RICK WARREN, JEAN VANIER, AND THE NEW EVANGELIZATION

The Warren- Arroyo EWTN interview that aired on YouTube April 11, 2014 provided many insights regarding the “New Evangelicalism” that is presently unfolding. Rather than lines being drawn in the sand, walls are coming down and ecumenical unity is being established. If Rick Warren and his followers represent the direction many former “Protestants” are headed, it is only a matter of time for the coming One World Ecumenical Religion to be established. The Jesuit plan to bring the “separated brethren Home to Rome” will have been accomplished. Those who refuse to follow will be singled out and considered “heretics.” Is it possible that persecution for these “resistors” is in store?

One revelation that came out of the interview was the fact that Warren and his Saddleback Church had hosted a delegation from Rome to discuss the New Evangelization Program. Apparently a number of Roman Catholic delegates were observing the Warren-Saddleback Purpose Driven Program in order to gain ideas and insight for the Roman Catholic New Evangelization Plan initiated by Pope John Paul II and continued by Pope Benedict and Pope Francis.

The following question was asked by Raymond Arroyo:

The Vatican recently sent a delegation here to Saddleback—the pontifical council—the academy for life. Tell me what they discovered and why did they come? This is a sizeable group. [1]

Warren’s response was immediate and enthusiastic. He said:

It was. They were about 30 bishops from Europe. One of the men had been actually trained and mentored by Jean Vanier, which is an interesting thing because we have a retreat center here and my spiritual director, who grew up at Saddleback, actually went and trained under Jean Vanier too. So I am very excited about that. [2]

While the term “spiritual director” or the name Jean Vanier may not mean much to you unless you are versed on contemplative mystical spirituality, this admission by Warren provides conclusive evidence of his endorsement of Roman Catholic monastic mysticism and all that goes along with it. The fact he mentions he has his “own” spiritual director located at Saddleback who was trained under the leadership of Jean Vanier is even more significant.

A brief look at Jean Vanier will provide important insights. Vanier (b. 1928) is the Canadian Catholic founder of L’Arche, which is a humanitarian community for disabled people. It is L’Arche where Catholic priest Henri Nouwen spent the last ten years of his life. Vanier is a contemplative mystic who promotes interspiritual and interfaith beliefs, calling the Hindu Mahatma Gandhi “one of the greatest prophets of our times”[3] and “a man sent by God.”[4] In the book Essential Writings, Vanier talks about “opening doors to other religions” and helping people develop their own faiths be it Hinduism, Christianity, or Islam.[5]  The book also describes how Vanier read Thomas Merton and practiced and was influenced by the spiritual exercises of the Jesuit founder and mystic St. Ignatius.