wfn.org | POPE MEETS DELEGATION FROM WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES

[PCUSA_NEWS@ecunet.org]

17-Apr-95

95107  POPE MEETS DELEGATION FROM WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES 
 
                         by Luigi Sandri 
                  Ecumenical News International 
 
ROME--Pope John Paul II held a private meeting at the Vatican April 6 with 
Konrad Raiser, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), 
and other WCC officials. 
 
     It was Raiser's first official meeting with the Pope since he took up 
the post of general secretary in 1993.  It is customary for a new general 
secretary of the WCC, of which more than 320 Protestant, Orthodox and 
Anglican churches around the world are members, to visit the Roman Catholic 
leader. 
 
     The Roman Catholic Church is not a member of the WCC, but there is 
cooperation and dialogue between the Vatican and the WCC.  While the two 
organizations enjoy a friendly relationship, some recent Vatican 
statements, including pronouncements leading up to the Population 
Conference in Cairo last September and a papal statement last year ruling 
out women priests for the Roman Catholic Church, have showed marked 
differences between the views of the Vatican and those of many member 
churches of the WCC. 
 
     Raiser also met a leading Vatican official, Archbishop Jean-Louis 
Tauran, and other Vatican staff. 
 
     On April 5 Raiser met representatives of Protestant churches in Rome, 
including the president of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy, 
Domenico Tomasetto; the moderator of the Tavola Valdese (Waldensian 
Church), Gianni Rostan; and the president of the Baptist Union of Italy, 
Renato Maiocchi. 
 
     The representatives of the Italian churches explained to Raiser and a 
delegation from the WCC the relationships between Italy's churches.  The 
WCC officials described growing cooperation between the WCC and churches, 
including pentecostal and evangelical organizations, which are not WCC 
members. 
 
     Neither the WCC delegation nor the Vatican commented on the substance 
of the meeting between the Pope and Raiser. 
                                # # # 
 
 

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