Returning to the Fold

He was right that Protestant groups would return to Catholicism

“Protestant churches everywhere are gravitating toward union with the Roman Catholic Church. These religious movements are speeding the fulfillment of the prophecies of the resurrected Roman Empire. For 30 years I have been proclaiming this tremendous event over the air and in print.”

—Herbert W. Armstrong, 1963

From the early 1930s, Herbert Armstrong spoke out about a coming unity between Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox.

Notice this excerpt from the October 1961 Plain Truth: “The pope will step in as the supreme unifying authority—the only one that can finally unite the differing nations of Europe. The iron jurisdiction over both schools and religion will be turned over to the Roman Catholic Church. Europe will go Roman Catholic! Protestantism will be absorbed into the ‘mother’ church—and totally abolished.”

Through the pages of the Plain Truth, Mr. Armstrong prophesied of this coming church unity. Notice, again: “The final—albeit short-lived—triumph of Catholicism is recorded in literally dozens of Bible prophecies. Right now—whether we want to believe it or not—the stage is being set for the greatest revolution in religion the world has witnessed. … The mighty problem of achieving unity is twofold. First, it involves reconciliation of the Orthodox Schism that officially commenced in 1054 and divided the churches in the East …. Second, it involves restoration to the Roman Communion all Protestantism which developed from 1517 onward” (November 1963).

The Vatican has broadcast the importance of its aim for unity for well over a century. Pope Leo xiii stated it in the opening comment of his June 29, 1896, encyclical to the church: “[N]o small share of our thoughts and of our care is devoted to our endeavor to bring back to the fold, placed under the guardianship of Jesus Christ, the chief Pastor of souls, sheep that have strayed. … [T]he most worthy of our chief consideration is unity. … We earnestly pray that He (‘the Father of Lights’) will graciously grant us the power of bringing conviction home to the minds of men” (On the Unity of the Church; emphasis added).

At the time Mr. Armstrong made his forecasts, reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants seemed impossible to most onlookers. In the 1930s, when church unity was being prophesied, nothing was further from the minds of Protestants. Injustices they had suffered at Catholic hands were still considered fresh wounds to most.

But today, some nine decades after Mr. Armstrong first broke that news to the world, we see the Anglican Church and Rome’s other Protestant daughters returning to the fold. And we see the Orthodox Schism being rapidly healed!

Early Steps Toward Unity

Catholic calls for unity garnered little attention from Protestants until the 1960s. Around that time, some of them began to take some tentative, gingerly steps toward the Catholic “mother” church. By the end of the 1960s, interfaith ecumenical prayer services had been held in practically every major city of the United States, and “pulpit switches” between priests and ministers were becoming widespread.

Anglicans and Catholics carried on private meetings with Lutherans throughout 1966. The Methodist Church also encouraged holding study groups together with Catholics.

In 1967, Catholics and Anglicans held an unprecedented joint service in Madrid at the British Embassy’s Church of St. George. The event caused some Protestant leaders at the time to seriously question the need for an ongoing Protestant movement. Lutheran Bishop of Berlin Otto Dibelius said, “If the Catholic Church of 450 years ago had looked as it does today, there never would have been a Reformation.”

Likewise, Dr. Carl E. Braaten of Chicago’s Lutheran Theological Seminary concluded that it was becoming increasingly difficult to justify “a need for Protestantism as an independent movement.”

A decade later, in October 1979, for the first time in history, a pope visited the White House. Pope John Paul ii’s trip to President Jimmy Carter officially ended 200 years of estrangement between the U.S. government and the Vatican. While in the White House, the pope implored “all Christians—Catholic, Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox—to transcend our present and past differences on this occasion, and to mark the papal visit as a sign and stimulus for reconciliation … and to pray for the unity we seek.” In its December 1979 issue, the Plain Truth called it “an event unthinkable just two decades ago.”

In 1982, Pope John Paul ii traveled to England, Scotland and Wales. There he declared in London’s Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral, “Today, for the first time in history, a bishop of Rome sets foot on English soil”—and said he prayed his visit would “serve the cause of Christian unity.” He conducted a service with the archbishop of Canterbury in Canterbury Cathedral, headquarters of the Church of England. In his sermon, he appealed to his audience, which included millions watching on television, to be “praying and working for reconciliation and ecclesiastical unity.”

In 1998, the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation—which represents a majority of Lutherans worldwide, some 70.3 million believers—affirmed that Roman Catholics and Lutherans share a basic understanding. New York Times called the event “a triumph for supporters of the ecumenical movement, which has urged closer cooperation among churches” (June 26, 1998).

Pope John Paul ii undertook enormous effort to promote unity. He was the most traveled pope in history. During his 27 years as pope, he visited no fewer than 127 countries, many of them multiple times. This was one clear sign of his tremendous effort to offer the olive branch to Catholicism’s protesting daughter churches.

Yet as successful as John Paul was in his life’s work of bringing Catholics and Anglicans together, it was his death that ushered in a new phase of rapid reconciliation.

Out of Many—One

With an estimated 4 million mourners paying their respects in Rome, John Paul ii’s funeral is believed to have been the largest single gathering of Christianity in history. It rallied together what was, at the time, the largest gathering in history of heads of state (besides United Nations meetings), even surpassing the 1965 funeral of Winston Churchill. Among the attendees were four kings, five queens, 70 prime ministers and presidents, and 15 or more leaders of other religions.

Among these was Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury, who became the first Anglican leader in history to attend a pope’s funeral. Williams called John Paul ii “one of the very greatest” Christian leaders of the 20th century. The Australian said his decision to attend the funeral signaled that “the rift between Anglicans and Catholics stemming from the Reformation could finally be healed …” (April 12, 2005).

John Paul ii’s death swept Protestant churches up in papal adulation. The frenzy prompted the Guardian to print the headline “It’s as if the Reformation Had Never Happened.”

John Paul ii’s successor, Pope Benedict xvi, sought to capitalize on these euphoric sentiments, and from the start of his papacy said his “primary task” was to unify all Christians. However, though his goal was the same as John Paul’s, his approach toward achieving it was decidedly less diplomatic.

In 2007, the “mother” church restated the doctrines of “Dominus Iesus,” a document Benedict had signed in 2000, saying non-Catholics were “gravely deficient” and that Protestant churches are “not churches in the proper sense.” The restatement also said Orthodox churches suffer from a “wound” because of their failure to accept the pope’s authority.

In October 2009, Pope Benedict made this historic offer to all the “gravely deficient” Anglicans: Any who so desired could be granted membership in the Roman Church while retaining his or her Anglican practices, and any married Anglican clergy could be accepted as priests in a newly established Catholic-Anglican community. The offer was attractive to the many Anglicans who had been angered by their church’s increasingly liberal stance on issues such as the ordination of female clergy and homosexual priests. Around 900 Anglicans, including 61 clergy, entered the Catholic Church during a special service on Easter in 2011, and defections have steadily continued since. More importantly, it is a template that could be used to bring other groups back to Rome.

Meanwhile, liberalism in the Church of England pushed out a lot of clergy. One third of Catholic priests ordained in England from 1992 to 2024 were former Anglican clergyman.

In October 2011, Benedict ushered in another historic change. Back in 1701, the Act of Settlement had been enshrined into British law, forbidding the monarch from marrying a Catholic. Benedict applied some pressure, and without putting up any semblance of resistance, the British scrapped the centuries-old law.

Around that time, a convert from Lutheranism named Tim Drake, who now works as a prominent Catholic journalist and radio host, wrote an article for the National Catholic Register titled “The Lutheran Landslide.” He wrote: “One of the most underreported religious stories of the past decade has been the movement of Lutherans across the Tiber. What first began with prominent Lutherans, such as Richard John Neuhaus (1990) and Robert Wilken (1994), coming into the Catholic Church, has become more of a landslide that could culminate in a larger body of Lutherans coming into the [church] collectively” (March 25, 2011).

The next great victory in the “mother” church’s goal of re-assimilating the Protestants came in January 2013. That month, the Catholic Church and several large Protestant churches signed an agreement to recognize baptisms performed by each other.

In 2014, Francis became the first-ever pope to visit a Pentecostal church. He formally apologized to Italy’s Pentecostals for the persecution they suffered at the hand of the Catholic Church during the fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini. Joel Osteen visited the Vatican and the pope sent a recorded message to Kenneth Copeland Ministries, a large Pentecostal group seeking unity, the same year. “Brothers and sisters, Luther’s protest is over. Is yours?” asked a speaker at the event. The pope beseeched the audience, “I am [yearning] that this separation comes to an end and gives us communion.”

In 2016, Justin Welby, then Archbishop of Canterbury prayed publicly with Pope Francis. At another event the same year, Pope Francis said, “As the bishop of Rome and pastor of the Catholic Church, I would like to invoke mercy and forgiveness for the non-evangelical behavior of Catholics toward Christians of other churches. At the same time, I invite all Catholic brothers and sisters to forgive if today, or in the past, they have suffered offense by other Christians.”

“Non-evangelical behavior” is an interesting euphemism for the massive violence unleashed in the wake of the Reformation. Modern scholars estimate 50 million people died in the religious violence that followed in persecutions, counter-persecutions and religious wars.

Unity between Catholicism and the Church of England took a major leap forward after Charles became king in 2022. His coronation the next year was arguably the most Catholic coronation for nearly 500 years. The procession was led into Westminster Abbey by what are claimed to be fragments of the “True Cross,” gifted by the pope. The “Gloria” sung at the coronation was performed in Latin. Aside from the traditional Latin greeting of the King, this may have been the first time Latin has been sung during a coronation since Elizabeth i’s in 1559. Cardinal Vincent Nichols blessed King Charles, marking the first time a Catholic archbishop has taken part in a coronation in over 400 years. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin also attended, representing Pope Francis. The last coronation attended by a cardinal was probably that of Mary i in 1553.

Then in 2025, King Charles and Pope Leo prayed together—the first time king and pope had done so since the Reformation. Pope Leo also gave the King the title “Royal Confrater [or fellow-brother] of the Abbey of St. Paul.” It’s a title typically given to Catholic monarchs, made honorary protectors of the Vatican.

Healing the Schism

The Catholic Church has also long desired to restore its influence over the Eastern Orthodox Church, which split from Rome in the Great Schism of 1054. As in the case of the Protestants, in recent years Catholic leaders have made great strides toward that end.

In 1964, Pope Paul vi and Eastern Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras i met and expressed regret at the “reprehensible gestures” of the Great Schism. Those gestures were the excommunications that both groups served one another, and the two leaders rendered these excommunications null and void during their meeting.

In November 1979, John Paul ii met with Greek Orthodox Patriarch Demetrios i, stating a determination to end the “intolerable scandal” of divisions within the Christian-professing world.

In 2000, John Paul mapped out a deal with Orthodox leaders aimed at ending that “scandal” by establishing the primacy of the pope over Orthodox bishops. But the deal stalled, and John Paul did not live to see it come to fruition.

In November 2006, Benedict traveled to Istanbul for a meeting with Bartholomew i, head of the Orthodox Church. There he reiterated the words of his predecessor, saying, “The divisions which exist among Christians are a scandal to the world.”

In October 2007, Benedict and Orthodox leaders resurrected the deal that John Paul had initiated years earlier. They came to an agreement that established the primacy of the pope over all Catholic and Orthodox bishops—though some disagreement remains over exactly what authority that grants the Catholic leader.

As significant as Benedict’s strides toward Orthodox reconciliation were, however, they proved to be just an opening act for his successor, Pope Francis i. At Francis’s behest, Bartholomew traveled to Rome in March 2013 to personally attend the new pope’s installation ceremony. Media presented the event as something that hadn’t happened for a millennium, since the Great Schism divided Christian East from Christian West. Vatican experts believe it was actually the first time in history that a bishop of Constantinople attended the installation of a bishop of Rome.

In May 2014, Francis undertook a two-day trip through the Middle East that coincided with a visit to the area by Bartholomew. The two held a meeting with the motto “So that they may be one,” accompanied by a logo depicting an embrace between St. Peter and St. Andrew—the patrons of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.

Afterward, Francis and Bartholomew continued calling each other “brother Peter” and “brother Andrew” and working toward unity. After Francis’s death, Bartholomew expressed deep sorrow, calling him “a precious brother in Christ” and “a true friend of Orthodoxy.”

The war with Ukraine had brought the two closer together. The Russian Orthodox Church is essentially an arm of the Russian government, with the leader a former kgb agent. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church was formerly subordinate to the Russian Orthodox Church. After the invasion, they split. The rest of the Orthodox Church recognized the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s independence. This prompted the Russian Church to cut ties with Patriarch Batholomew in 2019. Separated from the most populous Orthodox Church, the weakened patriarch turned to Rome for support.

In reciprocation, Pope Leo xiv made a historic concession to the Eastern Orthodox patriarchs when he joined Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Protestant leaders in Iznik, Turkey, on November 28, 2025. At a meeting commemorating the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council, the heads of 27 churches recited the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed in English. They did not include the “Filioque clause” added by the Roman Catholic Church in 1014. This small linguistic change could herald the beginning of a major religious revolution.

It took two councils—the First Council of Nicaea (a.d. 325) and the First Council of Constantinople (a.d. 381)—for the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches to agree that they believed “in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets. In one holy, Catholic and apostolic church.” Centuries later, Pope Benedict viii added the Filioque clause to the creed, a Latin phrase meaning “and the Son.” This addition emphasized the Roman Catholic belief that the Holy Spirit proceeds jointly from the Father and the Son rather than from the Father alone. The Eastern Orthodox rejected this addition, and it was a major contributing factor to the Great Schism of 1054.

The fact that the current leader of the Catholic Church is willing to recite the creed without this clause is a major olive branch to the Eastern Orthodox churches. Pope Leo knows that the Catholic Church cannot be a major political player as long as it remains divided, so he is glossing over doctrinal differences, such as the “Filioque clause,” to bring Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants together under Rome’s overall authority.

What sort of unity will emerge from these steps toward reconciliation? Will the two sides meet in the middle—or are we about to see a more profound reunification?

True Unity on the Horizon

For now, the Vatican is willing to compromise to draw in its daughters. That won’t always be the case. As Gerald Flurry wrote in May 2007, “Indeed, biblical prophecy indicates that full unity will not be achieved purely voluntarily. At a certain point, the mother church will abandon its efforts to woo her daughters back by flatteries and instead revert to the age-old method of preserving ‘Christian’ unity by exerting physical force.”

In the end, this coming reconciliation between the Vatican and its protesting daughters will not usher in the peace mankind so desperately desires: just the opposite! It will bring about the fulfillment of the prophecies of Revelation 13, which speak of a universalist religion that imposes its will upon the Earth with crusading power. It will enforce a social contract that dictates not only who will work but who will eat! (verses 16-17).

For well over 50 years, Herbert Armstrong prophesied of this great religious power and its coming global dominance. But he looked beyond the great time of trial this religious power and the empire it leads will bring to this world. He prophesied of another empire, an empire that will soon overcome all other imperial and religious forces to finally impose justice on all mankind—the very Kingdom of God under the divine rule of the Author of pure religion, the living Jesus Christ!