Covenant News

Palmberg, Sundholm at Mass with Ratzinger

CHICAGO, IL (April 20, 2005) - During a recent trip to Rome, President Glenn Palmberg and Jim Sundholm, director of Covenant World Relief, did not see the pope as had been planned due to his illness, but they did see his successor. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the newly elected Pope Benedict XVI, was the celebrant at a Mass that Palmberg and Sundholm attended in March during a Vatican conference on justice.

"He delivered a strong sermon on the call to justice," Sundholm said Tuesday. "He called the church to follow the example of Christ, whose life, death and resurrection, was offered for all people."

"He was a powerful speaker," said Palmberg. "He left a strong impression."

Palmberg and Sundholm were among a number of international church leaders invited to participate in The Call to Justice Conference March 16-18 in Vatican City in Rome. The initial contact came in an invitation to Sundholm to present a paper at the conference. John Paul II's failing health caused their audience with the pope to be cancelled.

"One of the reasons we were invited," said Palmberg, "is because of the Covenant's strong sense of justice growing out of biblical authority within an authentic evangelical faith."

Revisiting the Vatican II Papal Council statement on justice issued 40 years ago, the conference explored the relationship between issues of justice and "the vocation to be a fully human being."

Five plenary speakers addressed themes such as "The Call to Justice and the Political Order," "The Call to Justice in the Economic Order," and "The Role of the Family in the Social Order." Presenters included Rubens Ricupero, former director general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; Callistro Madavo, special advisor to the president of the World Bank; Helen M. Alvare, associate professor of law at the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law; Cardinal Claudio Hummes, archbishop of Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Community of St. Egidio.

In addition to the plenary speakers, scholars and practitioners from 30 countries presented and responded to more than 60 papers that fell within three broad categories: theological reflection, exploration of the church's mission in the social order, and examination of contemporary economic, political and social issues.  

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