Cardinal Willebrands will address the 1975 International Congress on Charismatic Renewal in the Catholic Church in Rome from May 16 to 19. Talks. liturgical celebrations, workshops, and prayer sessions will figure at the conference, which will culminate in a special audience with Pope Paul.
On Pentecost Sunday, the 10,())0 participants will join thousands of other Catholics for a Mass celebrated by Pope Paul in St Peter's. latter that day they will hear Cardinal Willebrands speak at a 6onference session whose theme is the "Holy Spirit and the Church."
Both the topic and the feast hold special significance for the charismatic renewal, which stresses the Spirit's work in the Church and also his manifestation through "signs and wonders" like those experienced by the. early Christians.
Cardinal Willebrands, who is President of the Vatican's Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, is perhaps best known to the charismatic renewal for having encouraged the meetings between representatives of the Catholic Church and a group of min-Catholic Pentecostal leaders and I heologians.
His emphasis on "the need for a dialogue of charity, that is in the Holy Spirit" finds a ready assent from the Many' Catholics whit regularly experience a spontanepus type of ecumenism
through the charismatic renewal.
Ecumenism is one of the "vast and very real areas" indicated by Pope Paul as spheres in which reconciliation needs to take place. During this Holy Year. he has especially called for the reconciliation of man with God. with himself, with society. and with all Christians,
The same concerns lie at the heart of the charismatic renewal. whose conference theme — "Renewal and Reconciliation" — is identical to that of the Holy Year.
'Inter-Church Women's Day of Prayer In the past years the service for the World Women's Day of Prayer in the small Cheshire town of Buffington, near Macclesfield, has always been held in a private house. Last Friday, however, it was held in St Gregory's Catholic Church when a large congregation was welcomed by the parish priest, Fr P. O'Brien. The service was led by Mrs W. Fulton, wife of the Methodist minister, and the address was given by Mrs J. Skrine, wife of the Anglican curate.