Sadgrove wrote the letter in response to an article by Giles Fraser, co-chairman of Christians for Britain, who said the Protestant reformation provided the "intellectual roots of Euroscepticism".

Fraser wrote in the Guardian: "The EU still feels a little like some semi-secular echo of the Holy Roman empire, a bureaucratic monster that, through the imposition of canon law, swallows up difference and seeks after doctrinal uniformity." He added: "There are those of us who protest against our laws being crafted by some foreign power, beyond the control of our domestic parliament. Brexit perfectly recycles this defiant spirit of the Reformation. It's important to see that this debate is not just about economics but about European identity. The question of European identity has been discussed for hundreds of years," he said. "It would be mad to think the reformation was not a contributor to European identity as was the centuries of influence by the Catholic Church."

Last week it was Chancellor Merkel’s turn, along with other institutional leaders of the European Union including Schulz, Juncker, Tusk and Draghi. A real audience of kings is taking place in the Vatican’s Sala Regia, where royals — including the King of Spain — are paying their respects to the Pope, who has received the award of clear political significance.

The Pope has been awarded the 2016 Charlemagne Prize. Francis is the first leader from the “global South” and only the fourth non-European to be awarded the prestigious prize. The prize was awarded to Pope Francis following several months of international ecumenical events of political importance: A trip to Central Africa, and the development of a relationship with the Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow (who first met with the Pope in Cuba last February), and with Bartholomew the Patriarch of Constantinople (who accompanied the Pope to Lesbos last month to visit the refugees on the island). His travels, particularly to places on the “outskirts of Europe” such as Lampedusa, Sarajevo and Albania that have been marred by violence in recent history reflect both political and spiritual missions.

Francis’s dream is of “a new European humanism” in which the church plays its role in the religious community, but also promotes dialogue among Christians and people of different faiths. Francis spoke of a “Europe that is worn out, but still full of energy.” The theological foundation of his speech is clear: “God desires to live amongst men” and he is able to do so in a world that has been prepared by his gospels. In a Europe that is incapable of managing humanitarian crises and that is seeing the resurgence of nationalism, the Vatican continues to play an important role on the global scene.

The move by Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen would mark the first major boost to troop numbers in 25 years, with media reporting that the plans could involve an initial increase of 7,000 new recruits. "This change in trend is not just words; she is actually presenting a 180-degree turn in personnel policy," said Andre Wuestner, head of the Bundeswehr Association.

Wuestner criticized the policies of von der Leyen‘s predecessors, who oversaw cuts to army funding and personnel in the past decades. Since the reunification of Germany in 1990, the Bundeswehr has shrunk from almost 600,000 soldiers to 177,000.

The expected plans come as Germany steps up its military presence on NATO‘s eastern borders in the face of an increasingly assertive Russia. German troops have also been deployed within the country to support local authorities overwhelmed by the recent influx of refugees and migrants.

The problem starts with the question: Who is Herr Meuthen? Gray-haired and wearing a suit, the serious-looking Jörg Meuthen is standing on the stage inside the Stuttgart Trade Fair Center and saying things that any self-respecting member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) could agree with. Germany needs a modern form of conservatism, he says, adding that one shouldn't be ashamed for standing up for "consequential freedom and healthy patriotism."

But as much as he might sound like the 1980s version of the CDU, Meuthen isn't even a member of the party. Rather, he is a leading member of Baden-Württemberg's state chapter of Alternative for Germany (AfD), the right-wing populist, anti-immigration party that has attracted an increasing amount of support in recent months. And Meuthen's dusty, wide tie-era rhetoric is only nostalgic at first listen. There is, after all, a different Meuthen. Later on in his speech at the AfD party convention on the last day in April, he'll receive enthusiastic applause after expressing his desire for a different kind of republic: "Away from leftist-red-green infected - one could also say slightly soiled - 1968-Germany."

The reference is easily understood in Germany. Leftist refers to the far-left Left Party, "red" refers to the center-left Social Democrats and "green" is very clearly the Green Party - all of which he lumps together with the student rebellion days of 1968. But the phrase "red-green soiled" is not Meuthen's own. He took it from the author Akif Pirinçci, who has become notorious for his homophobic, sexist and anti-immigrant polemics despite his own Turkish background.

At an October 2015 demonstration of the anti-immigrant group Pegida, he accused German politicians of having "lost all respect for their own people" and accused them of wanting to throw their critics out of the country. There are alternatives, he noted, "but the concentration camps aren't currently in operation." It was a statement that cost him his publishing contracts, but the right-wing scene has since hailed him as a martyr.

The lesson of AfD's rise, says senior CSU member and German Transportation Minister Alexander Dobrindt, is that German conservatives, particularly the CDU, should hew more closely to the CSU line. "I never would have thought that the CDU and CSU would ever think and act so far apart from each other on a central issue as is currently the case with the refugee question," Dobrindt told SPIEGEL in an interview for the most recent issue, which hit the newsstands on Saturday.

KFSN-TV visited Cardenas’ home and said it witnessed a tear falling from the statue’s face. “It was oily and smelled like roses,” the outlet described, “and another tear immediately started building up.” Social media has been abuzz this week with news of the weeping Virgin Mary. Some netizens have hailed the phenomenon as a sign from God; while others have cried foul. “Maybe time to fix that leaky roof,” wrote one Facebook user.

In recent years, there have been several reports of religious statues or images shedding tears or “crying blood.” Last May, for instance, blood reportedly appeared on the face of Mary in a painting in the Philippines. Mary’s hands in the image had also become unclasped, reports ABS-CBN News. Also last year, reports emerged of a Mother Mary statue in Malaysia that was “coming alive.” The statue cried, smiled and had been “growing taller,” reported The Star Online. Local church officials said they were awaiting instruction from the Vatican before they could comment on the “miracle” statue.

Various explanations have been floated over the years as the possible cause of these “weeping” statues and images, from human trickery to condensation forming on the surface of these religious objects. In 2012, it was discovered that the “holy water” dripping from a statue of Jesus in India had actually come from a clogged drainage system.

Cell phone addiction is very real, and that is why there are actually rehab programs for this sort of thing. Unfortunately, we simply can’t put the entire country into rehab, and this problem just keeps getting worse with each passing year. Of course this is just another indication of how “me-centered” our society has become. Our phones have literally become extensions of ourselves, and we love to immerse ourselves in our own little worlds.

There is something deeply narcissistic about our love affair with these smartphones. Yes, I understand that millions of us have to use them for work, and in many ways they do make our lives much more convenient. But on the other hand they are greatly contributing to the sense of loneliness and isolation that so many Americans are feeling these days.

Instead of having deep, meaningful relationships with our phones, perhaps we should try having deep, meaningful relationships with one another. After all, previous generations of Americans seemed to have done just fine without checking their phones every five minutes.

Donald Trump has made very specific pro-life commitments on the campaign trail. In July of last year, Trump was asked to support the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, the pro-life movement’s top priority legislation, which would stop abortions after five months – more than halfway through pregnancy. This legislation has passed 15 states and the US House of Representatives, would save 18,000 unborn lives a year, and is generally popular with Americans – women in higher number than men.

In an exclusive statement to CBN’s David Brody, Mr Trump committed to supporting this legislation and urged Congress to advance it. “We should not be one of seven countries that allows elective abortions after 20 weeks,” said Mr Trump, “It goes against our core values.”

A recent article by Harvard law professor Mark Tushnet on the blog Balkinization calls for liberals to pursue even more aggressive measures against conservatives and pro-lifers, according to a new column by The Heritage Foundation’s Ryan T Anderson.

Anderson wrote at The Daily Signal: “Now that President Barack Obama has reshaped the federal judiciary, liberal causes can win easily in court. And now that Justice Antonin Scalia has died, judges no longer have to be worried about reversal by the Supreme Court if they take aggressively liberal positions.”

Tushnet blames what he calls the “culture wars” on conservatives, and he says liberals should now make conservatives pay. “The culture wars are over; they lost, we won,” he writes in italics. Tushnet claims that conservatives “had opportunities to reach a cease fire, but rejected them in favor of a scorched earth policy.”

Since when have liberals been defensive? The scorched earth policy has been theirs. They’ve been the aggressors — they’ve been offensive. Conservatives have been defensive. …Tushnet makes it clear that he and his colleagues among the liberal elite want the government to treat conservative Christians worse than racists — like Nazis.

Despite abortion activists’ aggressive, well-funded efforts, they have not been able to block Americans from the truth. Consistently, polls show that most Americans oppose most abortions; and young pro-lifers are stepping up in increasing numbers to end the injustice of abortion and restore rights for babies in the womb.

It happens because when eco-cars accelerate or slow down the tyres and brakes wear faster, in turn producing more particulates. More particles are also whipped up from the road surface because of the extra weight. These extra emissions are almost equal to the toxic particulates saved by reduced engine use, according to Jonathan Leake at The Sunday Times.

The research, led by Peter Achten and co-author Victor Timmers of Edinburgh University, is published in the journal Atmospheric Environment. Achten said: 'We found that non-exhaust emissions, from brakes, tyres and the road, are far larger than exhaust emissions in all modern cars. These are more toxic than emissions from modern engines so they are likely to be key factors in the extra heart attacks, strokes and asthma attacks seen when air pollution levels surge.'

It is, of course, Nato, not the EU, that has kept the peace since World War Two, and the EU which has already worsened – if it did not directly cause – two armed conflicts on European soil in the former Yugoslavia and the Ukraine. The history of EU-style multinational federations imposed by an elite from above in Europe is not a happy one. From the frayed patchworks of the Holy Roman and Hapsburg Austrian Empires, down to the collapse of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, they have invariably ended in bloody chaos, and then the peace and quiet of the graveyard.

Not for nothing did a bemused Mikhail Gorbachev – and as the man who presided over the dissolution of Russia's "evil empire" he should surely know – say that the most puzzling development in Europe over the past decade was the determination of the EU's leaders to reconstruct the Soviet Union, a failed state if there ever was one, on the soil of western Europe. Gorbachev was speaking before the long arm of EU meddling reached as far as Ukraine, causing that vast country to split in two and threaten war with Vladimir Putin's Russia – a slow-burn crisis that may yet erupt once more into open conflict.

Europe's totalitarian past is relevant to this debate. Of the EU's 28 member states, only three – Britain, Sweden and Ireland – have not within living memory been Communist, Nazi, Fascist or military dictatorships or occupied by the forces of such tyrannies. The EU's founding fathers, knowing this woeful history, distrusted democracy, which they believed had brought dictators and demagogues to power, and determined that their project would create a post-democratic new order, imposed by stealth step by step on their blissfully ignorant populations.

In his speech, Cameron referred to the serried ranks of tombstones in the war cemeteries of Europe bearing silent witness to the continent's disastrous wars. I saw these cemeteries when I led the Telegraph's centenary tour of the Somme this week, and I will see more when I go to the great Franco-German killing ground of Verdun next week. The men who lie in them died for freedom – not to create a new tyranny spawning more wars.

And in news likely to shock Brussels officials, almost half of Italians (48 per cent) and four in ten Frenchmen and Swedes (41 per cent and 39 per cent respectively) said they would vote to leave the EU if they were given the chance. By contrast, just one in five (22 per cent) Poles would vote for their country to leave the EU if an in/out referendum was held.

The results of the Ipsos-MORI poll come as a major snub to EU bosses on Europe Day, with today supposed to be a celebration of EU integration and unity. EU staff are given today off as part of the annual celebration, with many EU buildings open to the public. But the Ipsos-MORI survey of nine big EU countries - including Britain and representing around three-quarters of the EU population and approximately 80 per cent of its GDP - suggests growing euroscepticism across the continent.

People in India, Italy, Poland, South Africa and the US even think leaving the EU would have a net positive impact on Britain’s economy, although only those asked in India and the US believe it would boost Britain’s standing in the world. Surprisingly, Britons were more pessimistic over the chances of Brexit than other EU citizens.

The group have targeted the ad campaign to raise money for victims of the Syrian Civil War during the holy month of Ramadan in June, when Muslims traditionally fast and give to charity. But the campaign has caused anger among some Christian groups after an advert featuring the Lord's Prayer was banned from UK cinemas in the run up to Christmas.

The advert, which featured the Archbishop of Canterbury along with a variety of parishioners reciting the Lord’s Prayer, was banned from Odeon, Cineworld and Vue cinemas. Former Tory MP Ann Widdecombe said: “If other religions are allowed to put their religious banners up, then so should Christians.”

Most of the time I use this column to recommend policy changes that I believe would make the world a better place. This time I am saluting a policy change I believe will have significant benefits — one that carries with it important lessons. The decision of the European Central Bank last week to stop producing €500 notes permanently is a triumph of reasonable judgment over shameless fearmongering… High quality global journalism requires investment.

First, the world should demand that Switzerland stops issuing SFr1,000 franc notes. After Europe’s bold step, these notes will stand out as the hard-currency world’s highest denomination note by a wide margin. Switzerland has a long and unfortunate history with illicit finance. It would be tragic if it were to profit from criminal currency substitution. Second, the question of the facilitation of criminal activity should be placed prominently on the agenda of the Group of 20 leading nations.

It gets worse:

There would be a strong case for stopping the production of notes with value greater than, perhaps, $50… The political criminal states that his reason for calling for the elimination of high denomination notes is to prevent non-political crime and, well, no one needs to use large amounts of cash anyway: There is little if any legitimate use for €500 notes. Carrying out a transaction with 20 €50 notes hardly seems burdensome — and this would represent more than $1,000 in purchasing power. Meanwhile, 20 €200 notes would represent close to $5,000 in purchasing power. Who in today’s world needs cash for a legitimate $5,000 transaction?

A cashless society is a very bad idea. It would mean a society where the government would be able to track all our transactions - and thus control activities, Summers' aggressive advocacy that is moving the world toward a cashless society makes him one of the most evil economists living today.