Are the Europeans about to restore the power and influence of their respective Royals? In Rome's mind, only an IMPERIAL RESTORATION can save mankind! That explains why the present pontiff has proclaimed that he's on a mission from God to unite Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals. How? By remodeling Europe after the grand design of the "Holy Roman Empire."

Recently, the Roman Catholic cardinal Alfons Maria Stickler from Austria, an advisor to the pope, reflected this position when interviewed by the German newspaper Schwabische Zeitung. When asked what ails our society, Stickler responded: "The principles that were once personified in the aristocracy of the past are now gone...The unconditional willingness to fight for the doctrines of the Holy Roman Church..." Will such a romantic view blind Europe? Will nostalgia for Europe's Catholic past soon sweep them off their feet?

Cardinal Stickler, speaking loftily of Europe's aristocrats, praised them as "loyal and devoted to the pope, politically neither right or left, only guided to realize the will of the pope and the Catholic honor...Aggressive Catholicism...only these aristocrats can save the world from moral decay."

The Vatican's working out a deal with ten European kings, with seductive offers of restoring them to political life upon their now dormant thrones, in exchange for their allegiance to the pope. Will Archduke Karl von Habsburg claim his "divine right" to the Austro-Hungarian throne? He is the heir to the "Holy Roman Empire." Will the pope soon call upon him to serve as a figurehead, an emperor of sorts, over the United Kingdoms of Europe?

What crisis will coerce Europe to hastily accept the pope's indecent proposal to recreate the continent in his image? Yeltsin's death? An economic collapse? An Islamic threat? Surely GERMANY stands ready to defend "Western Christian civilization," even if means starting World War III!

This article was originally published in The National Messenger, November/December 1996