Pope Leo XIV marked a historic moment for the global Christian community this week as he gathered with leaders of multiple Christian Churches in İznik, Türkiye—ancient Nicaea—to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council. The visit, part of his Apostolic Journey to Türkiye and Lebanon, placed renewed emphasis on unity, shared faith, and the enduring significance of the Nicene Creed.
According to Vatican News, Pope Leo prayed alongside around 27 Christian leaders during an ecumenical service held at the very site where bishops met in A.D. 325 to address one of the most defining theological crises in Church history. The Pope thanked Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I for his “great wisdom and foresight” in inviting Christian leaders to commemorate the anniversary together. The council, he said, still calls every believer to confront a central question: who is Jesus Christ?
“This question is especially important for Christians,” Pope Leo warned, “who risk reducing Jesus Christ to a kind of charismatic leader or superman, a misrepresentation that ultimately leads to sadness and confusion,” according to Vatican News.
The Council of Nicaea originally met to settle disputes created by the Arian heresy, which claimed that Jesus Christ was not fully divine. Catholic News Agency reports that more than 300 bishops gathered in the fourth century to condemn Arius’ teaching and proclaim that Christ is “God from God, true God from true God.” The bishops defined that the Son is eternally begotten of the Father and “of one substance with the Father,” language still professed in the Nicene Creed recited at Mass and in many Christian liturgies worldwide.
CNA notes that the heresy struck at the heart of Christian belief. Dominican Father Dominic Legge told the outlet that Arius mistakenly placed Christ “on the ‘creature’ side” of the divide between God and creation, insisting He “is not true God.” Legge explained that this view threatened “the central truth of Christianity that God became man for our salvation,” according to Catholic News Agency.
St. Athanasius—one of the Church’s most vocal defenders of Nicene teaching—argued in his First Discourse Against the Arians that Scripture itself clearly teaches Christ’s eternity, pointing to the Gospel of John and Christ’s declaration, “before Abraham was, I am,” CNA reported.
During his remarks in Nicaea, Pope Leo highlighted that the Nicene Creed remains a powerful bond among Christians today. Vatican News quoted him as saying that the creed’s proclamation of Christ as “consubstantial with the Father” is “a profound bond already uniting all Christians.” He added that the Symbol of Faith remains “of fundamental importance in the journey that Christians are making towards full communion.”
Catholic News Agency also noted that the council’s authority developed over time. Although the Nicene Creed was not immediately adopted everywhere, its teachings endured through decades of conflict until the First Council of Constantinople reaffirmed and expanded it in 381.
As Christian leaders gathered once more in the birthplace of the Creed, Pope Leo used the occasion to call believers beyond division and toward a unity rooted in shared faith. “While we are on the path towards the reestablishment of full communion among all Christians,” he said two weeks ago, according to CNA, “we recognize that this unity can only be unity in faith.”
The Pope’s visit to Nicaea, shaped by prayer, dialogue, and reflection on the Church’s earliest doctrinal foundations, underscored the continued importance of that unity—especially in a world marked by conflict and uncertainty.
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