Pope Leo XIV called on Christians to unite during his visit to Turkey, marking the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in a gesture aimed at ending the Great Schism that separated the Roman Catholic Church from Eastern Orthodox Christianity for nearly a millennium.
Leo called on Christians to overcome their divisions during a historic prayer meeting with Orthodox Church patriarchs in the city of Iznik, commemorating the anniversary of the creation of the Nicene Creed, a central statement of Christian faith that is recited by several denominations.
The Roman Pontiff met Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I and other Christian leaders on Friday on Lake Iznik, the site of the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D.
The Nicene Creed was established during the historic Council to promote unity within the Christian faith in opposition to the promulgation of the Arian heresy, which held that Jesus Christ was a created being and not eternal. The Creed firmly established the idea of the Holy Trinity, that Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are one with God the Father.
Leo said during his speech at Iznik that the Creed “is of fundamental importance in the journey that Christians are making towards full communion.”
“We are all invited to overcome the scandal of the divisions that unfortunately still exist and to nurture the desire for unity for which the Lord Jesus prayed and gave his life,” Leo said Friday.
The Pope’s message, as well as the joint prayer meeting itself, mark a significant moment in the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, which have been formally separated since the Great Schism of 1054, also known as the East-West Schism.
A series of geopolitical tensions, theological disputes, and ecclesiastical differences led to the formal split between the Church in Rome and the Eastern Orthodox Church, headed in Constantinople, now known as Istanbul. The final split occurred under Pope Leo IX.
Catholics and Orthodox Christians made a historic step toward unity after 1,000 years of estrangement with a meeting in Jerusalem in 1964 between Pope Paul VI and Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras.
The mutual decrees of excommunication dating back to the 11th century, which had separated Orthodox Christians from Catholics and vice versa, were lifted in 1965. However, this agreement did not result in a restoration of communion between the two churches.
The unification of the two churches was a theme of the pontificate of Leo XIV’s predecessor, the late Pope Francis, whose lack of pomp and circumstance during his reign curried favor with Orthodox leaders skeptical of the papacy’s political authority.
The current pontiff’s Friday speech could mean that Leo, who was close with Francis, will also seek to pursue the goal of unification.
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Leo also said Friday that Christians must reject the use of religion to justify violence or “any form of fundamentalism or fanaticism.”
“Instead, the paths to follow are those of fraternal encounter, dialogue and cooperation,” he said.
