Did Pope Benedict resign to avoid an arrest?

News today from the International Tribunal into Crimes of Church & State reveals that according to the ITCCS an arrest warrant was imminently going to be issued against Pope Benedict for certain crimes.

The ITCCS claims that "on Friday, February 1, 2013, on the basis of evidence supplied by our affiliated Common Law Court of Justice (itccs.org), our Office concluded an agreement with representatives of a European nation and its courts to secure an arrest warrant against Joseph Ratzinger, aka Pope Benedict, for crimes against humanity and ordering a criminal conspiracy."

"This arrest warrant was to be delivered to the office of the "Holy See" in Rome on Friday, February 15, 2013. It allowed the nation in question to detain Ratzinger as a suspect in a crime if he entered its sovereign territory."

"A diplomatic note was issued by the said nation's government to the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, on Monday, February 4, 2013, informing Bertone of the impending arrest warrant and inviting his office to comply."

The organization claims that no reply from the Vatican's Secretary of State was issued but that six days after the indictment was received, the Pope resigned. The ITCCS plans to issue a commercial lien through that nation's courts against the property and wealth of the Roman Catholic church commencing on Easter Sunday, March 31, 2013. They do not name that nation.

The Pope resigned on February 11, 2013 and the resignation will take effect on February 28, 2013.

It should be noted that for all the fancy-sounding title of this ITCCS organization, it is a new organization, formed in 2010 and giving itself these stated powers. The ITCCS did not reveal which "European Nation" they are working with. The ITCCS says they were "established to enforce common law and try and convict the institutions and their officers responsible for such historic and ongoing crimes against humanity. We therefore constitute a de jure Court under common law, with full power of arrest, conviction and enforcement."

Please note that as of now (5:15 PM on Tuesday, February 19, 2013) no official government, media, or organization has confirmed the alleged arrest warrant or proposed lien. However, saying that a warrant was issued is a monumental claim to make on a whim, incorrectly, or capriciously. And ... the pope DID resign just after.

The ITCCS says that they plan to continue with the indictment against whoever Pope Benedict's successor is, and further, that they plan to continue to put a lien on the entire Roman Catholic Church's "property and wealth." How much IS that wealth?

As Bill Keller stated yesterday in the NY Times, "Yes, the business of the church is saving souls, but it is nevertheless a business: a closely held conglomerate with a work force of more than a million, 1.2 billion more-or-less regular customers, 10 times as many outlets as Starbucks, more real estate than Donald Trump dreams of and lobbying clout to rival that of any secular industry."

No one is quite sure exactly how much money in property, investments, money, and gold the RCC has. Avro Manhattan wrote an expose of the wealth and property holdings of the RCC/Vatican, and in his book titled "The Vatican Billions," he states,

"The Vatican's treasure of solid gold has been estimated by the United Nations World Magazine to amount to several billion dollars. A large bulk of this is stored in gold ingots with the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, while banks in England and Switzerland hold the rest. But this is just a small portion of the wealth of the Vatican, which in the U.S. alone, is greater than that of the five wealthiest giant corporations of the country. When to that is added all the real estate, property, stocks and shares abroad, then the staggering accumulation of the wealth of the Catholic church becomes so formidable as to defy any rational assessment."

"The Catholic church is the biggest financial power, wealth accumulator and property owner in existence. She is a greater possessor of material riches than any other single institution, corporation, bank, giant trust, government or state of the whole globe. The pope, as the visible ruler of this immense amassment of wealth, is consequently the richest individual of the twentieth century. No one can realistically assess how much he is worth in terms of billions of dollars."

As for the office of Pope himself as a man, Rachel Donadio asked, When a Pope retires, is he still infallible? She wrote, "In transforming an office with an aura of divinity into something far more human, Benedict’s decision has sent shock waves through the Vatican hierarchy, who next month will elect his successor. But it has also puzzled the faithful and scholars, who wonder how a pope can be infallible one day and fallible again the next — and whether that might undermine the authority of church teaching."

It already is. Italians are already despondent and doubting.
"The pontiff has long been the one stable element for Roman Catholic Italians in a modern state that has become a byword for political instability and flawed politicians. All that changed a week ago when Benedict announced he would be the first pontiff in 700 years to resign, causing alarm and despondency among many faithful in a country whose history has been shaped by the presence of the headquarters of the Church for 2,000 years."

The world desperately seeks a strong leader, someone that they can count on to be there to bring the world through troubling times. And now 1.2 billion people have been rendered leaderless, the rug pulled out from under their feet. They have all been made more ripe to receive someone, anyone, whom they perceive to have answers and solutions.

Interestingly on February 15, Reuters reported that the Pope will be allowed to live inside the Vatican walls. The Vatican is a sovereign nation. The reasoning was that first, it is easier to guard the Pope inside the Vatican since the Guard already knows his habits, second, that if he retired say to a German monastery, for example, it might become a pilgrimage site, and third, a distant third the Vatican said, is that he'd be protected from prosecution.

In hindsight that distant third reason might not be so distant after all.

The conclave of 117 cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church is expected to start between March 15 and 18, about two weeks after Pope Benedict's resignation Feb 28. Under the church rules, the conclave is to begin between 15-20 days after the papacy becomes vacant, to give cardinals time for the arrival in Rome, reports Zee News in India.

Scandal is not new to the Church. The pedophilia claims won't go away. And last March 2012 it was noted by International Business Times that the Vatican was charged with money-laundering. The IB Times reported, "The Vatican bank is facing a possible money-laundering scandal after it emerged JP Morgan was closing one of its accounts due to a lack of information about the source of deposits, Italian newspapers report."

The most interesting part of all this are the prophetic implications. First, the Lord our God is taking down leaders at an amazing rate. The Pope is the world's most powerful man. He really is the most powerful and influential man on the entire planet, presiding over a sovereign nation (Vatican), having billions of subjects, immeasurable wealth, is said to be THE substitute on earth for Jesus (a claim to divinity), and being infallible in all his decisions.Yet he resigned abruptly,so suddenly the whole world was shocked. Just like Libya's Qaddafi being deposed after 40 years and Egypt's Mubarak after 30. Men who have been in power and seemingly held on to their position through many upheavals, suddenly caving in like a house of straw.

Secondly, it's critical to watch the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) at this juncture in world history. If there is a scandal of magnitude that brings down the Vatican, it would leave a vacuum of unimaginable proportions. Make no mistake, the pope's resignation, though not illegal in Vatican law, is definitely unprecedented. His decision opens the floodgates to all sorts of traditions being broken and doubts and questioning to begin. If compounded by a scandal, the effects will be very interesting to see.

Will the next pope (maybe the last pope) be the antichrist? The false prophet? None of the above? Will the Vatican be reduced in power and influence to such an extent that Islam becomes the dominant religion in the last days? Or will it be something else that prior to February 11 the world would never have suspected could or would happen?

Very interesting developments. Even if the arrest warrant turns out to be bogus, just the fuel it added to the very large fire is worth noting in itself. Please keep watching, These events in and around the Roman Catholic Church is without a doubt supernatural work of God. He is doing something. I praise Him for all His work and plans, known and mysterious!!