Catholic World News News Feature
Methodist delegation speaks to Curial officials, will meet Pope December 07, 2005
Pope Benedict XVI will receive a delegation from the World Methodist Council on December 10.
The Methodist group is in Rome this week for talks with various Vatican officials, designed to strengthen relations with the Catholic Church. The group is led by Bishop Sunday Mbang, of the Methodist Church in Niger, the president of the World Council. In their first meeting at the Vatican on December 5, the Methodist leaders spoke with Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. The main topic for that conversation was the latest document of a joint Catholic-Methodist theological panel, on the nature of the Church. Later the group met with other leaders of the Roman Curia, including Archbishop William Levada, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. They are expected to attend the Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican basilica on December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception and 40th anniversary of the conclusion of Vatican II.
