Pastor Rick Warren speaks to EWTN Vatican Bureau Chief Andreas Thonhauser on "EWTN News Nightly," Friday, June 6, 2025 / Credit: EWTN NewsCNA Staff, Jun 7, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).Evangelical pastor Rick Warren this week said the upcoming 2,000th anniversary of the death and resurrection of Jesus highlights the Lord's "unanswered prayer" of unity in the Christian world, a unity which he said will help bring the message of salvation to the world. Warren, the founder of the Baptist Saddleback Church in California, spoke to EWTN Vatican Bureau Chief Andreas Thonhauser in Rome on attending a gathering of Global 2033, a Catholic evangelization initiative working to spread the Gospel message ahead of the two-thousand-year observance of Christ rising from the dead. Asked by Thonhauser why he was speaking at a Catholic event, the Protestant minister claimed that "no single denomination can complete the Great Commission on their own." "There are 2.5 billion people in the world w...
Pastor Rick Warren speaks to EWTN Vatican Bureau Chief Andreas Thonhauser on "EWTN News Nightly," Friday, June 6, 2025 / Credit: EWTN News
CNA Staff, Jun 7, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).
Evangelical pastor Rick Warren this week said the upcoming 2,000th anniversary of the death and resurrection of Jesus highlights the Lord's "unanswered prayer" of unity in the Christian world, a unity which he said will help bring the message of salvation to the world.
Warren, the founder of the Baptist Saddleback Church in California, spoke to EWTN Vatican Bureau Chief Andreas Thonhauser in Rome on attending a gathering of Global 2033, a Catholic evangelization initiative working to spread the Gospel message ahead of the two-thousand-year observance of Christ rising from the dead.
Asked by Thonhauser why he was speaking at a Catholic event, the Protestant minister claimed that "no single denomination can complete the Great Commission on their own."
"There are 2.5 billion people in the world who claim to believe in Jesus Christ," Warren said. Of those, "1.3 billion are Catholic. About half of the Christian Church is Catholic."
Dismissing potential criticisms that his intent is to convert Catholics to Protestantism, Warren pointed to Christ's prayers in John 17, in which he prayed to God: "Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one."
That plea "is still the unanswered prayer of Jesus," Warren said.
"We're never going to have cultural unity. We're never going to have structural unity," Warren pointed out.
"We're never going to have unity in doctrine," he further claimed. "But we can all agree on one thing. Every Christian understands we're called to go [and evangelize]."
On praying alongside Catholics in Rome, Warren said: "I pray with anybody who believes Jesus Christ is the Lord of my life. These are brothers and sisters in Christ."
Looking forward to 2033, Warren said: "What the world needs now is hope."
The Baptist pastor further shared that EWTN has been a "great ministry in [his] life." He pointed to the 2013 death of his son, who took his own life that year after struggling with mental illness.
"It was the worst day of my life," Warren said. "One of the things that helped me through was on EWTN, they were praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. And the Chaplet of Divine Mercy ministered to me and to my wife."
Pope Leo XIV prays the Angelus prayer on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on Dec. 8, 2025. / Credit: Vatican MediaACI Prensa Staff, Dec 8, 2025 / 13:30 pm (CNA).Pope Leo XIV led the Angelus prayer Dec. 8 from the window of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican on the occasion of the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.Addressing the faithful and pilgrims in attendance in St. Peter's Square, the pontiff commented that on Dec. 8 we express our joy because the Father of heaven wanted her to be "preserved immune from all stain of original sin.""The Lord has granted to Mary the extraordinary grace of a completely pure heart, in view of an even greater miracle: the coming of Christ the Savior," he added.The pope also noted that the gift of the fullness of grace in the young woman of Nazareth "was able to bear fruit because she in her freedom welcomed it, embracing the plan of God."He emphasized that "the Lord always acts in this way: He gives us great gifts, but he leaves ...
null / Credit: chayanuphol/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 8, 2025 / 14:00 pm (CNA).Bishop Michael Duca has granted a dispensation from Sunday Mass attendance for immigrants fearing deportation in the Diocese of Baton Rouge, the fourth U.S. diocese to do so.News of the dispensation comes amid heightened presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Louisiana as part of the Trump administration's "Swamp Sweep," which has been reported to include the deployment of 250 Border Patrol agents to the region and plans to arrest 5,000 individuals across Louisiana and Misssissipi."With the recent publicized arrival of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers into south Louisiana and greater Baton Rouge, and since many of the faithful genuinely fear immigration enforcement actions, thereby making it untenable for them to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation, I hereby grant a dispensation from the obligation to attend Mass for those Ca...
Pope Leo XIV receives Bishop Pierre Goudreault of Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (center), Archbishop Richard Smith of Vancouver (right), and Father Jean Vézina, secretary-general of the Canadian bishops (left), in a Nov. 15, 2025, meeting at which the Holy Father gifted dozens of artifacts that originated with Indigenous peoples of the North American country. Leo at the meeting donated 62 pieces from the ethnological collections of the Vatican Museums to the Canadian bishops. / Credit: Vatican MediaMontreal, Canada, Dec 8, 2025 / 14:48 pm (CNA).Vancouver Archbishop Richard Smith said the 62 Indigenous cultural items received from the Vatican marks "a gift freely given" and an important step in rebuilding trust between the Catholic Church and Indigenous peoples.The artifacts, including a rare century-old Western Arctic kayak, were formally transferred to Indigenous leaders in Montreal as part of the Jubilee of Hope declared...
Pastor Rick Warren speaks to EWTN Vatican Bureau Chief Andreas Thonhauser on "EWTN News Nightly," Friday, June 6, 2025 / Credit: EWTN News
