wfn.org | Moderator Buchanan Greets Pope John Paul II,

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

14-April-1997 
97157 
 
           Moderator Buchanan Greets Pope John Paul II, 
      Holds First-ever Meeting with Vatican Unity Officials 
 
                      by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--General Assembly moderator the Rev. John M. Buchanan 
extended personal greetings to Pope John Paul II when he was received at 
the Vatican April 2. 
 
     The next day, Buchanan and a delegation from the Presbyterian Church 
(U.S.A.) met with representatives of the Pontifical Council for Christian 
Unity, the first time a General Assembly moderator has met with such 
high-level Roman Catholic officials on the subject of Christian unity. 
 
     Buchanan was accompanied on his mission by his wife, Sue; the Rev. 
Eugene Turner, associate stated clerk for governing body, ecumenical and 
agency relationships; Debby Vial, associate for international peacemaking 
in the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program; and the Rev. Duncan Hanson, area 
secretary for Europe in the Worldwide Ministries Division. 
 
     Of the papal audience Buchanan said, "His genuine pastoral nature is 
impressive.  He is quite spiritually powerful." 
 
     The Presbyterian delegation's meeting with Edward Cardinal Cassidy, 
president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, was arranged by 
Monsignor John Radano, an ecumenical colleague of Turner's, who visited the 
Presbyterian Center in Louisville last October.  Joining the Presbyterian 
delegation was Paulo Ricca from the Waldensian Church in Italy. 
 
     Among issues and concerns discussed at length: 
 
          Buchanan's assurance that the presbyteries' vote to reject the 
implementing amendments 
          on the Consultation on Church Union (COCU) does not signal a 
Presbyterian retreat 
          from its historic commitment to Christian unity 
          the exclusion of Buchanan from Communion at the funeral of 
Chicago Cardinal Joseph 
          Bernardin's funeral, which the moderator said was " a sad and 
hurtful experience ... that 
          also diminished the ecclesial significance of the PC(USA)" 
          the significance of the upcoming General Assembly vote on full 
communion between 
          the PC(USA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. 
 
(Information for this story furnished by the Rev. Eugene Turner) 

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