POPE SEEKS NEW DIALOGUE WITH ALL CHRISTIANS

Tuesday, May 30, 1995
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In an effort to promote cooperation among different Christian faiths,Pope John Paul IItoday acknowledged past mistakes in theChurch's dealings with other Christiansand encouraged dialogue about the way the papacy exercises its supremacy. The message comes in the Pope's 12th encyclical, which is addressed not just to Catholics but to all Christians.TIME'S John Elsonsays the declaration is "much like the Pope's personality. It combines a level of humility on one hand with an uncompromising authoritarianism on the other. This assertion of his primacy is not going to make the Protestants very happy. But what the Pope would really like to happen is for this to lead to some sort of reconciliation with the Orthodox Church."