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Article: John Paul II, ecumenist asks prayers for his own conversion.(Report on 'Ut Unum Sint')
- Article from:
- Commonweal
- Article date:
- July 14, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Commonweal Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Future historians, asked to name John Paul 11's most influential achievement, would surely have pointed to his role in dismantling the late Soviet empire. But now, following the publication of his new encyclical, Ut unum sint ("That They May Be One," see, Origins, June 8), there is another choice for their consideration. The encyclical may mark the beginning of the end of Christianity's thousand-year division.
John Paul reminds his readers that the Roman Catholic church committed itself to ecumenism "irrevocably" at Vatican II. As if to show how much of the council's vision still goes unrealized, however, he takes most of his quotations in Ut unum sint from Vatican ...