June 10, 2005

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia will meet Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday, 16 June. The encounter, which includes a private audience, is the first meeting between the two since they took up their current positions. A press conference is scheduled at 12:30 the same day, after the meeting.

The audience with the newly elected pope will be the climax of a 13-16 June visit to the Vatican which also includes meetings with the heads of four pontifical councils, a courtesy call to the Vatican state secretary, and visits to other Roman Catholic bodies and sites. The WCC delegation will also be spending an afternoon as guests of the WCC member churches in Italy.

Kobia will be accompanied on the visit to Rome by WCC president Bishop Eberhardt Renz from the Evangelical Church in Germany, and central committee member Archbishop Makarios of Kenya and Irinoupolis from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa (Egypt).

The Roman Catholic Church is not a member of the WCC but works cooperatively with it in several areas, and is a full member of two of the Council's commissions: Faith and Order, and World Mission and Evangelism. Benedict XVI, then Prof. Joseph Ratzinger, was a member of the Faith and Order Commission between 1968 and 1975.

The main channel for WCC-Roman Catholic Church study and discussion is a consultative body created in 1965. The Joint Working Group will celebrate its 40th anniversary in November this year in Geneva.

Former WCC general secretaries have visited the Vatican in the past, and Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II visited the WCC in 1969 and 1984, respectively.

Highpoints of the WCC visit

Monday, 13 June: Meeting with Cardinal Walter Kasper, Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity Meeting with Archbishop Michael Louis Fitzgerald, Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue

Tuesday, 14 June: Meeting with Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace Programme with WCC member churches in Rome, including a conference on "The migrant church and European Protestantism in the 21st century"

Wednesday, 15 June: Meeting with Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, Pontifical Council for Health Care Visit to Radio Vatican Visit to Sant'Egidio Community

Thursday, 16 June: Audience with the pope 12:30: Press conference hosted by the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy and the Catholic magazine Jesus. (Address: via della Conciliazione 22, second floor) Visit to Focolare Movement centre

WCC associate general secretary Mr Georges Lemoupoulos, executive secretary Rev. Sabine Udodesku, programme executive for church and ecumenical relations, Ms Teny Pirri-Simonian, and Kobia's wife Mrs Ruth Kobia will also be part of the delegation visiting Rome.

World Council of Churches