WCC NEWS: Pope Benedict and WCC leader reaffirm common goals for visible church unity

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>World Council of Churches - News

POPE BENEDICT AND WCC LEADER REAFFIRM COMMON GOALS FOR VISIBLE CHURCH

>UNITY

>For immediate release: 04 December 2010

The general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Dr Olav
Fykse Tveit, met in a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI at the
Vatican on Saturday for nearly a quarter of an hour. The two church
leaders discussed a number issues including visible church unity and 
the
situation of Christians in the Middle East.

"We had a very open and friendly conversation," Tveit said after the
audience. "He emphasized in a very kind and also a very strong way the
importance of the World Council of Churches' work and the ministry I 
am
called to do as general secretary."

Pope Benedict also "expressed his interest in how we are now 
developing and
planning for the work we are going to do in the future. He has himself
been involved in our Commission on Faith and Order, so he knows a very
important dimension of our work very well."

As theologian and Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope 
Benedict XVI
was part of the WCC Faith & Order Commission in the early 1970s.

Tveit said the pope was very interested in how the WCC will work with 
"our
theological issues, and how we also strengthen the work of visible 
unity
between the churches".

According to Tveit, Pope Benedict said taking the approach of 
allowing the
Bible to be a centerpiece in theological discourse and reflection was 
one
way of strengthening visible Christian unity.

This was the first meeting between the two since Tveit assumed the 
role of
WCC general secretary in January of this year. It was also Tveit's 
second
visit to the Vatican this year.

The Roman Catholic Church participates in several WCC activities, 
including
the Faith and Order Commission, the Commission on World Mission and
Evangelism and the Joint Commission of the WCC and the Roman Catholic
Church. Catholic representatives provide input for the planning of the
10th WCC Assembly in Busan, Korea in 2013.

The WCC has 349 member churches who represent more than 550 million
Christians around the world including the Orthodox, Anglican, 
Protestant
and some Pentecostal and Evangelical Churches. The Roman Catholic 
Church
is a single church representing more than one billion members.

The WCC and Roman Catholic Church maintain close contact at a number 
of
levels and have worked to establish themselves as partners in 
steering the
modern ecumenical movement, although the Catholic Church is not a 
member
of the WCC.

 From Tveit's perspective, having the Catholic Church become a member 
of the
WCC is not a pressing or urgent issue.

Tveit said that he and Pope Benedict emphasized in their conversation 
that
there are many levels at which the WCC and Roman Catholic Church
cooperate. "How can we strengthen the already strong cooperation we 
have?"
Tveit said he asked Pope Benedict.

For Tveit, the relationship "is much more than the link between Rome 
and
Geneva."

"It is a strong cooperation in commissions, but it is also a 
cooperation
that is going on every day," he said. "The World Council of Churches 
is a
fellowship of churches around the world, and when I travel and meet 
with
the member churches in many cases they describe to me how they 
cooperate
with the Roman Catholic Church on the local level and national level."

"This is about how we cooperate as churches in many contexts around 
the
world," Tveit added.

One specific context Tveit discussed with Pope Benedict was the 
situation
in Sudan where Tveit is planning to make a trip in the near future, in
advance of the referendum on relations between the northern and 
southern
sections of the country. He hopes that the situation does not 
exacerbate
Muslim-Christian conflict. "In this," he said, "the Roman Catholic 
Church
is an extremely important actor, and in Khartoum the church has a very
visible and very strong presence."

The two also talked about how they can support Christianity in the 
Middle
East.

"We realized that the number of Christians are diminishing, 
particularly in
the context of Iraq where they are fleeing from the country and their
ongoing conflict," Tveit said.

"But also we talked about the situation in Israel and Palestine. And 
the
churches there need to have a united witness," he continued.

"I mentioned the great importance of the Roman Catholic Church there 
and
how it is also contributing to the one ecumenical voice in 
Jerusalem," he
said.

Tveit added that he and Pope Benedict shared the concern that "we 
know that
this situation for churches in the Middle East is related to the 
political
context and the political realities both in Palestine and Israel but 
also
in other parts of the Middle East."

The two recognized the need to build trust between the conflicting 
groups
there, and to continue a commitment to dialogue. Tveit suggested that 
the
governments in the region "know what they have to do; they just need 
the
courage and support to do it."

This coming January the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity theme 
materials
have been collected by the Christian leaders in Jerusalem through a 
joint
effort of the WCC and the Roman Catholic Church's Pontifical Council 
for
the Promotion of Christian Unity.

"It is in itself an important ecumenical initiative to strengthen the
visibility of the churches in the Holy Land," Tveit said of the Week 
of
Prayer theme. "I hope this week can really become where we see, as
Christians around the world, that the Christians in the Holy Land are 
not
there only to steward museums, they are living stones, they are living
witnesses of the message of Christ in a very difficult reality, but 
in the
same place as Christ lived and died and was resurrected."

Prior to the meeting with Pope Benedict, Tveit also met with Cardinal 
Kurt
Koch, who is originally from Switzerland and has recently become the
president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian 
Unity.

The two discussed the possibility of Pope Benedict coming to Geneva 
in the
near future for a visit with the WCC and with others in the Geneva 
area.

Tveit's trip to Rome included a visit to the headquarters of the 
Focolare
Movement as well as to the Sant'Egidio community. At the basilica of 
Santa
Maria in Trastevere he visited a soup kitchen and a home for the 
aged. He
spoke at a worship service of the Federation of Protestant Churches in
Italy that was held in Rome. Tveit's visit ends on Sunday 5 December.

>Media contact: Mark Beach +41.79.507.6363

More information on cooperation between the WCC and the Vatican
(Link: http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=4a711aa14f0206fa5c49 )

More information on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
(Link: http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=de0ca5efa0f380388358 )

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, 
witness 
and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship 
of 
churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 
Protestant, 
Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 
million 
Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the 
Roman 
Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Olav Fykse 
Tveit, 
from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, 
Switzerland.

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