COMMITMENT TO ECUMENICAL DIALOGUE IS IRREVOCABLE

John Paul II Meets with Representatives of Reformed Churches

VATICAN CITY, (ZENIT.org).- "Within the ecumenical movement, theological dialogue is the proper setting for us to face together the issues over which Christians have been divided and to build together the unity to which Christ calls his disciples," John Paul II said Monday morning, when he met with some 20 members of the Mixed International Commission for Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.

The Commission has been meeting in Rome over the past few days, in the context of the third phase of an international dialogue, which began shortly after Vatican Council II and which, as the Pontiff himself said, has already had significant results. The Pope emphasized the importance of this dialogue to clarify respective positions and explore the reasons for differences.

"Our dialogue then becomes an examination of conscience, a call to conversion, in which both sides examine before God their responsibility to do all that they can to put behind them the conflicts of the past." For this reason, the Pope confirmed the Catholic Church's "irrevocable" commitment to the ecumenical dialogue.

Later, referring to the topic of the third phase of the dialogue being addressed by the Commission, and entitled "Church and Kingdom of God," the Pontiff said that recent history has witnessed the sufferings caused by ideologies that wished to substitute God and his Kingdom. Therefore, at the beginning of the new millennium, it is critical that all Christians, "long separated from one another, feel deeply challenged by the Lord's exhortation: 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent, and believe in the Gospel' (Mk 1:15)."

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