Papal Notes - Pope calls for Christian UNITY

‘Pope Francis’

Claims Devil Keeping Evangelicals, Roman Catholics Divided:

‘They Are One’

Watch Clip of Pope below
www.youtube.com/embed/DGOGfKeDKy8


"In a recorded video statement released on Saturday, the Roman Catholic Pontiff known as Francis asserted that evangelicals and Catholics are one, and that it is the devil who has divided the two groups.
“Division is the work of the ‘Father of Lies,’ ‘the Father of Discord,’ who does everything possible to keep us divided,” he said.

The eight-minute video was for the “Celebration of Christian Unity” event organized by John 17 Ministries out of Pheonix, Ariz., which seeks to unite Christians and Catholics.

“I feel like saying something that may sound controversial, or even heretical, perhaps,” Francis stated. “But there is someone who ‘knows’ that despite our differences we are one.”

“The devil knows that Christians are disciples of Christ, that they are one, that they are brothers! He doesn’t care if they are Evangelicals or Orthodox, Lutherans, Catholics or Apostolic … He doesn’t care! They are Christians,” he said.

The pontiff asserted that the devil is persecuting both evangelicals and Roman Catholics alike because they are all Christian.
“It is he who is persecuting us. It is he who is persecuting Christians today, he who is anointing us with (the blood of) martyrdom,” he said. “Dear brothers and sisters, we are living in an ‘ecumenism of blood.'”

Francis said that he unity must be achieved by each individual as he doesn’t believe it will occur at the hands of Bible scholars.
“I am convinced it won’t be theologians who bring about unity among us,” he stated. “Theologians help us, … but if we hope that theologians will agree with one another, we will reach unity the day after Judgement Day.” ChristianNewsNetwork


"The John 17 Movement — named after the Bible passage in which Jesus prays for the unity of his disciples — includes evangelicals and Catholics. One of the participants at the Phoenix meeting was Giovanni Traettino, a Pentecostal pastor from southern Italy whom the pope has known since his days in Buenos Aires. The Pope visited Traettino’s church last summer.

The Pope promised Traettino and all those gathered in Phoenix that he would spend the day praying with them for the grace of unity, “the unity that is budding among us is that unity which begins under the seal of the one baptism we have all received.”
In the video produced by the Vatican television centre, Pope Francis told the group that “division is a wound in the body of the church of Christ. And we do not want this wound to remain open.”" CatholicHerald

For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will,

and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast,

until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

Revelation 17:17