The Latest: Pope Leo XIV to call for Christian unity at site where Nicaean Creed established
By The Associated Press
Pope Leo XIV marks a high point of his his first foreign trip to Turkey with a pilgrimage to the site where early Christian church leaders met 1,700 years ago under the auspices of the Roman Emperor Constantine to host the Council of Nicaea.
Leo will pray with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, at the site of the 325 AD gathering, now the town of Iznik, and sign a joint declaration in a show of Christian unity.
The unprecedented gathering of at least 250 bishops from around the Roman Empire during the first council established the first version of the Nicene Creed, a statement of faith that millions of Christians still recite each Sunday. Eastern and Western churches were united until the Great Schism of 1054, a divide precipitated largely by disagreements over the primacy of the pope.
The American pope has emphasized a message of peace and a plea to help end wars in Ukraine and Gaza during his Nov. 27 to Dec. 2 trip to Turkey and Lebanon. On Thursday he met in the capital Ankara with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and encouraged Turkey to be a source of stability and dialogue in a world riven by conflict.
Leo then travelled to Istanbul to carry not only his message of unity among Christians at Iznink, located southeast of the city, but also to reinforce the church’s relations with Muslims.
Leo also is due to visit the Blue Mosque and preside over an interfaith meeting in Istanbul.
Here’s the latest:
Pope will open day at cathedral and nursing home
Pope Leo XIV is to start the second day of his tour of Turkey and Lebanon meeting bishops and other church officials at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, a 19th-century Baroque church in Istanbul’s Sisli district.
He then is scheduled to visit a nearby nursing home run by the Little Sisters of the Poor, an order founded in France in the 1840s to care for poverty-stricken older people.
Leo to visit Council of Nicaea site
After his stops at the cathedral and nursing home, the pope is set to take a short helicopter ride to Iznik, a town south of Istanbul known in Roman times as Nicaea. It was here that the Council of Nicaea was held in 325 AD to produce the Nicene Creed, a statement of faith that millions of Christians still recite each Sunday.
Leo will pray with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, at the site of the gathering, which is today marked by the ruins of the Basilica of Saint Neophytos, built some 50 years after the council.
After returning to Istanbul, he will hold a private meeting with bishops at the Apostolic Delegation, which serves as the Vatican’s consulate in the city.
