Editing World Council of Churches (section)

===Relations with the Roman Catholic Church===
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The largest Christian body, the [[Roman Catholic Church]], is not a member of the WCC, but has worked closely with the council for more than three decades and sends observers to all major WCC conferences as well as to its Central Committee meetings and the Assemblies (cf. [[Joint Working Group between the Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches|Joint Working Group]]).

The [[Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity]] also nominates 12 members to the WCC's ''Faith and Order Commission'' as full members. While not a member of the WCC, the Catholic Church is a member of some other ecumenical bodies at regional and national levels, for example, the [[National Council of Churches in Australia]] and the National Council of Christian Churches in Brazil (CONIC).

[[Pope Pius XI]] stated in 1928, that the only means by which the world Christian community was to return to faith, was to return to Roman Catholic worship. In this regard, the Papacy rejected, to a great extent, the idea of the participation of the Catholic Church within the World Council of Churches.

Pius XI stated that the ‘One True Church’ was that of the Roman Catholic denomination, and therefore there was the implication that the Catholic Church was not permitted at this stage to engage with other denominations, which the Papacy considered to be irrelevant. A similar policy was followed by his successor, [[Pope Pius XII]]; the Catholic Church, therefore, did not attend the 1948 meeting of the WCC, in addition to the idea that all members of the Church were barred from attending WCC conferences.

[[Pope John XXIII]] took a different stance however, and in 1958 he was elected as the head of the Catholic Church. [[Ecumenism]] was a new element of Catholic ideology which had been permitted, which was signified to a great extent, when John XXIII met with the then Archbishop of Canterbury, [[Geoffrey Fisher]]. This was the first meeting between an Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Pope in the Vatican for 600 years. John XXIII later developed the office of the [[Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity|Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity]]; which symbolised a dramatic shift in support for the ecumenical movement, from the Catholic Church, led from the Vatican. 1961 saw Catholic members attend the Delhi conference of the WCC, which marked a significant shift in attitude toward the WCC from the Papacy. There was the idea in addition to this, that the Pope invited non-Catholics to attend the Vatican II Council.<ref name="Harmon2010"/> This new approach to inter-denominational relations was marked within the ''[[Unitatis redintegratio|Unitatis Redintegratio]]'' decree.

This document marked several key reforms within the Catholic approach:

I.	‘[[Separated brethren]]’ was the new term for non-Catholics, as opposed to the previously used ‘heretics’ {{citation needed|date=February 2019}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Welsh |first=Robert K. |date=2013 |title=The Ecumenical Legacy of the Second Vatican Council: A Disciples Perspective |url= |journal=Journal of Ecumenical Studies |volume=48 |issue=2 |page=180 |via=EBSCO}}</ref>

II.	Both Catholic and non-Catholic elements are held responsible for [[Reformation|the schism between Catholicism and the Protestant movement]] {{citation needed|date=February 2019}}

III.	Non-Catholics are recognised to the contributions that they make to Christian belief overall {{citation needed|date=February 2019}}

Further reforms have been enacted with regard to the nature of the Catholic Church on the world stage, for instance the 1965 union with the Patriarch of Constantinople, whereby the 1054 schism was undermined. In addition to this, [[Michael Ramsey|Michael Ramsay]], the then Archbishop of Canterbury, received an [[Ecclesiastical ring|episcopal ring]] in 1966; a mark of union which had not been seen since prior to the [[Reformation]]. Moreover, the Anglican, Roman Catholic International Committee was additionally established as a means of promoting communication and cohesion between the two denominations. This has since marked a new level of participation of the Catholic Faith in the aforementioned ecumenical movement, and therefore is the basis for increased participation from the faith, in the WCC.