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The Reform of the Papacy: The Costly Call to Christian Unity. By John R. Quinn. Ut Unum Sint: Studies on Papal Primacy. New York: Crossroad, 1999. 189 pp. $19.95 (cloth).
The importance of this book for the future of the Church of Christ can hardly be overstated. Quinn, formerly the Roman Catholic archbishop of San Francisco, fears that inertia and timidity could dissipate the revolutionary opportunity created by John Paul II. In his 1995 encyclical on ecumenism, Ut Unum Sint, the Pope invited collaboration in the necessary task of reforming the papacy. Together with the Pope, Quinn understands that this reform is absolutely necessary to any realistic hope for Christian unity. Without courage, intelligence and passion, the present kairos may pass. Then the Church's mission will remain hobbled by...