Pope Francis receives new leadership of World Methodist Council

On 16 December 2024, Pope Francis received in private audience the new President of the World Methodist Council, Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett (United Methodist Church), along with the new General Secretary, Revd Reynaldo Ferreira Leão Neto (Methodist Church of Great Britain). The World Methodist Council is made up of 80 Methodist, Wesleyan and related churches, with over 80 million members in 138 countries.  The new President and General Secretary took office during the World Methodist Conference, which took place in Gothenburg, Sweden, in August 2024.

In his greeting to the delegation, Pope Francis assured the new President and General Secretary of his good wishes and prayers for their service as leaders of the World Methodist Council. Reflecting on the growth in reciprocal knowledge and affection between Catholics and Methodists since the Second Vatican Council, the Pope commented that ‘opening ourselves to one another has brought us closer and made us realize that reconciliation is a task of the heart, a task of the heart rather than the mind’. The Holy Father also commended the work of the International Joint Commission for Dialogue between the World Methodist Council and the Catholic Church and said that the 1,700th anniversary in 2025 of the Council of Nicaea provides a challenge to all Christians to persevere in the quest for the full visible unity of the Church.

Bishop Wallace-Padgett was accompanied by her husband, Revd Lee Padgett, a deacon in the United Methodist Church. The delegation also included the Revd Matthew Laferty, Director of the Methodist Ecumenical Office, Rome. The Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch and Revd Fr Martin Browne OSB, Official of the Western Section, also took part in the audience. The Methodist delegation later visited the offices of the Dicastery for further informal discussions about relations between Catholics and Methodists.