Pope Leo Calls for Christian Unity

Pope Leo XIV urged Christians to unite on Friday during an ecumenical gathering at Lake Iznik, marking 1,700 years since the historic Council of Nicaea.

On the second day of his visit to Türkiye, Leo travelled to Iznik, the ancient city of Nicaea, where he joined Patriarch Bartholomew I, leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, and other dignitaries at the site where the bishops met in 325 to draft the Nicene Creed.

Dressed in ceremonial robes, the leaders prayed on a wooden platform overlooking the ruins of a 4th-century basilica. A choir sang hymns in English, French, Greek, Latin, and Turkish.

In his speech, the American pope reflected on how the Council had unified the early Church by rejecting the Arian heresy and described the anniversary as “a precious opportunity to ask ourselves who Jesus Christ is for each of us personally.”

“We are all invited to overcome the scandal of divisions that still exist and to nurture the desire for unity,” he said, reciting the Nicene Creed with other leaders in English.

Patriarch Bartholomew also stressed the importance of unity, urging Christians to follow the path of reconciliation.

Pope Leo condemned the use of religion to justify war, violence, or fanaticism, advocating dialogue, cooperation, and fraternal encounters instead.

The pope’s visit coincides with heightened divisions in the Orthodox world, especially due to Russia’s actions in Ukraine, which have intensified the split between Moscow and Constantinople’s patriarchates.

Separately, Turkish police detained Mehmet Ali Agca, who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, after he expressed a desire to meet Leo.

Leo began his four-day visit in Ankara, encouraging President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to embrace Türkiye’s role as a source of stability and reconciliation.

In Istanbul, he led prayers at the Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, prompting major traffic disruptions in the city.

Despite Türkiye’s small Christian population of around 100,000, locals welcomed the historic papal visit, the fifth by a pontiff to the country after Paul VI, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis.