On Saturday, during his Apostolic Journey to Turkey, Pope Leo XIV met with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, for a prayer service at the Patriarchal Church of St. George in Istanbul.
The Pope and the Patriarch commemorated the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, a crucial event that laid the foundations of Christian unity, by issuing a joint declaration that highlights the shared journey of faith that links Catholics and Eastern Orthodox and calling for renewed commitment to Christian unity:
“Following the example of our venerable predecessors, and heeding the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, we continue to walk with firm determination on the path of dialogue, in love and truth, towards the hoped-for restoration of full communion between our sister Churches. Aware that Christian unity is not merely the result of human efforts, but a gift that comes from on high, we invite all the members of our Churches – clergy, monastics, consecrated persons, and the lay faithful – earnestly to seek the fulfilment of the prayer that Jesus Christ addressed to the Father: ‘that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you… so that the world may believe.’”
The full article by Vatican News can be read here.