Rick Warren Calling for Unity with Rome

This month, Rick Warren of Saddleback Church gave an exclusive interview with Catholic television channel EWTN, complete with effusive praise for the Catholic Church and the popes and a call for unity with Rome. He praised the works of Catholic contemplative “saints” such as St. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, calling their books “great classic devotional works,” ignoring the fact that they held to a false sacramental gospel and venerated Mary as the Mother of God and the Queen of Heaven. Warren said that Saddleback uses Roman Catholic contemplative prayer methods such as the very dangerous “centering prayer,” and Saddleback’s “spiritual director” was trained by a Roman Catholic named Jean Vanier. (See “Silence vs. The Silence” at www.wayofife.org.) In fact, he said that when he was writing The Purpose Drive Church he would get up in the morning, light candles, and start writing. He called Pope Francis “our pope” and said, “For authenticity, humility, Pope Francis is the perfect example. He is doing everything right.” Warren said that Saddleback recently received a delegation from the Vatican consisting of about 30 Catholic bishops to study the church’s “style of evangelization.” Warren said, “I fully support the Catholic Church’s New Evangelization,” which is a program to regain lapsed Catholics to the false Catholic faith and which is centered around veneration of Mary. When asked by EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo, “What is keeping Christians apart from the unity that John Paul II and all the recent popes have called for?” Warren replied: “I think we need to go back to the words of St. Augustine. ‘In the essentials we have unity; in the non-essentials we have liberty; in all things we show charity.’ I think this is really true. I think as the world, particularly the western culture, becomes more secular, more anti-Christian ... it is really incumbent on all Christians of every brand and stripe that we join together on the things that we share in common” (Rick Warren, EWTN, “World Today,” Apr. 10-11, 2014). Rick Warren is one of the most influential Christians on earth and also one of the most dangerous. He is enthusiastically building the end-time, one-world church.

(Friday Church News Notes, April 25, 2014, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

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