Meeting of Caritas Internationalis and the World Service of the LWF at PCPCU

On 25 June 2021, representatives of Caritas Internationalis (CI) and LWF World Service (WS) met in the offices of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, to deepen their cooperation. The meeting in Rome is understood as a continuation of a process that began in 2016 in the Swedish cities of Lund and Malmö during the Reformation commemoration with Pope Francis.

Cardinal Kurt Koch welcomed the General Secretary of CI, Mr Aloysius John, and WS Department Director, Ms Maria Immonen, together with other representatives of the Lutheran World Federation. He underlined the interconnectedness of spiritual/theological ecumenism and social/ethical ecumenism: "On the one hand, social-ethically oriented ecumenism needs the spiritual and theological dimension, in order to preserve its Christian identity. And on the other hand, spiritual and theological ecumenism constantly needs to prove itself in view of the challenges of secular societies. As Pope Francis underlined in Lund: 'Without this service to the world and in the world, Christian faith is incomplete.̕ "

_{Photo : LWF / A. Danielsson}