Catholic presence felt daily at WCC assembly in Brazil

Published: 2006-02-20

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil (CNS) -- Catholic presence at the Ninth General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in mid-February was a daily and visible dimension of the international gathering. Bishop Brian Farrell, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, headed a 19-member Catholic delegation that occupied a front row in the assembly's plenary hall. The delegation included Vatican officials as well as representatives of bishops' conferences and Catholic religious and lay movements. Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the council, conveyed a message of greeting from Pope Benedict XVI at the assembly's opening session. "Mindful of our shared baptismal faith in the triune God," the message said, Catholics "seek ways to cooperate ever more effectively in the task of witnessing to God's divine love."

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