The Rev. Matthew A. Laferty, MEOR director, met H.Em. Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Vatican’s Discastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, with other dicastery officials on 24 March 2021 to discuss the work of Methodists and Catholics in the areas of peacebuilding, migration, and creation care. This Vatican department “promotes the integral development of the person in light of the Gospel and in line with the Social Doctrine of the [Catholic] Church” and gives “attention to taking care of the goods of justice, peace and the safeguarding of Creation, as well as issues regarding disarmament, human rights, human mobility, health, charitable works, expressing the concern and attention of the Pope towards a humanity that suffers, among whom are the needy, the ill and the excluded.” Cardinal Turkson served on the Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission from 1996-2006.

About matthew

Rev. Matthew A. Laferty is a pastor, ecumenist, and missionary based in Rome, Italy, where he serves as the director of the Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome.