Vatican News: Pope – Nicaea invites Christians to unity in face of violence, conflict
Pope Leo XIV prays with leaders of various Christian Churches in Nicaea, modern-day Iznik, Türkiye, and invites all Christians to follow the paths of fraternal encounter, dialogue, and cooperation.
By Devin Watkins
At the site of ancient Nicaea, Pope Leo XIV joined around 27 other leaders of Christian Churches to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council in the Church’s history.
The ecumenical prayer service took place on the second day of the Pope’s Apostolic Journey to Türkiye.
In his address, the Pope thanked Patriarch Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, for his “great wisdom and foresight” in calling for Church leaders to celebrate this important anniversary together.
He also expressed appreciation to the Heads of Churches and Representatives of Christian World Communions for attending the event.
Pope Leo recalled that the Council of Nicaea was held in 325, saying it invites all Christians, even today, to ask ourselves who Jesus Christ is for us personally.
“This question is especially important for Christians,” he said, “who risk reducing Jesus Christ to a kind of charismatic leader or superman, a misrepresentation that ultimately leads to sadness and confusion.”
The Council was held to respond to the Alexandrian priest Arius’ claim that Jesus was only an intermediary between God and humanity, saying He was not fully divine and ignoring the reality of the Incarnation.
A look at the Council of Nicaea’s impact on the Church
“But if God did not become man, how can mortal creatures participate in His immortal life?” asked Pope Leo. “What was at stake at Nicaea, and is at stake today, is our faith in the God who, in Jesus Christ, became like us to make us ‘partakers of the divine nature’.”
The Council of Nicaea, he said, agreed upon the Christological confession we now call the Nicene Creed, which is professed by all Christian Churches and Communities.
The Symbol of Faith, as it is known, was of “fundamental importance in the journey that Christians are making towards full communion.”
“Faith ‘in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages… consubstantial with the Father’ (Nicene Creed),” he said, “is a profound bond already uniting all Christians.”
The Pope invited Christians to embrace that existing bond of unity and journey ever deeper in “adherence to the Word of God revealed in Jesus Christ, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, in mutual love and dialogue.”
By overcoming divisions and reconciling with one another, Christians can bear more credible witness to Jesus Christ and His proclamation of hope for all, he said.
Pope Leo XIV went on to say Christian unity is greatly needed in our world filled with violence and conflict.
“The desire for full communion among all believers in Jesus Christ is always accompanied by the search for fraternity among all human beings,” he said, calling for recognition of the rights and dignity of all people, no matter their ethnicity, nationality, religion, or personal perspectives.
He upheld the role of religions in serving truth and encouraging individuals to seek dialogue and respect.
“We must strongly reject the use of religion for justifying war, violence, or any form of fundamentalism or fanaticism,” the Pope said. “Instead, the paths to follow are those of fraternal encounter, dialogue and cooperation.”
Finally, Pope Leo prayed that God the Father may help the commemoration of the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea bear “the abundant fruits of reconciliation, unity and peace.”
As the prayer service concluded, the leaders of Christian Churches and Communions prayed the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed together, omitting the Filioque.
The Church, it is said, thinks in centuries. Part of this is the commemoration of centenaries and decades, which becomes a method of stitching church history together, lending it an imposing coherence. This year alone we have the 17th centenary of Nicaea; the 60th anniversary of the close of Vatican II and of the documents then issued, notably Nostra Aetate (Oct. 28, 1965), perhaps more than Dignitatis Humanae (Dec. 7, 1965), or even Dei Verbum (Nov. 18, 1965) or Gaudium et Spes (Dec. 7); the 50th anniversary of Evangelii Nuntiandi; the centenary of the Feast of Christ the King, itself linked to the 16th centenary of Nicaea.
Lutherans celebrate the centenaries of 1517, reflecting each time the particular new contexts in which the Reformation finds itself challenging and challenged by the modern world. Literary anniversaries have a similar role; recall the weight given to the centenary of Yeats in 1965 and Joyce in 1982 (and the centenary of Ulysses in 1922); Germany recalls Goethe’s birth and death quite solemnly; a failure to mark such dates can be significant too, as in the cases of Milton’s fourth centenary in 2008 or the bicentenary of Shelley’s death in 2022.
The State juggles with dates to be commemorated: 1916-1922 in Ireland, 6 June 1944 (D-Day), 6 August 1945 (Hiroshima); countless streets and squares in France and Italy are named after significant national carry the names of significant dates. In Heathrow Airport on 9 November this year I was surprised by a commemoration of the Armistice of Nov 11, 1918. As the crowds fell silent for two minutes, preceded and followed by the mournful bugles, the amazing staying-power in memory of the Great War was confirmed again. ‘Lest We Forget’ is an answered prayer.
But have we carried the commemorating too far? The countless conferences on Nicaea this year could be distracting theology from a brutal present which it is unable to address. Rerum Novarum (1891) was recalled in the titles of Quadragesimo Anno (1931) and Octagesima Adveniens (1971), suggesting that the Church is blowing its own trumpet at the expense of sharper focus on the social questions; the 20th anniversary of Populorum Progressio (1967) was marked by Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987) which might imply a misleading claim to continuity. In the case of Nicaea, we have to keep on commemorating Constantinople 381 as well, as we did in 1981, not to mention Chalcedon, in 2051, and the anniversaries of St Augustine (2030 and 2054).
The Church should shine by the coherence and drive of its present projects. Endless commemoration might mark a failure of present inspiration.