On Saturday, Pope Leo XIV and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew gave a joint declaration expressing their desire for a restoration of full communion between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
‘The commemoration of the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, celebrated on the eve of our meeting, was an extraordinary moment of grace. The Council of Nicaea held in 325 AD was a providential event of unity,’ the declaration published during the Pope’s visit to Turkey states.
The Pope and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople state that they don’t wish to simply call to mind “the historical importance of the Council, but to spur us on to be continuously open to the same Holy Spirit who spoke through Nicaea”.
The two Church leaders also reject the use of religion and the name of God to justify violence in their joint declaration.
‘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 emphasise.
The full text of the declaration is available on the Vatican website in English (Visit an external site. The link opens in a new tab.) and several other languages.
A translation in Finnish is available here (Visit an external site. The link opens in a new tab.).