Prophetic Intelligence Briefings
Papal Global Influence on the Rise · October 14, 2009
On September 23, 2009, just prior to the papal visit to the Czech Republic, the Prague Post published an article by John Allen, a well-known Catholic journalist arguing that “the pope still matters” in global influence.
“In purely empirical, sociological terms,” he said, “the Catholic Church is to religion what the United States is to geopolitics: the lone superpower, or at least the lone ‘indispensable nation,’ without whose involvement resolution of virtually any global crisis is difficult to imagine.”
“Worldwide there are 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, scattered in every nook and cranny of the planet… Moreover, Catholicism is the world’s most vertically integrated religious organization…” something quite different than Pentecostalism or Islam.
“Catholicism” Allen continued, “is also the only religious body to have its own diplomatic corps. The Holy See… has diplomatic relations with 177 nations… and enjoys observer status with every major international organization, including the United Nations. No global leader makes a trip to Italy without calling on the pope… the pope (any pope) is the most-covered, most-quoted religious leader in the world…
The areas of Papal weakness, particularly in Europe, are limiting its influence in areas critical to its future and to the fulfillment of prophecy. They include merely 20% church attendance, a massive drop in priests and nuns, a lot of disagreement among Catholics with Church teaching, and political impotence in getting the Euro-constitution to even mention God or Christianity. Perhaps this weakness is one of the ways that holy angels hold back the winds of strife.
But, said Allen, “popes who know how to spend whatever social capital they have left can still change history.” He cited, among other things, John Paul II’s role in ending communism, Benedict XVI’s speech in Regensburg that angered Muslims followed by his efforts to create an “alliance of civilizations” with Islam. Even Benedict’s statement against the use of condoms got a reaction in the West. Spain sent 1 million condoms to Africa in protest. “What’s striking,” said Allen, “is that other religious leaders say this sort of thing all the time; it took the pope to make secular elites react.”
“While it may take faith to recognize the pope’s spiritual authority,” he concluded, “all it requires to grasp his relevance, even in the early 21st century, is opening one’s eyes.”
John Allen is right. Papal power is increasing, as is papal popularity world-wide. John Allen is pointing out that prophecy is being fulfilled. Revelation 13:3 says that after the deadly wound is healed, “all the world wondered after the beast.”
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