An amazing acknowledgment from a leading Vatican official: Cardinal: Terrorism is the fourth world war. (Hat tip: Faith Freedom International.)

“We have entered the Fourth World War,” said Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace, saying he believed that the Cold War was World War 3. “I believe that we are in the midst of another world war,” he said in comments published in Italian newspapers on Tuesday.

“And it involves absolutely everyone because we don’t know what will happen when we leave a hotel, when we get on a bus, when we go into a coffee bar. War itself is sitting down right next to each and every one of us,” he said.

“Every state has to put in place the best possible policing method and this, naturally, might affect some personal freedoms. States have to carry out a defensive policy,” he said.

Martino, who served for many years as Pope John Paul’s ambassador to the United Nations, was opposed to the war in Iraq and last year criticised the United States treatment of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein after his capture. Martino said at the time that US forces had treated Saddam “like a cow”.