Conscious of his pastoral responsibility for the whole flock of Christ, Pope John Paul II in his 1995 encyclical letter “Ut Unum Sint” (No. 96) invited leaders and theologians of other churches to suggest ways in which the papal office, without prejudice to its essential features, could
"Somewhere beneath all the ritualized, too often trivial, practices of my childhood Lent, there was the feeling that this day for which we were preparing was of great importance."