Saint Joseph Catholic Church

Pope Leo XIV received Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Cuba’s minister of foreign affairs, in a February 28 audience.

“We wholeheartedly agreed upon the necessity to put Christ in the center to move us to visible unity,” Lutheran prelate Heinrich Bedford-Strohm said following the meeting. “We also agreed that a strong prophetic voice against the unscrupulous instrumentalization of Christian faith for political purposes is needed.”

Pope Leo responded to the topics raised by the non-Catholic leaders “with profound wisdom, spirituality and compassion,” Bedford-Strohm added. “He reinforced what he has been saying all along about the need for visible Christian unity, recognizing the challenges this has even in the Roman Catholic Church because of different and diverse views.”

350 Protestant and Orthodox communities are members of the World Council of Churches, which is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Pope Francis made an ecumenical pilgrimage to Geneva in 2018 for the World Council of Churches’ 70th anniversary.

“I had the opportunity to present our movement to the Pope very briefly, its profile, its ecclesial roots, its presence in the world, with the humility of one who knows that he is an instrument in the hands of the Spirit and with the gratitude of one who has received a grace that belongs to the whole Church,” added Contaldo. “I rejoiced to hear his words that I perceived as the embrace of a father towards his son.”