New Pope Viewed as Pro-Unity, Pro-Renewal of the Holy Spirit

Over the past decade the Rt. Rev. Tony Palmer, a former director of Kenneth Copeland Ministries’ South African office and co-founder of The Ark Community, an international and interdenominational community of Christians based in the United Kingdom, has been extensively involved with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR).

In 2003, Palmer was invited by the Catholic Church to move to Europe and minister to Catholics within the CCR worldwide, as a non-Roman Catholic minister. As a result of this calling, Palmer has traveled to many countries around the world and participated in numerous meetings with leaders within the charismatic renewal.

It was during a mission to Argentina five years ago that Palmer met and soon became close friends with Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis I.

“We had called on him to ask permission to minister in churches within his diocese for renewal,” Palmer recalled recently of that first meeting. “Immediately, Cardinal Bergoglio shared his heart and appreciation for what we were doing, and fully embraced us and the work of the Holy Spirit in and through us—not only to Catholic people, but to all Christian denominations.”

On March 13, Cardinal Bergoglio became the first non-European pope in more than 1,000 years when he was elected to replace the outgoing Pope Benedict XVI, who abdicated on February 28. The 76-year-old Bergoglio, who has now taken on the name Pope Francis, after the humble Catholic friar St. Francis of Assisi, will be installed at the Vatican on March 19.

“It is quite surreal for me to see my friend, spiritual father and prayer partner as the Pope,” Palmer said this past weekend while on a ministry trip to Italy. “We have a good pope who is pro-unity and pro-renewal of the Holy Spirit. He believes that all Christians are one!”

Like the leader whose name he chose to draw from, Pope Francis is himself considered humble and is described as a conservative with “great compassion.”

In a speech he delivered to his cardinals two days after being elected, Pope Francis showed signs of his humility, compassion and his reverence of the Holy Spirit when he told them: “Someone said to me: the Cardinals are the priests of the Holy Father. That community, that friendship, that closeness will do us all good. And our acquaintance and mutual openness have helped us to be docile to the action of the Holy Spirit. He, the Paraclete, is the ultimate source of every initiative and manifestation of faith….The Paraclete creates all the differences among the Churches, almost as if He were an Apostle of Babel. But on the other hand, it is He who creates unity from these differences, not in ‘equality,’ but in harmony….The Paraclete, who gives different charisms to each of us, unites us in this community of the Church, that worships the Father, the Son, and Him, the Holy Spirit.”

From the inception of The Ark Community, KCM has maintained a strong partnership with Palmer through prayer and by supporting his mission work. It was through Palmer’s assistance that Kenneth and Gloria Copeland were able to minister to the Roman Catholic Church in Italy for the first time ever in 2006. They have since returned there to minister.

In light of the historic change taking place in the Catholic Church, we asked Palmer for his insight into the election of the new Pope, and what effect he feels this might have on the Body of Christ overall. Here is some of what he had to say:

Read the full article: http://www.kennethcopelandministries.org/2013/03/historic-ch ange/ - Here

Source: http://archive.openheaven.com/forums/post_message_form.asp? FID=3 - Kenneth Copeland Ministries