EWTN News reports on a new film titled “That They May Be One,” set for theatrical release on May 19–20, which promotes the ecumenical agenda under the guise of fulfilling Christ’s prayer in John 17:21. The documentary features interviews with Catholic and Protestant figures—including Fr. Mathias Thelen, Mary Healy, and evangelist Francis Chan—and reenactments portraying Jesus, aiming to foster interdenominational unity. Producer Adriana Gonzalez claims the film responds to a supposed divine mandate for unity, citing the Second Vatican Council and St. John Paul II’s *Ut Unum Sint* as authoritative justifications. Yet beneath this veneer of piety lies a profound betrayal of Catholic doctrine: the film advances a modernist, indifferentist vision that dissolves the Church’s exclusive claim to truth in favor of a syncretistic, spiritually bankrupt coalition.
The Heresy of Religious Indifferentism Disguised as Obedience
The central thesis of the film—that all Christians must pursue unity across denominational lines—directly contradicts the immutable teaching of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius IX, in the Syllabus of Errors (1864), condemned as heresy the proposition that “every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true” (Proposition 15), and further anathematized the idea that “Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion, in which form it is given to please God equally as in the Catholic Church” (Proposition 18). The film’s inclusion of Protestant leaders like Pastor James Ward and Francis Chan as legitimate voices in the quest for “Christian unity” implicitly endorses this condemned indifferentism, treating heresy not as a mortal danger but as a partner in dialogue.
Moreover, the appeal to Vatican II and John Paul II is itself illegitimate. As the Defense of Sedevacantism file demonstrates, a manifest heretic loses his office ipso facto by the very act of heresy, without need for declaration (Bellarmine, De Romano Pontifice). John Paul II, who promulgated *Ut Unum Sint*, was a notorious promoter of false ecumenism—kneeling in prayer with animists at Assisi, endorsing interfaith worship, and advancing the very errors condemned by Pius IX. His “teaching” carries no authority; it is the voice of an antipope leading souls into spiritual adultery.
The Omission of Catholic Exclusivism: A Deliberate Silence
What the film omits is as damning as what it affirms. Nowhere does it mention the dogma Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (“Outside the Church there is no salvation”), defined at the Fourth Lateran Council and reaffirmed by countless popes. Pope Leo XIII, in Satis Cognitum (1896), declared: “The Church is one, and therefore those who are not in her are not in the one true fold.” The film’s call for unity with Protestants—who reject the Real Presence, the sacramental priesthood, the papacy, and the necessity of baptism—renders Christ’s prayer meaningless. Unity without truth is not unity but confusion, a counterfeit peace that mocks the Cross.
The producers’ claim that unity “waters down our Catholic faith” is dismissed as a “misconception,” yet this is precisely what occurs when Catholics collaborate with heretics as equals. The Council of Trent anathematized those who say that communion under both kinds is necessary for salvation (Session XXI, Canon 2), yet Protestant communities routinely deny the Eucharist’s sacrificial nature. To seek unity with such groups is not obedience to Christ but rebellion against His Mystical Body.
The Modernist Reinterpretation of Scripture
The film’s use of John 17:21—“That they may all be one”—is a classic modernist distortion. Christ prayed for the unity of His Church, not a federation of warring sects. The unity He envisioned was hierarchical, sacramental, and doctrinal: “One Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph 4:5). The film, however, reduces this to a sentimental, horizontal unity of “shared mission,” echoing the condemned proposition from Lamentabili sane exitu (1907): “The organic structure of the Church is subject to change, and the Christian community, like the human community, is subject to continuous evolution” (Proposition 53).
This evolutionary view of the Church is pure Modernism, the “synthesis of all errors” as St. Pius X declared in Pascendi Dominici Gregis. The film’s emphasis on “unity in the Holy Spirit” apart from doctrinal fidelity is a hallmark of the charismatic movement, which substitutes emotional experience for supernatural faith. As the False Fatima Apparitions file warns, such movements often serve as vehicles for Masonic infiltration, diverting attention from the true enemies within the Church: modernist apostates who occupy her structures.
The Role of EWTN and the Complicity of Catholic Media
That EWTN News promotes this film is unsurprising. Once a bastion of orthodoxy, EWTN has long since capitulated to the conciliar sect, platforming heretics and ecumenists while marginalizing sedevacantists and traditional Catholics. The network’s endorsement of this film reveals its true allegiance: not to the unchanging Magisterium, but to the spirit of Vatican II, which Pope Pius XI warned would bring “seeds of discord” and “unbridled desires” cloaked in the language of peace (Quas Primas, 1925).
The film’s producers speak of “falling in love with Jesus again,” yet their Jesus is a sentimental figure stripped of His kingship, His justice, and His demand for exclusive worship. This is the Jesus of liberal Protestantism, not the Christ who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). To “fall in love” with this false Christ is to commit spiritual fornication.
Conclusion: Unity Without Truth Is Apostasy
The film “That They May Be One” is not a call to unity but a summons to apostasy. It trades the pearl of great price—the one true Faith—for the counterfeit currency of ecumenical goodwill. Catholics who participate in such endeavors, whether as viewers or collaborators, risk their souls. As Pope Pius IX thundered: “The Church has not the power of defining dogmatically that the religion of the Catholic Church is the only true religion” (Proposition 21, Syllabus of Errors)—a proposition he condemned as absurd. The truth is not negotiable; it is revealed, defined, and defended by the Church until the end of time.
Let those who hunger for unity return to the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, receive the true Eucharist worthily, and submit to the authority of the pre-conciliar Magisterium. Only then will Christ’s prayer be fulfilled—not in the theaters of Hollywood, but in the triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the restoration of all things in Christ the King.
Source:
‘That They May Be One’: New film explores call to Christian unity (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 18.05.2026