Europe’s Top Unifier

Caption: Pope Francis (Getty Images/©iStock.com/Sean_Warren)

 

 

The International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen will go to Pope Francis, the prize committee announced December 23. The prize is awarded for “exceptional work performed in the service of European unity,” the Charlemagne Prize website says.

While so many of the European Union’s founders saw their work through a Catholic lens, many today do not. Yet at this crucial juncture, as Europe struggles for unity, the one who has been singled out as offering hope for the future is the pope.

Pope Francis: Europe’s Top Unifier

Caption: Pope Francis waves as he delivers a message from the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 25, 2015. (Franco Origlia/Getty Images)

 

Europe’s prestigious Charlemagne Prize for promoting unity goes to the pope—an important sign of what’s to come.

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That news will come as no surprise to those familiar with theTrumpet.com. For years we have said that the Catholic Church must play a powerful role in European unity.

The European Common Market has “so far … been unable to bring about full political union,” wrote Herbert W. Armstrong in his book The United States and Britain in Prophecy. “This will be made possible by the ‘good offices’ of the Vatican, who alone can be the symbol of unity to which they can look.”

Few see the signs of the Vatican playing this role, so far. Many of Europe’s modern leaders are from Europe’s very secular, multicultural left. But now, as Europe is becoming increasingly desperate for unity—with the euro, the border-free Schengen zone, and even the European Union itself under threat—we’re seeing more signs that it will look to the Vatican.