In New Encyclical, Pope Argues for Christian Unity : Religion: John Paul makes ecumenism a priority. Even the nature of the papacy should be discussable, he says.

VATICAN CITY —  In an appeal for unity, Pope John Paul II today tells Christians that they must overcome historic divisions and strive together toward religious understanding.

Even the nature of the papacy should be open to discussion among Christians as part of a good-faith attempt to narrow differences among them, John Paul says in a closely reasoned encyclical published here this morning.

“The quest for Christian unity is not a matter of choice or expediency, but a duty which springs from the very nature of the Christian community,” the Pope instructs in a teaching titled Ut Unum Sint , a prayer by Christ “That They May Be One.”

Ecumenism, the search for unity among diverse Christian faiths, has been a keystone of Vatican policy in recent papacies, but it is emerging as a top priority for John Paul in advance of the year 2000, which his church will celebrate as a sacred jubilee.

Noting that the papacy is a major source of discord for other Christians, John Paul urges that it not be allowed to interfere with the quest for Christian dialogue and harmony.

John Paul terms his role “the visible sign and guarantor of unity” but acknowledges that the papal ministry “constitutes a difficulty for most other Christians, whose memory is marked by certain painful recollections. To the extent that we are responsible for these, I join my predecessor Paul VI in asking forgiveness.”

It is time, John Paul says in his 30,000-word teaching, that Christians focus on what unites them rather than on why they should remain divided. He says they must resolutely extend dialogues begun in recent decades to mesh common values and experiences after centuries marked by hatred and bloodshed.

“Acknowledging our brotherhood is not the consequence of a large-hearted philanthropy or a vague family spirit. It is rooted in recognition of the oneness of baptism and a subsequent duty to glorify God in his work,” John Paul says in the 12th encyclical of his nearly 17-year reign.

Of particular concern to a Pope who seeks to span East and West are attempts to narrow the difference between Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox churches that broke from Rome in 1054.

“The Catholic Church desires nothing less than full communion between East and West. She finds inspiration for this in the first millennium,” John Paul said.

Talks with the Orthodox and other Christian churches in the Middle East are signposts for ecumenism, John Paul says.

So too has ecumenical dialogue ordered by the modernizing Second Vatican Council in the 1960s helped narrow the difference between the Catholic Church and Protestant faiths that blossomed during the Reformation, John Paul says. These churches, the Pope notes, “share the fact that they are Western in character. Their ‘diversities,’ although significant, as has been pointed out, do not therefore preclude interaction and complementarity.”

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With religion still the subject of discord around the world, John Paul tells Christians that they must fight against “complacency, indifference and insufficient knowledge”--all of which exacerbate differences.

Catholics expounding their faith, the Pope instructs, must “explain its teaching in a way that is correct, fair and understandable and which at the same time takes into account both the way of thinking and the actual historical experiences of the other party.”

Discussing his own role, John Paul asserts Catholic dogma holding that the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, is the direct successor of the Apostle Peter, the first Pope.

Thus, he says, “with the power and authority without which such an office would be illusory, the Bishop of Rome must ensure the communion of all the churches. For this reason he is the first servant of unity. “