Pastor Rick Warren stirred debates when he urged the Roman Catholics and Evangelical Protestants to bring closer ties during his talk at the Vatican conference on the complementary of men and women last month, Breitbart reported.
"We have far more in common than what divides us. When you talk about Pentecostals, charismatics, evangelicals, fundamentalists, Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, on and on and on and on," said the Saddleback megachurch pastor.
"Well they would all say we believe in the trinity, we believe in the Bible, we believe in the resurrection, we believe salvation is through Jesus Christ. These are the big issues," he added.
A video was featured on Catholic News Service showing Rick Warren defending the Catholics' devotion to Mary. He said Catholics and Protestants still share the same mission despite doctrinal differences. In the video, he said "when it comes to the family we are co-workers in the field on this for the protection of what we call the sanctity of life, the sanctity of sex, and the sanctity of marriage."
This stirred opinions from different evangelical leaders worldwide. Warren's statements were opposed by Matt Slick, the founder and president of the Christian Apologetic and Research Ministry. He said Warren had "lent his credibility as a Protestant pastor in support of the Roman Catholic Church. This should never be done by any Protestant pastor who takes the Bible seriously." Slick also said Warren needs to repent.
Pastor Rick Warren has already been earning criticisms from his Catholic support. Back in May, he was interviewed by Raymond Arroyo of Eternal World Television Network (EWTN), a Roman Catholic public affairs program.
In the interview, Warren gave support to the Catholic Church saying, "I fully support the Catholic Church's New Evangelization, which basically says, 'We've got to re-evangelize people who are Christian in name, but not in heart.'"