“Considerable progress has been made on the ecclesiological implications of Baptism, on the nature and aims of ecumenical dialogue and on the participation of the Catholic Church in the National and Regional Councils of Churches”. So declares a communiqué issued by the Vatican Press Office on 19 May at the end of the 4th plenary meeting of the mixed work group (MWG) of the Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches (WCC), held close to Bari from 5 to 11 May. “Gratitude” is expressed “to the sub-groups that prepared these texts for discussion”; their “more complete draft says the communiqué will be presented to the next plenary meeting for improvements, with a view to attaching them to the final Report that the MWG will present to the next plenary assembly of the WCC and to the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity”. The representatives of the WCC reported on the results of the ‘Special Commission on relations with the Orthodox Churches’ and on the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the ‘Faith and Constitution Commission’ held in Lausanne in 2002. The representatives of the Catholic Church, for their part, presented an analysis on bilateral relations and dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, Reformed, Mennonites, Pentecostals and Disciples of Christ, and the consultation with the Seventh Day Adventists and Evangelicals. An update was also presented on the ways in which the Churches and ecclesial communities are contributing to and participating in the ‘Decade to overcome violence’.
