Italy is certain to be one of the prophesied 10 nations or nation-groups that constitute the new Holy Roman Empire superpower. It has Europe’s third-largest economy, after Germany and France. It also hosts the heritage of the great Roman Empire and, most importantly, the headquarters of the Catholic Church.
Rome has been a great city for more than 2,500 years. From its seven hills, kings and emperors and their people superseded the greatest previous empires with greater strategies and numbers than the Greeks and Persians, and greater splendor than Babylon. The Roman Empire grew into an ancient superpower that waged war after war and conquered kingdoms, confederations and empires. It dominated the Mediterranean region and much of the known world. Italy has not forgotten that imperial glory.
As Rome grew from a republic into an empire, a certain version of Christianity was taking root in the city. It became a political power in the fourth century a.d. when Constantine converted to it, and in the sixth century it became a fearsome orthodoxy enforceable by persecution and death under Justinian. It became known as the Catholic Church, headquartered within Rome in its own nation (Vatican City), ruled by the bishop of Rome (the pope), and ambitious to convert the world to its religion, by lethal force if necessary and when possible.
For roughly 1,500 years, the leaders of Roman Catholicism and leaders of Italian government have blended their powers together in an intercourse that has repeatedly produced strong, cohesive, deadly empires.
In recent history, Benito Mussolini rose in Italy in the 1920s and 1930s after creating the fascist movement and successfully pushing Italy into World War i. He was an immoral, unprincipled, violent but influential leader who made himself dictator and transformed Italy into a one-party police-state ally of Adolf Hitler. He also allied with the Roman Catholic Church through a concordat with the Vatican and other means. Beyond empowering himself, his goal was to re-create a Roman Empire that spanned from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean. He invaded Libya, Greece, Ethiopia and Spain prior to launching Italy into World War ii in an alliance with Nazi Germany. After that he attacked France, Belgium, Greece, the Balkans and the British in Egypt, Palestine, Sudan, Kenya and Somaliland before leading Italy into defeat and ruin.
Hitler and Mussolini raised up the sixth prophesied head of the Holy Roman Empire.
Italy has been a supporter of European unification, and in recent years has begun to resist multiculturalism and immigration to build itself into a strong power once again. Now it has actually elected a prime minister who leads the successor party to Mussolini’s fascist party! This party is rehabilitating Mussolini’s reputation and putting religion—Roman Catholicism—front and center.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is happy to bring God—her Roman Catholic idea of God—into her politics. For many Italians and others, this is a refreshing change from liberal, lawless, globalist, godless multiculturalism, and she is rising in popularity. Journalists have even characterized her as “the leader of the European right” and “the most important political leader in Europe.”
But people are forgetting what this version of Christianity and its intercourse with political and military power has done in the past!
Under Meloni, Italy is building partnerships with Middle East energy suppliers and rapidly developing relationships with North Africa, the Balkans and Turkey. It is helping to build up the Holy Roman Empire. But neither Meloni nor Italy will lead this bloc. It will be led by a strongman in Germany, influenced by the Vatican.
As Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote last year in “Fascism Reawakens in Italy” (theTrumpet.com/26213), “Mussolini prepared the way for Adolf Hitler, who copied him and used the same formula. … The rise of Meloni’s movement matches exactly what the Bible foretold. These prophecies warn that we need to be watching for the rise of this power.”
Every single iteration of the Holy Roman Empire has waded through blood to conquer and convert or kill others. The world has been free of the Holy Roman Empire for decades, but now one Holy Roman Empire king after another is popping up. What happened? It went underground—but now it is again rising out of the abyss.