Pope Benedict XVI met at the Vatican with the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, this past December. It was the first meeting of the new general secretary with the pope. They discussed a number of issues including church unity and the situation of Christians in the Middle East.
“We had a very open and friendly conversation,” Rev. 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 ministry I am called to do as general secretary.”
The WCC has 349 member churches that collectively represent more than 550 million Christians worldwide. These include Orthodox, Anglican, Protestant and some Pentecostal and Evangelical churches.
Back in the early 1970s, Pope Benedict, then Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, had been involved in WCC’s Commission on Faith and Order. 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. The Catholic Church and WCC have maintained a close relationship over the years and have worked together to establish themselves as partners in steering the modern ecumenical movement, though the Catholic Church is not a member of the WCC. Catholic representatives have also provided input in the planning of the 10th WCC Assembly to take place in Busan, Korea in 2013.
Rev. Tveit has said that having the Catholic Church become a member of the WCC is not a pressing or urgent issue. He said that he and Pope Benedict emphasized in their conversations that there are many levels at which the WCC and Catholic Church can cooperate. “How can we strengthen the already strong cooperation we have,” Rev. Tveit asked Pope Benedict at the meeting.
The two leaders affirmed the close ties between the WCC and the Catholic Church throughout the world. In describing this relationship Rev Tveit said, “It is a strong cooperation in commissions but it is also a cooperation that is going on every day. The WCC 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.”
One of the points of discussion that certainly has implications for all Christians today is the ongoing unrest in the Middle East and Muslim-Christian relations worldwide. Rev. Tveit discussed with Pope Benedict the situation in Sudan. Rev.Tveit explained that in Sudan “the Roman Catholic Church is an extremely important actor and in Khartoum the Church is a very visible and very strong presence.”
They also discussed how the WCC and the Roman Catholic Church can support the struggling Christian churches in the Middle East. Rev. Tveit said, “We realized that the number of Christians is diminishing, particularly in the context of Iraq where they are fleeing from the country and their ongoing conflict.” He 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.”
Prior to the December meeting with Pope Benedict, Rev. Tveit also met with Cardinal Kurt Koch, who has recently become the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The two discussed the possibility of Pope Benedict coming to Geneva in the near future for a visit with the WCC and others in the Geneva area.
Rev. Tveit in an interview after his meeting with Pope Benedict reflected on the importance of the ongoing dialogue between the WCC and the Catholic Church. He said, “It is important for me as the leader of the WCC to point to the fact that we a fellowship of churches in the WCC are addressing this call every day in many ways and that we do it on the ground in many parts of the world together with the Roman Catholic Church. I very much appreciate what Pope Benedict has said on many occasions: how he is committed to the work of unity, how he is committed to the mission of the Church, to work for justice and peace and to the sharing of the Church with new generations.”