Sir, - Leslie Craven ended his letter (June 25th) by saying it would be a sadness were John Paul II to go into history "as the Pope . . . who bore a 500-year-old grudge against Martin Luther".
In 1983, John Paul II visited Rome's Lutheran Church to mark the 500th Anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther.
In 1991, for the first time since the Reformation, John Paul II prayed at the tomb of St Peter with two Lutheran bishops, as part of a series of milestone events for ecumenism. In 1997, four Protestant religious sisters opened a foundation at Luther's own Augustinian priory of Erfurt in Germany.
In 1998, The Irish Times reported (June 26th) that the Roman Catholic Church said that it had reached broad agreement with Lutherans on theological issues leading to the Reformation, but more dialogue was necessary to end the 450-year-old dispute dividing them.
In my opinion, Pope John Paul II has done more than any other Pope since the Reformation to heal the wounds caused when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg on 31st October, 1517. - Yours, etc., G Glennon,
Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.