OSTEEN MEETS WITH POPE FRANCIS AT VATICAN

Osteen meets with Pope Francis at Vatican

By Carol Christian | June 6, 2014 | Updated: June 6, 2014 8:31pm

Joel Osteen, senior pastor at Houston's Lakewood Church, was part of a group that met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on June 5, 2014. File photo. Photo: BOB OWEN, Staff / © 2012 San Antonio Express-News

On the same day his wife took 300 schoolchildren to the Bronx Zoo, Joel Osteen, the pastor of Houston's Lakewood Church, was meeting Thursday with Pope Francis at the Vatican.

Osteen said Friday it was a great honor to represent the pastors of America in the meeting with the pontiff, whom he described as warm, personable and full of joy.

"I like the fact that this pope is trying to make the church larger, not smaller," Osteen said. "He's not pushing people out but making the church more inclusive. That resonated with me."

The unofficial meeting also included Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah; former U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne; Tim Timmons, a pastor and author based in Newport Beach, Calif.; and Gayle D. Beebe, president of Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Calif., according to the Deseret News of Salt Lake City.

"We had very little time with him," Osteen said. "We were going to have more time, but a cardinal died that morning."

Pope Francis asked the group to pray for him and to pray for peace in the Middle East, Osteen said.

As part of a visit to promote interfaith understanding and ecumenical prayer, the meeting with Pope Francis was arranged by The International Foundation, a private nonprofit organization, Lee told the Deseret News.

Earlier in the week, the 15-member group met with Vatican staff members, toured the Vatican and attended the Convocation of Renewal at Olympic Stadium in Rome, according to a statement from Westmont College.

More than 50,000 charismatic Roman Catholics also attended the convocation, during which the pope knelt on the ground to pray, the Deseret News reported.

The day before the meeting with Pope Francis, Osteen said, he attended Mass in St. Peter's Square with 100,000 people.

"Afterward, (the pope) spent an hour and a half going through the crowd with the Popemobile, greeting people," he said. "It was very heartwarming to see him caring for people."

Osteen said he met the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and had dinner with another cardinal in a stone house on the Vatican grounds. The small structure with magnificently painted ceilings served as the pope's home 600 years ago, he said.

Osteen is scheduled to speak Saturday evening at Yankee Stadium as part of his "America's Night of Hope" tour.

His flight from Rome arrived in New York Friday morning.