Pope Leo XIV this afternoon in Turkey at the site of the Council of Nicaea, held 1,700 years ago in 325 A.D. It was the 1st Ecumenical Council in the history of the Church, and it debated and defined the true divinity of Jesus Christ, which had been contested by a priest, Arius, and his followers
Below, another view of the prayer this afternoon at Nicaea, 1,700 years after the Council of Nicaea… The Pope of Rome prayed with the Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew. Both may be heard speaking in a video of this moment found on the Vatican News website, here…
Letter #92, 2025, Friday, Nov 28: Day #2 of Pope Leo’s 1st Foreign Trip as Pope
Today Pope Leo carried out the most important action of his trip to Turkey: he prayed on the spot where the 1st Council of the Church was held in 325 A.D., 1,700 years ago — the Council of Nicaea.
Below, a Vatican News report on the moment.
I myself was not with the Pope, as I am traveling on a long trip away from Rome. (I write from Almaty, Kazakhstan.)
—RM
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Pope: Nicaea invites Christians to unity in face of violence, conflict (link)
Pope Leo XIV prays with leaders of various Christian Churches in Nicaea, modern-day Iznik, Turkey, 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 Turkey.
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.
“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.”
Listen to our report
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 [Note: “filioque” is a Latin word meaning “and from the Son” [“filio” means “from the son” and “que” means “and”]; the word “filioque” was added (in reference to the sending of the Holy Spirit) to the Creed in the West, first in Spain (in the late 500s) and later throughout the West (in the early 1000s) to emphasize the divinity of Christ against the Arians and those who followed the Arians, who argued that Jesus was, yes, a supremely outstanding man, but still, not fully divine; saying that the Holy Spirit proceeded “from the Father and from the Son” emphasized the equal stature of the Son with the Father; the word was never added to the Creed in the eastern Roman Empire; so the use of the word by Catholics, now for more than 1,000 years, and the non-use of the word by the Orthodox, has become one barrier to the eventual reunion of the two great branches of Christianity, who ought to recite a common Creed if they profess a common faith].
This is the address Pope Leo delivered this afternoon in Turkey, at Nicaea, 1,700 years after the 1st Ecumenical Council in the same place (link):
APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV
WITH A PILGRIMAGE TO IZNIK (TÜRKIYE)
ON THE OCCASION OF THE 1700th ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST ECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF NICAEA
(27 November – 2 December 2025)
NEAR THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS OF THE ANCIENT BASILICA OF SAINT NEOPHYTOS
ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER
İznik
Friday, 28 November 2025
[Multimedia] ____________________________________
Dear brothers and sisters,
At a period of history marked by many tragic signs, in which people are subjected to countless threats to their very dignity, the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea is a precious opportunity to ask ourselves who Jesus Christ is in the lives of men and women today, and who he is for each one of us personally.
This question is especially important for Christians, who risk reducing Jesus Christ to a kind of charismatic leader or superman, a misrepresentation that ultimately leads to sadness and confusion (cf. Leo XIV, Homily, Holy Mass Pro Ecclesia, 9 May 2025).
By denying the divinity of Christ, Arius reduced him to a mere intermediary between God and humanity, ignoring the reality of the Incarnation such that the divine and the human remained irremediably separated.
But if God did not become man, how can mortal creatures participate in his immortal life?
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” (2 Pet 1:4; cf. Saint Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, 3, 19; Saint Athanasius, De Incarnatione, 54, 3).
This Christological confession of faith is of fundamental importance in the journey that Christians are making towards full communion. For it is shared by all Christian Churches and Communities throughout the world, including those which, for various reasons, do not use the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in their liturgies.
Indeed, 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) is a profound bond already uniting all Christians.
In this sense, to quote Saint Augustine, in the ecumenical context we can also say that, “although we Christians are many, in the one Christ we are one” (Exposition on Psalm 127).
Consequently, with an awareness that we are already linked by such a profound bond, we can continue our journey of ever deeper adherence to the Word of God revealed in Jesus Christ, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, in mutual love and dialogue.
In this way, 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.
The more we are reconciled, the more we Christians can bear credible witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is a proclamation of hope for all. Moreover, it is a message of peace and universal fraternity that transcends the boundaries of our communities and nations (cf. Francis, Address to participants in the Plenary Session of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, 6 May 2022).
Today, the whole of humanity afflicted by violence and conflict is crying out for reconciliation.
The desire for full communion among all believers in Jesus Christ is always accompanied by the search for fraternity among all human beings. In the Nicene Creed, we profess our faith “in one God, the Father.”
Yet, it would not be possible to invoke God as Father if we refused to recognize as brothers and sisters all other men and women, who are created in the image of God (cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Declaration Nostra Aetate, 5).
There is a universal fraternity of men and women regardless of ethnicity, nationality, religion or personal perspectives.
Religions, by their very nature, are repositories of this truth and should encourage individuals, groups and peoples to recognize this and put it into practice (cf. Leo XIV, Address at the conclusion of the Meeting for Prayer for Peace, 28 October 2025).
Furthermore, we must strongly reject the use of religion for justifying war, violence, or any form of fundamentalism or fanaticism.
Instead, the paths to follow are those of fraternal encounter, dialogue and cooperation.
I am deeply grateful to His All Holiness Bartholomew, for it was with great wisdom and foresight that he decided to commemorate together the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in the very place where it was held.
I likewise warmly thank the Heads of Churches and Representatives of Christian World Communions who have accepted the invitation to participate in this event.
May God the Father, almighty and merciful, hear the fervent prayers we offer him today, and grant that this important anniversary may bear the abundant fruits of reconciliation, unity and peace.
Copyright © Dicastery for Communication – Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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