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On government trends: have you ever noticed that the concept of a new world order and even a single international government moves forward no matter who is in power (Republicans or Democrats)? President Barack Obama has certainly headed in this direction due to the economic "crisis," along with European leaders, particularly Gordon Brown in the United Kingdom. But it also edged forward under President George W. Bush, President Bill Clinton, and especially the first President George Bush.

That was during the Gulf War, and it led a certain Vatican cardinal named Joseph Ratzinger, during a speech on February 8, 1992, at the University of Milan, to warn against the movement (at least in certain forms: when the Vatican promotes a new "order," it's talking not about world government, but about a new economic order that assists the poor).

In that speech, Cardinal Ratzinger recalled a 1907 book called Lord of the World and said it described "a similar unified civilization and its power to destroy the spirit. The anti-christ is represented as the great carrier of peace in a similar new world order."

As it stands right now, we see how there is already a "one-world economy," with the entire world following the U.S. into recession after the collapse of American financial instruments.

The vehicle toward one-world here: the International Monetary Fund (which is mainly controlled by Europe) and the World Bank (which would give the U.S. more influence). Which will predominate in a new world financial order? (Or will it be up to China?)

The economy will likely rise in coming months, they say, but we are years away from knowing the true effect of "toxic assets." For now, what has occurred since last September (and before that, with the collapse of Bear Stearns in 2008), serve as another in a serious of "jolts" -- not calamities, but precursors.

We were reminded of an "economic Katrina" when we visited Detroit last week (arriving on the very day Chrysler declared bankruptcy). It was a splendid retreat with fine people and one could feel the need to pray for the aftereffects of the situation, which can affect the emotions and the very spiritual atmosphere (there is a cloud there).

Still, we are way above, right now, a "depression": in the northern suburbs of Detroit, one can hardly even note a recession. There is still fantastic wealth in the U.S. -- often, wealth built on sand, but still intact. Will the rest of it be purged -- or has the government been able to pave over it? In thinking of Detroit, one could be excused for wondering about the "1990 prophecy," which seemed to imply, so radically, that automobiles and other modern technology -- in current form -- are not in conformance with God's Plan. Perhaps it is time to re-evaluate the concept of mass production -- at least to the extreme extent that we have it, which started in places like Detroit and has had many "benefits" and also many unrecognized negative effects. Think of mass production and all its ramifications for farming and across various industries and ways of life. How has it impacted health (see: fast foods)? How has it impacted spirituality?

The media is jumping on a new priest scandal, this one heterosexual and tailor made for mass consumption: an extremely photogenic and well-known Cuban priest frolicking on a Miami beach with a female. The lurid tabloid photos will be with us for a while, with Time Magazine already trying to keep this story ("Sex and the Single Priest") in play. Unfortunately, it has all of the ingredients the media lust for. Peculiar is our time in how even networks like Fox that promote basic values have such salacious photos or advertisements (right on the news page) that it often prevents us from linking to them.

Meanwhile, and speaking of government secrecy (and perhaps manipulation), one has to wonder about the swine flu. Are there vastly more cases than they led us to believe? Thank God, it is no more harmful than regular seasonal flu (perhaps even less so, in the strain that has spread), but there are hints that many more than acknowledged had it or have it. Now that it seems relatively mild, perhaps the government will release new figures showing that it indeed threatened to be a pandemic.

The prayer need now: that there is no mutation in the virus, which could turn it more deadly. It was a similar influenza that killed twenty to forty million from 1918 to 1920 -- including two of the Fatima seers and St. Padre Pio's sister (whom he once described as holier than he was, a true saint).

Notes a terrific book about him, Padre Pio: The True Story (probably the best book written on him):

"In the late summer of 1918, with the Great War still raging, the terrible worldwide pandemic of Spanish influenza struck central Italy. It is believed that more than twenty million people perished worldwide in this epidemic, which forced an estimated billion people to their beds.

"In San Giovanni Rotondo, the situation was scarcely less appalling. Everyone seemed to be ill. What little commerce there was in the town ground to a standstill.

"Padre Pio's spiritual daughters came to him terrified, begging him to save them from this wicked strain of the flu. 'Never fear,' he said to Maria Campanile. 'Put yourself under the protection of the Virgin, do not sin, and the sickness will not overcome you.' Although some of the ladies fell ill, none of them died" (page 152, expanded version).

[resources: Padre Pio: The True Story]