The Roman Catholic Church must help fight Italy’s widespread tax evasion problem, Prime Minister Romano Prodi declared in an interview this week with Italian religious affairs weekly Famiglia Cristiana.

In the face of criticism that he was blurring the lines between church and state, Prodi did not back down but rather defended his position in a front-page letter printed in Italy’s top daily paper on Thursday. “Why, when I go to Mass, is this issue, which is ethically charged, almost never touched upon in the homilies?” Prodi asked.

He said it was the responsibility of the ruling class to set the right example. But, he added, “if memory serves, St. Paul exhorted (citizens) to obey the authority.”

Prodi’s appeal to the Catholic Church is surprising to some, considering in the past he has defended the secularism of the state. Though a practicing Catholic himself, Prodi has been known for his outspokenness on keeping politics and religion separate.

Perhaps Prodi learned from political events in Italy earlier this year where it appears he was forced to bow to papal pressure. At the least, his latest move is an acknowledgment of the power the Catholic Church wields over the people. Could Prodi, a committed Europhile who has long pushed for European integration, be realizing the church’s power needs to be harnessed?

At this time, the Vatican is not rushing to fulfill Prodi’s wishes; perhaps condemning tax evasion would not be a popular move for it, considering a third of Italians, according to Prodi, heavily evade taxes. History shows that on issues of concern to the Vatican—such as homosexual unions and assisted fertility—it has had no compunction about jumping in and getting heavily involved.

Watch for politics and religion—specifically Catholicism—to become more entwined not just in Italy, but on the Continent as a whole, in the future. European history throughout the centuries of the “Holy” Roman Empire has witnessed such collusion.

More importantly, this church-state relationship is prophesied in the Bible to emerge one last time. Read Herbert W. Armstrong’s booklet Who or What Is the Prophetic Beast? to learn how Europe’s political leadership and the Catholic Church will intertwine in the coming few years, what this will lead to, and how it will affect you.