For the first time, a general secretary of the World Council of Churches has taken part with a pope in a Rome service to mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which ended last week, recalling the centenary of this initiative born in the United States in 1908.

After an extended period of disagreement and diplomatic conflict, the Pope has extended an olive branch to the Catholics in China, and indirectly to the governing authorities, via a meeting and pastoral letter to follow.

Pope Benedict XVI, leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, has highlighted the links between human rights and human reconciliation in his 2007 New Year message, delivered at St Peter's Rome.

Pope Benedict XVI has prayed with the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomeos I, who is often referred to as the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, making a step to healing a 1000 year rift, which the pontiff said obstructs the proclamation of the Gospel - writes Luigi Sandri for Ecumenical News International.