Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren has praised as a “watershed moment” the release of a new pastoral letter by Catholic bishops who are calling on the wider community to care for those who are mentally ill and help end the stigma around them.
Warren told Crux in an interview this week that the “Hope and Healing” letter can serve as a “new standard for mental health ministries around the world.”
The letter comes after years of collaboration between Warren and Bishop Kevin Vann of Orange, California, on the issue of mental health. The two began working closely together after Warren’s son, Matthew, committed suicide in 2013 following a lifelong struggle with mental illness.
The letter, posted in full earlier this week on the California Catholic Conference website, says that America’s pastors and bishops are “deeply concerned with the heartbreaking prevalence of mental illness in our society and are taking action to address this tragic form of misery and sorrow.”
It warns that mental health “strikes deep within the human soul, impacting and influencing a person’s thoughts, emotions and behaviors; thereby affecting all…
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