Rick Warren speaks at Catholic event, claims Jesus' prayer for unity remains 'unanswered'
Saddleback Church founder and former Baptist pastor Rick Warren spoke at a Roman Catholic evangelism event in Rome last week and suggested in a related interview that God the Father has yet to answer Jesus Christ's high priestly prayer requesting unity among His disciples.
Warren attended Global 2033, a consortium of young Catholic leaders and influencers who are mobilizing to spread the Gospel ahead of the 2,000th anniversary of Pentecost in 2033.
During an interview over the weekend with Catholic outlet EWTN about his participation in the event, Warren asserted that "no single denomination can complete the Great Commission on their own."
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"There are 2.5 billion people in the world who claim to believe in Jesus Christ," Warren said, adding that approximately 1.3 billion of them are Catholic, which makes up about half of Christianity.
"We're never going to have cultural unity. We're never going to have structural unity," Warren said, adding that "unity in doctrine" is also never going to happen.
"But we can all agree on one thing: every Christian understands we're called to go [evangelize]," he said.
When asked about the tensions between Protestants and Catholics, Warren referenced the "high priestly prayer" of Jesus in John 17, which is the longest prayer recorded in the New Testament. He claimed God has not yet fully answered it.
"His great prayer there is the prayer for unity," said Warren. "It's still the unanswered prayer of Jesus."
Regarding why he would pray with Catholics in Rome, Warren said, "I pray with anybody who believes Jesus Christ is the Lord of my life. And these are brothers and sisters in Christ."
In a 2012 article about Jesus' high priestly prayer, the late theologian R.C. Sproul explained the various interpretations of what His request for unity actually was and suggested it was not a request for unity at the expense of doctrinal integrity.
"We are called to be faithful to the truth of the gospel and to maintain the purity of the church. That purity must never be sacrificed to safeguard unity, for such unity is no unity at all," Sproul wrote.
Warren has drawn scrutiny from other Evangelicals in the past for associating so closely with the Roman Catholic Church. In 2014, he participated in a colloquium hosted by the Vatican about the complementarity of men and women, which prompted some to call for his repentance.
Warren drew accusations of poor theology earlier this year when he posted and then deleted a tweet in February suggesting that Jesus would have been a political moderate today because He was crucified in the middle between two thieves.
"The guys on both sides were thieves. If you're looking for the #realJesus, not a caricature disfigured by partisan motivations, you'll find him in the middle, not on either side," he wrote.
Following backlash that accused Warren of misapplying the Gospel account to modern-day politics while suggesting Jesus would not take a hardline stance on some issues, Warren deleted his tweet and apologized.
"I apologize. I wrote poorly. I don't believe Jesus was a centrist. He stands far above it all. 'My kingdom is not of this world...' Jn.18:36 Jesus demands our total allegiance as the center of our lives," wrote Warren two days after he had deleted his previous tweet.
In 2023, the Southern Baptist Convention upheld the removal of Warren's Saddleback Church from the denomination for permitting a woman to serve in the office of teaching pastor. The denomination maintained its decision despite an impassioned plea from Warren.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to [email protected]
