Robert Spencer on ISIS' Intent to Conquer Rome and Behead the Pope (2015)

I sat down recently with Robert Spencer, author of The Complete Infidel's Guide to ISIS, to discuss the terror group's plan for Rome. While the idea of ISIS conquering Rome may sound ridiculous, Quranic Muslims --not just in ISIS-- believe the fall of Rome must take place before the final battle against the infidel armies at Dabiq, Syria and the return of the Mahdi, the Muslim "messiah."

Who Will Be the Next Pope? The Contenders for Vatican's Top Job
THE GUARDIAN: Two cardinals from Africa, a Canadian and an Italian are among those being tipped to succeed Pope Benedict XVI

With Pope Benedict XVI's resignation, speculation about who might succeed him when the conclave meets in March has begun. Any baptised Roman Catholic male is eligible for election as pope, but only cardinals have been selected since 1378. Among those who have been mentioned as potential successors are the following: » | Sam Jones and Afua Hirsch | Monday, February 11, 2013

Pope Joan Film Sparks Roman Catholic Church Row
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: A new film based on the legend of Pope Joan – an Englishwoman who purportedly disguised herself as a man and rose to become the only female pontiff in history – has sparked debate in the Roman Catholic Church.

Johanna Wokalek stars as Johanna von Ingelheim in Pope Joan. Photo: The Telegraph
The film has fuelled disagreements over whether Pope Joan really existed or, as the Church has always maintained, she was a mythical figure used by the early Protestant Church to discredit and embarrass Rome.

For a Church that even in the 21st century remains staunchly opposed to the idea of female priests, a female Pope was anathema.

To make matters worse, the deception is said to only have been found out when Joan gave birth during a procession through the streets of Rome.

The medieval epic stars a German actress, Johanna Wokalek, as the female Pope, the American actor John Goodman as Pope Sergius and David Wenham, an Australian last seen in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, as her lover, a knight named Gerold.

It is based on a highly contentious story – that in the ninth century, a baby girl was born in Germany to English parents, who had moved to the Continent as Christian missionaries.

According to the legend, she grew up to be an unusually intelligent young girl and, frustrated by a lack of opportunity for women, disguised herself as a boy in order to enter a Benedictine monastery, calling herself Brother John Anglicus.

She studied for a while in Greece before arriving in Rome, where she so impressed the Vatican with her abilities that she became a cardinal and was eventually elected pontiff in 853, after the death of Pope Leo IV.

She supposedly ruled as head of the Church for nearly three years, before her deception was found out. >>> Nick Squires, in Rome | Sunday, June 20, 2010

Pope Meets Cameroon's Muslims, Stresses Values
AFP: YAOUNDE — Pope Benedict XVI stressed the common values shared by Christianity and Islam at a meeting with leading members of Cameroon's Muslim community Thursday.

Cameroon "shelters thousands of Christians and Muslims who often live, work and carry out their religious devotions in the same neighbourhood," said the pope in a text distributed to journalists.

They all believed in a single God and shared "fundamental values" such as the family, social responsibility, obedience to God and care for the weak, he added. >>> Copyright © 2009 AFP | Thursday, March 19, 2009

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Pope Says Financial Crisis Shows Money an Illusion
REUTERS: VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict said on Monday that the global financial crisis showed that faith in God trumped a lifetime spent pursuing material wealth.

"We see it now in the collapse of the great banks that money disappears, it's nothing," the Pontiff said.

The global financial turmoil, the worst since the Great Depression, has wiped away hundreds of billions of euros (dollars) in shareholder wealth and felled banking institutions that just months ago seemed untouchable.

The pontiff, using a biblical metaphor, said people who ignored the word of God to pursue wealth had effectively built their homes on sand instead of on a solid foundation of faith.

It was a possible reference to the collapse of the U.S. housing market, which triggered the financial crisis.

"Whoever builds his life on this reality, on material things, on success ... builds (his house) on sand. Only the word of God is the foundation of all reality," he said. [Source: Reuters] Writing by Phil Stewart; Editing by Sami Aboudi | October 6, 2008

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Pope: Financial Crisis Shows Futility of Money >>> | October 6, 2008

THE ECONOMIC TIMES (INDIA):
Financial Crisis Shows Need for Religion in Politics: Vatican: VATICAN CITY: The financial crisis sweeping the world economy proves the need for religion in politics, Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone said on Tuesday.

"Politics needs religion," Cardinal Bertone said in a speech published by the Vatican mouthpiece L'Osservatore Romano. "When instead God is ignored, the ability to respect rights and recognise the common good begins to disappear."

Bertone, the Vatican's top diplomat and Pope Benedict XVI's right-hand man, told a conference sponsored by the US-based Aspen Institute: "Where people look solely for short-term profit, identifying it with good, they end up erasing the benefit itself."

The prelate said the "current financial crisis" and the "tragic outcomes of all political ideologies" were symptomatic of this lack.

He added: "To manage globalisation, politics not only needs an ethic inspired by religion, but also it needs for this religion to be rational. For that too, politics needs Christianity." >>> IST, Agencies | September 30, 2008

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