A Bridge Builder Takes Charge

By Anastasia Toufexis

The World Council of Churches picks a conciliatory new leader

To the growing dismay of conservative churchgoers in the U.S. and Europe, the World Council of Churches seems to have been moving increasingly away from its avowed purpose of fostering Christian unity. In recent years the ecumenical organization, which represents 301 Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox churches with more than 400 million members, has appeared to many to have placed more emphasis on such complex social problems as racism and political oppression than on traditional spiritual concerns. Last week in Geneva the council took a step toward a more tranquil course with the election of a new General Secretary: Emilio Castro, 57, a Methodist minister from Uruguay. Dutch Ecumenist Willem Visser 't Hooft, 83, the organization's first chief officer, said that Castro "is more of a bridge builder between those who want to emphasize the role of the church in the world and those who favor the evangelical approach."

Castro was elected overwhelmingly by the W.C.C.'s 158-member central committee after four hours of debate. The 23-member nominating committee had previously considered two additional names: the Rev. Arie Brouwer of Inwood, Iowa, former head of the Reformed Church in America, and the Rev. John Bluck, a New Zealand theology professor. Castro becomes the fourth man to occupy the top W.C.C. post since the organization was established in 1948. He will succeed Philip Potter, 62, a Methodist minister from Dominica. A dynamic preacher, Potter has ardently espoused liberation theology, which finds scriptural justification for those who rebel--even violently--against oppressive social and political systems.

While liberation theology has numerous advocates in Third World churches, it has been criticized by conservatives in the U.S. and Europe as a code phrase for Christian support of Marxist revolutionary movements. Under Potter's twelve-year stewardship, the W.C.C. has endorsed Palestinian rights and opposed U.S. policy in Central America. It has also made modest grants to guerrilla groups that helped topple the white-run government of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and to those that are now trying to end South Africa's apartheid rule. Meanwhile, the W.C.C. has been only mildly critical of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and almost mute about religious and human rights violations in the East bloc.

Though more soft-spoken than his predecessor, Castro is equally committed to social justice. Born in Montevideo, Castro was one of nine children of a Spanish immigrant mother and Chilean father. The family was Roman Catholic, but as a youth he played with children from a nearby Methodist church. Says Castro, a short, slender man with an infectious smile: "I ultimately found Jesus Christ through my personal contacts. It was not a church-to-church conversion."

After graduating from Buenos Aires' Union Theological Seminary in 1950, he studied with renowned Protestant Theologian Karl Barth in Basel, Switzerland. Castro, married and the father of two children, has served as a pastor in Uruguay and Bolivia, and has held several administrative posts, including the presidency of Uruguay's Evangelical Methodist Church. In 1973 he moved to Geneva to become director of the W.C.C.'s Commission on World Mission and Evangelism. He left that post last year to work on a doctorate.

Though he has never been active in ecclesiastical politics, Castro has engaged in the secular variety. While head of his home church, he appeared on a TV show, Know Your Rights, publicly supported a leftist coalition and was mentioned as its possible vice-presidential candidate. In 1970, after leftist Tupamaro terrorists abducted Dan Mitrione, an American adviser to the Uruguayan police, Castro volunteered to mediate between the kidnappers and authorities, an offer the government ignored.

Castro will not begin his five-year term until next year, but his skill at steering a middle course was already in evidence last week. Neither Marxism nor capitalism can properly be called Christian, he said. At the center of one is "materialist affirmation," at the other the "profit motive." Referring to liberation theology, he said that "liberation in the sense of a passion for the marginal, the outcast, the periphery, is a central dimension of all my preaching and writing." He favors a pacifist approach to combatting poverty and oppression. Nonetheless, he said, "I do not judge those who fight with different methods."

Whether Castro can heal the breach between conservatives and liberals in W.C.C.-affiliated churches remains to be seen. But he has at least begun to demonstrate his talent as a nimble diplomat. --ByAnastasia Toufexis. Reported by Robert Kroon/Geneva

With reporting by Robert Kroon