Philadelphia Church of God & modern ultramontanism

Today I stumbled across this article published by The Trumpet, a publication of the Philadelphia Church of God. In their "about us" page, they claim in their journalism to "show how current events are fulfilling the biblically prophesied description of the prevailing state of affairs just before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ."

Evidently, one of the current events they are tracking is the growing secular influence and political power of the Catholic Church, as paragraphs such as this one reveal:

"This is about more than just blocking laws that promote immorality. The Catholic Church is seeking to unite Europe under the power of religion—the Catholic religion, and Catholic laws. The Bible prophesies that this powerful entity will yet gain the power to enforce the policies—including Sunday worship—it now calls upon Europeans to uphold." (emphasis added - source.)

Another article contains similar warnings about papal encroachment, from the very first lines:

"A political institution at its roots, the Roman Catholic Church is excelling itself in swinging the vote within former Soviet states to support membership of the European Union. The Czech Republic is the latest nation to heed the papal call to a 'yes' vote, one of seven to respond to priestly admonitions to vote in favor of a return to their former cultural and spiritual 'roots.'" (emphasis added)

And this article outdoes itself with similar claims:

The modern successors of the Roman Caesars are intent on constructing a new empire, and understand the vast importance of the papacy in achieving this. Europe’s leaders and the Roman Catholic Church are working together towards the common goal of unity, with Rome providing a powerfully cohesive common religion to hold Europe together politically.

The author, writing several years ago, makes several connections between these goals and that of "Successive German chancellors" and even Hitler. They must have had a field day when Pope Benedict was elected.

And just in case any of the aspersions about the Papacy being the whore of Babylon are missed:

As portentous as such obvious Roman Catholic symbolism is, the British postage stamps issued in 1984 to commemorate the second election to the European Parliament went even further. They depicted a woman riding a beast over seven mounds or waves. Such imagery has startling similarities to passages from the book of Revelation which a succession of theologians from Wycliffe to Spurgeon has identified as representing papal Rome. (source.)

Why do I mention all this?

First, discovering modern examples of Roman Catholics being accused or suspected of ultramontanism / caesaropapism / whathaveyou is a favorite pastime for me and thus a recurring AmericanPapist feature.

Second, I found it fascinating to read an article like this one published in the Trumpet and to note the many similarities between its portrayal of the Catholic Church (particularly the actions of Pope Benedict) and the common portrayal of these same events by the secular media.

Really, they aren't that far off from one another. And if it wasn't for The Trumpet article making a last-paragraph mention of the bible, I might have mistaken it for just another media spin job.

Truly, liberal media bias and fundamentalist eschatology make strange bedfellows, but there you go.