Asbury hosts pope's preacher

This is the first time the two religious organizations have collaborated in such a way, and Cantalamessa said during a news conference yesterday that the cooperation was one of the primary reasons he accepted an invitation to come.

"I saw that there was a convergence," he said. "This particular occasion is very important to me."

He said Pope John Paul II, who appointed him to the post of papal preacher in 1980, stressed "exchanging gifts among the churches, not exchanging accusations." That's something Cantalamessa said he wants to encourage.

"What unites us is much more important," he said. "The Lord put love in my heart for the fellow Christians."

He said the issues that created the division between the Catholic Church and other denominations centuries ago "have lost most of their importance."