The Joint Working Group between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches (JWG) is an ecumenical organization working to improve ties between the Catholic Church and its separate brethren, mainly consisting of Eastern Orthodox and Protestant Christians

Protestantism

Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

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Catholic Conference on Ecumenical Questions

In 1951, ecumenical pioneer Johannes Willebrands helped organize the Catholic Conference on Ecumenical Questions, which was in contact with the World Council of Churches.

1965 meeting in Bossey

The first Joint Working Group meeting occurred in 1965 at the ecumenical institute of Bossey in Switzerland. This meeting came a few months after the promulgation of the conciliar document Unitatis Redintegratio

Unitatis Redintegratio

Unitatis Redintegratio is the Second Vatican Council's Decree on Ecumenism. It was passed by a vote of 2,137 to 11 of the bishops assembled and was promulgated by Pope Paul VI on November 21, 1964...

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Debate on proselytism

The Joint Working Group has collaborated in dialogue on the topic of proselytism, which was deemed harmful to Christian unity.

Ups and downs in collaboration

According to Armenian patriarch Aram I

Aram I

His Holiness Aram I is the head of the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia and has been Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church since 1995...

, there have been ups and down in WCC-Catholic Church collaboration. In particular, he cites ecumenical tensions surrounding the ecclesial documents Dominus Iesus

Dominus Iesus

Dominus Iesus is a declaration by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It was approved in a Plenary meeting of the Congregation, and bears the signature of its then Prefect, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, and of its then Secretary, Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, now...

 and Ecclesia de Eucharistia

Ecclesia de Eucharistia

Ecclesia de Eucharistia is a Papal encyclical by Pope John Paul II published on April 17, 2003, the purpose of which is "to rekindle this Eucharistic 'amazement' […], in continuity with the Jubilee heritage which [he has] left to the Church in the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte and its...

, as well as the question of the Eastern Catholic Churches.

Current goals

Areas of concern for the Joint Working Group have been the communication of the results of its studies, deliberations, and declarations to the parent bodies, the reception of its reports, and the implementation of its recommendations.