In memoriam Maria Vingiani, ecumenical pioneer

The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity has learned with sadness, on the eve of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, of the death at the age of 98 of Maria Vingiani, a pioneer from the very start of the ecumenical engagement of the Catholic Church as well its dialogue with Judaism. As early as during the course of the Second Vatican Council, Maria Vingiani established in Rome the SAE (Secretariat for Ecumenical Activities), a lay interconfessional organization that has continued to the present time. Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference and member of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, reflected that her death has meant the loss of a passionate witness of the ecumenical journey, one of its most courageous and dynamic pioneers.