust upon him are huge spiritual duties, but also a tiny temporal one.
The new Pope is the numero uno of the Holy See. In its
strictest sense, this spiritual jurisdiction only comprises the diocese
of Rome. But Rome is where Saint Peter was martyred [3] -
and in the Catholic tradition, this Apostle was the first Pope, the
current Pope being his 265th successor in an unbroken (though often
quite wobbly) line. Hence the primacy of the papacy over other bishops [4],
and the conflation of the Holy See with the entire Catholic Church - or
at least with the highest echelons of its Roman bureaucracy, also known
as the Curia [5].
Under international law, the Holy See
is considered a sovereign entity, as it has been since the Middle Ages,
and as such maintains diplomatic relations with most other countries. It
is a member of various international bodies[6],
and has permanent observer status at the U.N. General Assembly.
However, the Holy See should not be confused with Vatican City,
independent only since the Lateran Treaty of 1929. The two entities
issue distinct passports, and they have different official languages:
Latin for the Holy See, Italian for Vatican City.
The Vatican's external borders - or are they?
The Lateran Treaty, concluded between Mussolini's fascist Italy and the
Holy See, sealed the recognition by the Pope of Italy's authority over
the former Papal States [7] and
Rome itself, and by Italy of the independence of Vatican City. Thus was
resolved the so-called 'Roman Question', which had arisen in 1861 when
almost-unified Italy had declared Rome its capital, and escalated when
the Italian state took Rome from the Pope by deadly force in 1870 [8].
Without the independence of Vatican City, the Holy See's sovereignty would be comparable to that of the Knights of Malta [9]:
with plenty of ambassadors scattered the world over, the Order is
considered sovereign - but lacking a territory of its own, the quality
of that sovereignty is strained. To avoid a similar conundrum, Vatican
City was granted independence, [to] "ensure the absolute and visible
independence of the Holy See" and "to guarantee to it an indisputable
sovereignty in international affairs" (as explicitly stated in the
Lateran Treaty).
Peres: Pontiff would be 'welcome guest in the Holy Land'
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Like his predecessor, Pope Francis reached
out to Rome’s Jewish community at the very start of his pontificate,
pledging to continue to strengthen the increasingly close ties between
Catholics and Jews.
Just hours after he was elected the first non-European pope in
history, Francis sent a letter to Rome’s chief rabbi Riccardo di Segni,
saying he hoped to “contribute to the progress that relations between
Jews and Catholics” have seen since the 1962-1965 Second Vatican
Council.
English: Cardinal Jorge M. Bergoglio SJ, Archbishop of Buenos Aires(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina
(AP) — Pope Francis is known for his humility, his reluctance to talk
about himself. The self-effacement, admirers say, is why he has hardly
ever denied one of the harshest allegations against him: That he was
among church leaders who actively supported Argentina's murderous
dictatorship.
It's without dispute that Jorge Mario Bergoglio, like most other
Argentines, failed to openly confront the 1976-1983 military junta while
it was kidnapping and killing thousands of people in a "dirty war" to
eliminate leftist opponents.
But the new pope's authorized biographer, Sergio Rubin, argues that
this was a failure of the Roman Catholic Church in general, and that
it's unfair to label Bergoglio with the collective guilt that many
Argentines of his generation still deal with.
"In some way many of us Argentines ended up being accomplices," at a
time when anyone who spoke out could be targeted, Rubin recalled in an
interview ......... MORE>>>>>>>>>>>>
Pope Benedict has withdrawn to Castel Gandolfo while his
successor is chosen. But few know that the papal summer residence of
almost 400 years has a curious history, serving as a hideout for Jews,
delivery ward and target for paparazzi. By René Schlott more...
The selection of Francis, former Buenos Aires Archbishop Jorge Mario
Bergoglio, was announced Wednesday, only weeks after Pope Benedict XVI
resigned, citing his health and the demands of the church.
Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan,
said, “We congratulate our many Catholic supporters on the selection of
a new pope and are encouraged by his reputation for unwavering
commitment to preserving the lives of prenatal children and marriage
between one man and one woman. We will stand firmly with him and defend
him in that commitment and pray for his success.”
Glenn cited a report from National Catholic Register that described
Bergoglio as “an unwaveringly orthodox on matters of sexual morality,
staunchly opposing abortion, same-sex marriage, and contraception. In
2010 he asserted that gay adoption is a form of discrimination against
children, earning a public rebuke from Argentina’s President, Cristina
Fernández de Kirchner.”
Bergoglio is the Argentine-born son of an Italian railway worker. He
was described as a compassionate conservative who reportedly came in
second during the 2005 balloting that ultimately elected Benedict XVI.
The 76-year-old Jesuit is described as prizing simplicity and humility
and is thought to plan to encourage priests to do shoe-leather
evangelization.
The report said it was during a 2007 speech when he said, “We aren’t in agreement with the death penalty.”
But he said in Argentina, the penalty does exist.
“A child conceived by the rape of a mentally ill or retarded woman can be condemned to death,” he said.
The report said the comments came during presentation of the Aparecide Document, a statement from the bishops of Latin America.
At that time, he even warned those who only support abortion.
“We should commit ourselves to ‘eucharistic coherence,’ that is, we
should be conscious that people cannot receive holy communion and at the
same time act or speak against the commandments, in particular when
abortion, euthanasia, and other serious crimes against life and family
are facilitated. The responsibility applies particularly to legislators,
governors and health professionals.”
Jerry Horn, of Priests for Life, released a statement that he was at the Vatican for the announcement.
“A short time ago – as you no doubt know by now! – it happened! White
smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel! Before I left
for Rome Father Frank took me aside and said: ‘Jerry, if you’re there
when our new Holy Father is elected, I commission you to go to St.
Peter’s and get his first blessing for our Priests for Life family.’
With that task in mind, I rushed to St. Peter’s Square the moment the
smoke was seen. And together with tens of thousands of smiling,
cheering, flag-waving, praying pilgrims … I received Pope Francis’ first
blessing!”
U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said, he welcomed the “new faith leader.”
Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly said, “This will be our 266th pope, and
the very first one was appointed by Jesus. So it’s a pretty good
lineage.”
Rush Limbaugh noted, tongue-in-cheek, “My question is, folks: Will
the new pope blame Benedict for everything that goes wrong? If it does.
Things go wrong. Is it all going to be Benedict’s fault?”
His reference was to the hundreds of times the Obama administration
in the United States has blamed former President George W. Bush for
current problems.
NBC had reported that Bergoglio was among those who were considered possible candidates.
Benedict, 85, stepped down from the high Catholic office in February
after saying he did not have the strength needed to continue in the
post. The church has been caught up in a scandals ranging from sex abuse
to Vatican bank corruption in recent years.
Tom Horn, co-author of the book “Petrus Romanus: The Final Pope is Here,”
told WND he has a list of 10 men among the 115 sequestered in the
Sistine Chapel who best fit St. Malachy’s “Prophecy of the Popes,” said
to be based on a prophetic vision of the 112 popes following Pope
Celestine II, who died in 1144.
As WND reported,
Horn and his co-author, Cris Putnam, predicted in their book Benedict
would step down last April, and it turns out that April apparently was
when Benedict made the historic decision he announced to the world last
month.
“We said if he didn’t step down in 2012, he certainly would in 2013,” Horn told WND.
Malachy’s prophecies culminate with the “final pope,” “Peter the
Roman,” whose reign ends with the destruction of Rome and the judgment
of Christ.
Horn said he concluded Benedict would resign rather than die in the
papacy based not only on St. Malachy but also on a host of historical
and current information.
“It’s a genius move,” Marco Politi, a papal biographer said of the
choice. “It’s a non-Italian, non-European, not a man of the Roman
government. It’s an opening to the Third World, a moderate. By taking
the name Francis, it means a completely new beginning.”
“It’s the first pope from Latin America!” said Horacio Pintos, celebrating at the Vatican.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, an Argentinian cardinal, was elected Pope
Francis I today at the Vatican, becoming the first Jesuit pontiff and
the first from the Americas.
Bergoglio, 76, was the archbishop of Buenos Aires. He is the
Argentine-born son of an Italian railway worker. Described as a
compassionate conservative, he came in second in the 2005 balloting that
elected Benedict XVI. He is said to prize simplicity and humility and
is expected to encourage priests to do shoe-leather evangelism.
emblem of the Papacy: Triple tiara and keys Français : emblème pontifical Italiano: emblema del Papato Português: Emblema papal. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Cardinals from
around the world gather this week in a conclave to elect a new pope
following the stunning resignation of Benedict XVI. In the secretive
world of the Vatican, there is no way to know who is in the running, and
history has yielded plenty of surprises. Yet several names have come up
repeatedly as strong contenders. Here is a look at who they are:
Dalil Boubakeur is one of France's most prominent Muslims. In
a SPIEGEL ONLINE interview, he discusses what retiring Pope Benedict
XVI did wrong in bridging the Muslim-Catholic divide and how the two
religions need to make a fresh start at interfaith dialogue. more...
Pope Benedict has withdrawn to Castel Gandolfo while his
successor is chosen. But few know that the papal summer residence of
almost 400 years has a curious history, serving as a hideout for Jews,
delivery ward and target for paparazzi. By René Schlott more... [ Forum ]
Pope Benedict XVI has reshaped the papacy simply by giving it up. But how?
As the first pontiff in six centuries to step down, Benedict has carved a
new path for his successors who decide they cannot rule for life. But
scholars say the repercussions could reach beyond just changing how
pontiffs leave to ultimately shape perceptions about the authority and
significance of the pontificate.
"A lot of what it will mean has to do with what subsequent popes do.
Does this become a precedent for future popes to follow or not?" said
Phillip Thompson, executive director of the Aquinas Center of Theology
at Emory University.
Benedict's pontificate will end at 8 p.m. Thursday. He plans no role in
the conclave that will choose the next pontiff, and will retreat to a
life of prayer in a monastery behind Vatican walls. His decision shocked
the church. But papal resignations are expected to become more likely
over time because of extended lifespans and the growing demands of the
pontificate, Thompson said.
The Vatican on Saturday accused the Italian media of spreading "false
and damaging" reports in what it condemned as a deplorable attempt to
influence cardinals who will meet in a secret conclave next month to
elect a new pope.
Since Pope Benedict announced his resignation on Feb. 11, Italian
newspapers have been full of rumors about conspiracies, secret reports
and lobbies in the Vatican that they say pushed the pope to abdicate,
including a rumor that involved a shadowy "gay lobby" within the
Vatican.
CNN Senior Vatican Analyst John Allen, who is also a correspondent with
the National Catholic Reporter, cautioned that such unsourced
speculation should be taken with a grain of salt.
While Allen said he doesn't know for sure whether a network based on
sexual orientation was investigated by the Vatican, he said "frankly, it
would be a little surprising if they hadn't" — given past scandals that
have come to light.
The writer of this article says: "Don’t laugh! I realize that even a year ago, that statement would have seemed absurd." Maybe she should have been reading the Plain Truth. We have predicted this since inception, and many before us, especially the ARMSTRONG'S has predicted this since the 40's!
Can the E.U. become the world’s policeman?
By Anne Applebaum,January 23, 2013
“A decade of war is now ending,”
President Obama declared Monday. Maybe that’s true in America, but it
isn’t true anywhere else. Extremists are still plotting acts of terror.
Authoritarian and autocratic regimes are still using violence to
preserve their power. The United States can step back from international
conflicts, but that won’t make them disappear.
Fortunately, there
is another power that shares our economic and political values, that
possesses sophisticated military technology and is also very interested
in stopping the progress of fanatical movements, especially in North
Africa and the Middle East. That power is Europe.
Don’t laugh! I
realize that even a year ago, that statement would have seemed absurd. I
certainly couldn’t have written it in the immediate aftermath of the
2011 Libya operation, during which France, Britain and a dozen other
nations were barely able to sustain a brief war, involving no ground
troops, against a poorly armed and unpopular regime. Unverified reports
at the time alleged that the French ran out of bombs and were dropping lumps of concrete.
Without the intelligence and coordination provided by American warships
and airplanes and the CIA, the French planes wouldn’t even have known
where to drop them.
If God works in mysterious ways, then the Vatican has long been meticulous about following His example.
The Holy See’s
pronouncements on Catholic doctrine claim the missile-like clarity of
truth. But its politics and workings are monuments to obscurity.
Centuries of secrecy
and intrigue turn even the most historic events into exercises in
uncertainty. On Monday, when Pope Benedict made one of the biggest
Vatican announcements in 600 years — his resignation — he did it
exclusively in Latin, a dead language only one journalist in attendance
understood.
Don’t expect more clarity when cardinals gather in the Sistine Chapel to secretly vote for a new pope.
After each vote,
chemicals will be used to turn smoke from a small rooftop chimney black,
the signal of voting deadlock, or white, the fumes of success. In 2005,
when German Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI,
the smoke came out grey, leaving tens of thousands in St. Peter’s Square
baffled for minutes.
Israel seems to have sold Jerusalem to the Vatican.
Giulio Meotti
The
writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly
column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book "A New Shoah", that
researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published
by Encounter. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall
Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary. He is at work on a book about
the Vatican and Israel.
An historic agreement has been drafted between Israel and the
Vatican. The Israeli authorities have granted the Pope an official seat
in the room where the Last Supper is believed to have taken place, on
Mount Zion in Jerusalem, and where David and Solomon, Jewish kings of
Judea, are considered by some researchers, to also be buried.
It
is the culmination of a long campaign by the Catholic Church to regain
religious stewardship over the place where Jesus is supposed to have
broken bread and drunk wine with his disciples on the eve of his
crucifixion.
This is an enormous issue pushed through without any public debate.
According to
our sources, the agreement, which is expected to be ratified next June,
gives the Pope a “special authority” over the second floor of the
building, so that Christian pilgrims will be able to celebrate religious
functions like Pope John Paul did in 2000.
The agreement
constitutes Israel’s capitulation to the Vatican’s efforts to
“Christianize” the holy site, like when a Catholic convent was built in
Auschwitz.
The Catholic Church has long wanted control over
part of the area on Mt. Zion so as to turn it into an international
religious center for Catholics. The blueprint of the agreement reads as
follows: “The Vatican hands over this use of the Cenacle to the Custody
of the Holy Land which will keep the Cenacle open from 6 AM to 8 AM for
the celebration of the Holy Mass”.
In the long term, the
gesture will increase tensions between Jews and the large assets of the
Vatican. The Church has long been working to reduce Jewish rights in
Jerusalem and in the Old City. Now, after the
Muslim Waqf authority expelled the Christians from the Temple Mount and
turned it into a mosque, it’s the turn of the Vatican to lay its hands
on the Jewish Jerusalem.
The Custody of the Holy Land,
the Franciscan order who, with Vatican approval, is in charge of the
holy sites, campaigns with the Arabs against Israel.
As far back
as May 2000, Yasser Arafat met Islamic and Christian clergymen at the
presidential offices in Ramallah to back Palestinian Arab sovereignty
over Jerusalem. Among the clergymen who attended the meeting, Diodoros
I, patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church, Torkom II, patriarch of the
Armenian Orthodox Church, Catholic Patriarch Michel Sabbah and officials
from the Custody of the Holy Land.
"An official meeting took
place in Ramallah, Palestine, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the
State of Palestine". This is the official note of the Vatican press
office about the meeting between the Catholic officials and the PLO
representatives which took place this week.
The Vatican is
also asking that Israel hand over to the Vatican’s control dozens of
sites, 19 in Judea and Samaria and 28 in Jerusalem. The Catholic Church
want to discuss some properties on Mount of Olives, Har Hazeitim, which
is the very history of the Jewish people. If you want to keep Jerusalem
united, you have to keep Har Hazeitim. The Vatican knows that.
Derivative Work. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI since 2005) on May 10, 2003, during the celebration of the 750th anniversary of the canonization of Saint Stanislaus in Szczepanów, Poland. Picture taken by Janusz Stachoń and released under CC-BY license by Szamil (www.szczepanow.pl). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
By Bob Barney
The world was shocked when Pope
Benedict announced his retirement- the first pope to do so in 600
years. The baffling question of why he made the decision remains a
mystery. In his first public appearance since his announcement, he
told the audience in Italian what he had told cardinals on Monday in
Latin: that he simply did not have the strength to continue. He said
'I did this in full liberty for the good of the church.' He asked
the faithful 'to continue to pray for the pope and the church.'
Does this make sense? Perhaps, but
there may be a more practical reason why the pope went this route. I
think, because of the schism in the church between the liberal
socialist element and the more conservative European element,
Benedict decided by being alive while his predecessor is selected,
would give him more control in moving the decision from one that he
would have no control over (being dead) to one in which he could use
his influence to keep the church in step with the vision of Pope John
Paul II, his mentor and great friend.
English: Emblem of Vatican City Italiano (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In a possible attempt to control the outcome of electing the next pope, reports from AP are suggesting that the Vatican is raising the possibility that the conclave to elect the next
pope might start earlier than March 15, the earliest date possible under
current rules that require a 15-20 day waiting period after the papacy
becomes vacant. The AP is reporting, "Vatican spokesman The Rev. Federico Lombardi said top officials can
study the Holy See's constitution to determine whether such a rule
change is possible. The 15-20 day rule is in place to allow time for the
arrival in Rome of "all those (cardinals) who are absent."
But Lombardi noted that the cardinals already know that this pontificate
will end on Feb. 28 and can get to Rome in plenty of time. He said the
Vatican rules are open to interpretation and that "this is a question
that people are discussing."."
Since the 1950s, I have been proclaiming that America will one day be stunned by the emergence of a new power bloc in Europe; that America and the Soviet Union would not go to war; that a reunited Germany would be pivotal to a future United States of Europe! Now, suddenly, the walls come tumbling down in Europe; governments topple in but days; the global news media begins frantically writing about the reunification of Germany; and from the White House to London, urgent meetings behind the scenes discuss the destabilization of Europe, the power vacuum in East Germany, the nightmarish economic, sociological and political problems for which no immediate solutions are evident. And everyone was so SURPRISED! But for me, and those of us in this work, the only surprising part was how quickly so many events in Europe occurred. That Europe is in ferment; that governments are toppling; that the two Germanys may soon be reunited, IS NOT SURPRISING AT ALL TO THOSE WHO SUPPORT TWENTIETH CENTURY WATCH magazine and the work on television. Here's why!
I have been predicting the eventual creation of a "United States of Europe" for more than 45 years on radio and television, in many articles and in major booklets. Continually, I have emphasized that the eventual "Beast" power which is prophesied to emerge will not grow gradually out of the present 15-nation configuration, which includes nations I believe are part of the so-called "lost ten tribes of Israel." Those nations include Britain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Holland, Belgium, and northern France. For decades, I have predicted that Britain would NOT be a part of the final ten nations which will form. Now, with the German Chancellor wanting to hurry the process of developing a European Superstate, with Germany playing the pivotal role, Britain is appalled.
If you have not yet read my book Europe and America in Prophecy, please call or write for your free copy immediately. We had run completely out of stocks due to high demand, and I have ordered it reprinted.
You should be watching developments in Germany and Europe. It is in the heartland of Europe where the so-called "Holy Roman Empire" held sway, and it was in Rome where the fundamental structure of a future united Europe was decided upon.
The eventual "Beast" power will not come about as a gradual development during a world at peace, but most likely in the aftermath of a global economic collapse. When that happens, the "conspiracy" theorists will have a heyday. The Germans will once again seek a scapegoat — not only the United States, but likely the British, and the "Jewish Bankers." Watch.
Countries using the Euro de jure Countries and territories using the Euro de facto Countries in the EU not using the Euro (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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