Declaration of Leo XIV and Bartholomew: The faith of Nicaea, a response to today's challenges

The joint text signed by the Pope and the Patriarch: ‘Although alarmed by the international situation, our faith in Jesus the Saviour tells us that God will not abandon humanity.’ The faithful are invited to rejoice in the progress made in dialogue. Condemnation of those who use the name of God to justify violence, the hope for a common date for Easter. In the morning, a silent visit to the Blue Mosque.

Istanbul (AsiaNews) - Coming together to commemorate the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed was not only a way to ‘remember the historical importance’ of that Council. The intention is ‘to encourage us to be constantly open to the same Holy Spirit who spoke through Nicaea, as we face the many challenges of our time.’

This is what Pope Leo XIV and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew wrote in their joint statement released today. In the early afternoon, the Pope visited the Patriarchal Church of St George at the Fanar in Istanbul, where he led the Doxology, a short hymn of praise deeply rooted in the tradition of the Church.

The event took on a particular ecumenical and symbolic significance, especially due to the presence of Patriarch Bartholomew and the historical setting: the reference to Iznik, ancient Nicaea, where 1,700 years ago the first ecumenical council of the Church was held, the focus of the pontiff's day yesterday.

‘We must recognise that what unites us is the faith expressed in the Nicene Creed,’ wrote the Pope and the Patriarch. "This is the faith that saves in the person of the Son of God, true God from true God, homoousios (the Greek term expressing “the same substance”, ed.) with the Father, who for us and for our salvation became incarnate and dwelt among us, was crucified, died and was buried, rose again on the third day, ascended into heaven and will come again to judge the living and the dead. Through the coming of the Son of God, we are initiated into the mystery of the Holy Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - and we are invited to become, in the person of Christ and through Him, children of the Father and co-heirs with Christ through the grace of the Holy Spirit. Endowed with this common confession, Leo XIV and Bartholomew continue, we can face the challenges we share in witnessing to the faith expressed at Nicaea with mutual respect, and we can work together towards concrete solutions with sincere hope.

This gives rise to a series of practical consequences that the Pope and the Patriarch ask Catholics and Orthodox Christians to pursue in their joint declaration: first of all, to continue working together to achieve the great sign of unity that would be the celebration of Easter on the same day. And then - in memory of another anniversary, the 60th anniversary of the lifting of excommunications decided by Paul VI and Athenagoras – an invitation to “all the faithful of our Churches, and in particular to the clergy and theologians, to welcome with joy the fruits achieved so far in dialogue and to commit themselves to their continued growth, valuing the work of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, whose task is precisely to address what still causes division.

But above all, it is to work together to respond to the thirst for peace that the world today demands of Catholics and Orthodox Christians. ‘We appeal to those who have civil and political responsibilities to do everything possible to ensure that the tragedy of war ceases immediately,’ write Leo XIV and Bartholomew, "and we ask all people of good will to support our plea. In particular, we reject any use of religion and the name of God to justify violence. We believe that authentic interreligious dialogue, far from being a cause of syncretism and confusion, is essential for the coexistence of peoples belonging to different traditions and cultures.‘

’While deeply alarmed by the current international situation, we do not lose hope," the Declaration concludes. God will not abandon humanity. The Father sent his Only Begotten Son to save us, and the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, gave us the Holy Spirit to make us partakers of his divine life, preserving and protecting the sacredness of the human person. Through the Holy Spirit, we know and experience that God is with us."

The reference to the feast of St Andrew – which will see the Pope return to the Patriarchate tomorrow to take part in the Divine Liturgy on the feast of the patron saint – but also the beginning of Advent, are later echoed in the homily of the Mass that the Pontiff celebrated at the Volkswagen Arena, in front of 4,000 faithful. In his speech, he again took up the image of Istanbul as a bridge city to say that one is not enough: just as the first bridge over the Bosphorus in the great metropolis between Europe and Asia has had to be joined by two others in recent years to cope with the volume of traffic, so too must the Pope's commitment to the unity of the Turkish Catholic community be expressed in three dimensions. In fact, unity is needed within the community itself, which includes different traditions (Latin, Armenian, Chaldean and Syriac); then there is ecumenical unity; but we must not forget unity with members of other religious communities.

In a gesture linked to this last area, earlier in the morning, the pontiff had visited the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul, the so-called “Blue Mosque”, to pay homage to the most important place of worship in the Turkish economic and commercial metropolis, the third pope to do so after Benedict XVI in 2006 and Francis in 2014. Unlike his predecessors, Leo XIV did not pause for a moment of prayer, but limited himself to visiting the building barefoot, as required by the Islamic faith when entering a Muslim place of worship, admiring its beauty.

In a statement, the Vatican Press Office explained that “the Pope experienced the visit to the mosque in silence, in a spirit of contemplation and listening” and “with deep respect for the place and the faith of those who gather there in prayer”. The pontiff was welcomed and guided on his visit by the Grand Mufti of Istanbul, Emrullah Tuncel, the Head of the Diyanet and President of Religious Affairs of Turkey, and the muezzin, who explained the history and architecture of the place to him.

Built in 1600 under Sultan Ahmet I, the mosque is embellished with 21,043 turquoise ceramic tiles, hence its nickname, the ‘Blue Mosque’. On the other hand, the pontiff did not visit Hagia Sophia, the ancient Christian basilica that became a museum in the last century and was recently converted into a mosque at the behest of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a decision that has not failed to raise controversy and perplexity. At the end of his visit to the mosque, the Pope travelled by car to the Syriac Orthodox Church of Mor Ephrem for a private meeting with the leaders of the local Christian churches and communities.