During Pope Leo XIV’s apostolic visit to Türkiye, the Pontiff and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople of the Eastern Orthodox Church Bartholomew I issued a joint declaration Nov. 29 reflecting on the commemoration of the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and expressing concern for the conflicts around the world.
The leaders also reiterated their commitment to striving for full communion between the Catholic Church and Orthodox Church.
“Following the example of our venerable predecessors, and heeding the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, we continue to walk with firm determination on the path of dialogue, in love and truth (cf. Eph 4:15), towards the hoped-for restoration of full communion between our sister Churches,” they said.
Pope Leo met with Patriarch Bartholomew I Nov. 29 at the Syriac Orthodox Church of Mor Ephrem in Istanbul, Türkiye.
In the statement, the two leaders described this year’s commemoration of the Council of Nicaea as “an extraordinary moment of grace,” emphasizing that the commemoration is not merely for historical acknowledgement. Rather, it is “to spur us on to be continuously open to the same Holy Spirit who spoke through Nicaea,” they said, “as we wrestle with the many challenges of our time.”
They noted that they seek to address the obstacles in the way of restoring full communion through theological dialogue, and added, “we must also recognize that what binds us together is the faith expressed in the creed of Nicaea.”
Sharing “this common confession” affirming Christ’s divinity, “we can face our shared challenges in bearing witness to the faith expressed at Nicaea with mutual respect, and work together towards concrete solutions with genuine hope,” they said. “We are convinced that the commemoration of this significant anniversary can inspire new and courageous steps on the path towards unity.”
The leaders noted that the Council of Nicaea also provided the criteria for deciding the date of Easter.
“It is our shared desire to continue the process of exploring a possible solution for celebrating together the Feast of Feasts every year,” they said. “We hope and pray that all Christians will, ‘in all wisdom and spiritual understanding’ (Col 1:9), commit themselves to the process of arriving at a common celebration of the glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The leaders emphasized that Christian unity aims in part to cultivating peace among all peoples and made an impassioned plea for political leaders around the world to work to end conflicts.
“Together we fervently raise our voices in invoking God’s gift of peace upon our world. Tragically, in many regions of our world, conflict and violence continue to destroy the lives of so many,” they said.
They also said they particularly “reject any use of religion and the name of God to justify violence. We believe that authentic interreligious dialogue, far from being a cause of syncretism and confusion, is essential for the coexistence of peoples of different traditions and cultures.”
They urged everyone of good will to strive in community “to build a more just and supportive world, and to care for creation, which is entrusted to us by God. Only in this way can the human family overcome indifference, desire for domination, greed for profit and xenophobia.”
Concluding, the leaders emphasized that they continue to place trust in God despite the conflicts.
“While we are deeply alarmed by the current international situation, we do not lose hope,” they said. “God will not abandon humanity. The Father sent his Only-Begotten Son to save us, and the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, bestowed upon us the Holy Spirit, to make us sharers in his divine life, preserving and protecting the sacredness of the human person.
“By the Holy Spirit we know and experience that God is with us. For this reason, in our prayer we entrust to God every human being, especially those in need, those who experience hunger, loneliness or illness. We invoke upon each member of the human family every grace and blessing so that ‘their hearts may be encouraged, as they are knit together in love, to have all the riches of assured understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery,’ who is our Lord Jesus Christ (Col 2:2).”
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