Pope: at Nicaea after 1700 years to seek Christian unity

Leo XIV to İznik, to commemorate together with Patriarch Bartholomew and the heads and representatives of the Churches the first Ecumenical Council in history. He is the first pope in history to travel to the place where Christianity met together for the first time in history, when it was said that they believed 'in one God'. It is the same formula that still unites the world's two and a half billion Christians today, and where Francis absolutely wanted to go. Leo XIV - who in Turkey after political meetings with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had a busy "religious" agenda - completed Bergoglio's design and brought together patriarchs, bishops, metropolitans, heads of Churches and representatives of the world's Christian communions to reiterate the message of "universal brotherhood and sisterhood" inherent in every religion, to implore - once again - to strongly reject 'the use of religion to justify war and violence, as well as all forms of fundamentalism and fanaticism', following instead the ways of 'fraternal encounter', of 'dialogue

The ceremony - in the town 70 kilometres from Istanbul and where the pope arrived by helicopter - took place in front of the remains of the three-aisled basilica dedicated to the 4th-century martyr St Neophytus, which was destroyed and submerged by an earthquake. Swallowed up by the lake, the ruins reappeared in 2014 and today, in this event impressive for its significance, they too seem to tell a story. That of wounds that heal and of light that counteracts all darkness. "It is a historic step," said Leo, who together with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I walk, side by side, along the platform near the archaeological excavations. Bartholomew delivered a welcome message that opened with emotion as he saw how many had "responded positively" to the invitation to honour the memory and legacy of the first Ecumenical Council held here in Nicaea one thousand seven hundred years ago. Since then, many centuries have passed, many upheavals, many difficulties and divisions, but today they are all in İznik: "We approach this sacred commemoration with shared reverence and a common feeling of hope... We are here to bear living witness to the same faith expressed by the Fathers of Nicaea. Let us return to this source of the Christian faith in order to move forward'.

The Pope also looks at today, a time "in many ways dramatic in which people are subject to countless threats to their very dignity". The 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea," writes Vatican News, "is therefore a precious occasion to ask ourselves who Jesus Christ is in the lives of women and men today, who he is for each one of us. A question that particularly challenges Christians, says the Pope, "who risk reducing Jesus Christ to a sort of charismatic leader or superman, a misrepresentation that ultimately leads to sadness and confusion". For Leo, the confession of faith is of fundamental importance for the "path that Christians are following towards full communion", shared by all the Churches and Christian Communities in the world.