Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople hosted the ecumenical prayer service and the common recitation of the Creed Nov. 28 at Iznik, site of the ancient Nicaea, about 80 miles southeast of Istanbul.

With the Greek Orthodox patriarchs of Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem or their representatives and with representatives of other Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant churches, Pope Leo marked the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea — the primary motive for his first foreign trip as pope.

The joint recitation of the Creed did not include the phrase known as the “filioque” — the statement that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son” — since the phrase is not used by the Orthodox because it was inserted into the Latin Creed by Pope Benedict VIII in 1014.

Recent popes, including Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis and Pope Leo, have omitted the phrase at ecumenical prayer services.

Standing on a platform overlooking the remains of the Basilica of St. Neophytos, now partially submerged in Lake Iznik, the church leaders took turns leading the prayers — in English, Greek and Arabic — and lighting candles as a Catholic choir, singing in Latin, and an Orthodox choir, singing in Greek, alternated.

Patriarch Bartholomew, welcoming the pope and other guests, noted that “despite so many intervening centuries and all the upheavals, difficulties and divisions they have brought, we nevertheless approach this sacred commemoration with shared reverence and a common feeling of hope.”

“The power of this place does not reside in what passes away, but in what endures forever,” he said.

Speaking after the patriarch, Pope Leo told his fellow Christian leaders that at a time when humanity is “afflicted by violence and conflict,” the world “is crying out for reconciliation.”

“The desire for full communion among all believers in Jesus Christ is always accompanied by the search for fraternity among all human beings,” he said. “In the Nicene Creed, we profess our faith ‘in one God, the Father.’ Yet, it would not be possible to invoke God as Father if we refused to recognize as brothers and sisters all other men and women, who are created in the image of God.”

Though united by faith, the Russian Orthodox Church — the largest of the world’s Eastern Orthodox churches — was not represented at the service. The Russian church broke relations with the Ecumenical Patriarchate over the recognition in 2018 of the autonomy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Belief in God the father, Pope Leo said in Iznik, means “there is a universal fraternity of men and women regardless of ethnicity, nationality, religion or personal perspectives.”

With many of the Christian leaders, especially the Oriental Orthodox, coming from nations that recently faced or are facing war and persecution, Pope Leo said Christians must give concrete witness to their belief that all people are children of one God and therefore brothers and sisters to each other.

“Furthermore, we must strongly reject the use of religion for justifying war, violence or any form of fundamentalism or fanaticism,” he said. “Instead, the paths to follow are those of fraternal encounter, dialogue and cooperation.”

The pope also repeated a concern he had mentioned during a meeting with Catholic leaders earlier in the day: the risk that many Christians have departed from the Nicene Creed’s firm belief in the divinity of Jesus.

“This question is especially important for Christians, who risk reducing Jesus Christ to a kind of charismatic leader or superman, a misrepresentation that ultimately leads to sadness and confusion,” he said.

At the time of the Council of Nicaea, the pope said, Arius — a priest from Alexandria in Egypt — had denied the divinity of Christ, reducing him to “a mere intermediary between God and humanity, ignoring the reality of the Incarnation such that the divine and the human remained irremediably separated.”

“But if God did not become man, how can mortal creatures participate in his immortal life?” Pope Leo asked.

The pope told the Christian leaders that sharing the same faith in Jesus and being able to recite the Creed together means there “is a profound bond already uniting all Christians.”

“We are all invited to overcome the scandal of the divisions that unfortunately still exist and to nurture the desire for unity for which the Lord Jesus prayed and gave his life,” the pope said. “The more we are reconciled, the more we Christians can bear credible witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is a proclamation of hope for all.”

Patriarch Bartholomew told the leaders that with “the fervour of the faith of Nicaea burning in our hearts,” they must “run the course” of Christian unity in fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer for the unity of his disciples.

“And, finally,” the patriarch said, “let us love one another that with one mind we may confess: Father, Son and Holy Spirit — Trinity consubstantial and undivided.”

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“Wars have been fought, and people have been killed, persecuted and discriminated against in the name of God,” he wrote. “Instead of proclaiming a merciful God, a vengeful God has been presented who instills terror and punishes.”

Publishing “In Unitate Fidei” (“In the Unity of Faith”) Nov. 23, Pope Leo marked the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and its Creed. He said he wanted it released in anticipation of his visit to Turkey Nov. 27-30 to celebrate with Orthodox and Protestant leaders the anniversary of the Creed Christians share.

Pope Leo XIV speaks to visitors and pilgrims attending Mass for the Jubilee of Choirs and the feast of Christ the King Nov. 23, 2025, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. At the end of Mass, the pope announced the release of his apostolic letter, “In Unitate Fidei” (“In the Unity of Faith”) on the Creed and the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

The bishops who had gathered in Nicaea in 325 had survived anti-Christian persecution, the pope said, but were facing the fracturing of their communities over disputes regarding “the essence of the Christian faith, namely the answer to the decisive question that Jesus had asked his disciples at Caesarea Philippi: ‘Who do you say that I am?'”

“Arius, a priest from Alexandria in Egypt, taught that Jesus was not truly the Son of God,” the pope explained. Arius taught that “though more than a mere creature,” Jesus was “an intermediate being between the inaccessible God and humanity. Moreover, there would have been a time when the Son ‘did not exist.'”

The challenge facing the bishops, he said, was to affirm their faith in one God while making it clear that, as the creed now says, Jesus is “the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages … true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father.”

The bishops, he said, knew “no mortal being can, in fact, defeat death and save us; only God can do so. He has freed us through his Son made man, so that we might be free.”

In affirming monotheism and the true humanity and divinity of Christ, the pope said, “they wanted to reaffirm that the one true God is not inaccessibly distant from us, but on the contrary has drawn near and has come to encounter us in Jesus Christ.”

“This is the heart of our Christian life,” Pope Leo wrote. “For this reason, we commit to follow Jesus as our master, companion, brother and friend.”

Pope Leo XIV signs a document in this file photo from Oct. 4, 2025. The pope released an apostolic letter, “In Unitate Fidei” (“In the Unity of Faith”) Nov. 23, 2025, looking at the Creed on the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

The version of the Creed recited by most Catholics at Mass each Sunday and shared with other mainline Christians is formally called the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, because it includes an article of faith inserted by the bishops at the First Council of Constantinople in 381 about the Holy Spirit.

Western Christians say: “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.”

A footnote in the pope’s letter said that the phrase known as the “filioque” — and proceeds from the Father and the Son — “is not found in the text of Constantinople; it was inserted into the Latin Creed by Pope Benedict VIII in 1014 and is a subject of Orthodox-Catholic dialogue.” Recent popes, including Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis and Pope Leo, have omitted the phrase at ecumenical prayer services.

In his letter, Pope Leo affirmed the Catholic Church’s commitment to the search for Christian unity and said, “The Nicene Creed can be the basis and reference point for this journey.”

And he prayed that the Holy Spirit would come to all Christians “to revive our faith, to enkindle us with hope, to inflame us with charity.”

“The Nicene Creed does not depict a distant, inaccessible and immovable God who rests in himself, but a God who is close to us and accompanies us on our journey in the world, even in the darkest places on earth,” Pope Leo wrote.

Reciting the Creed, he said, should prompt Christians to “examine our conscience.”

The questions they should ask, he wrote, include: “What does God mean to me and how do I bear witness to my faith in him? Is the one and only God truly the Lord of my life, or do I have idols that I place before God and his commandments? Is God for me the living God, close to me in every situation, the Father to whom I turn with filial trust?”

And, he continued with more questions: “Is he the Creator to whom I owe everything I am and have, whose mark I can find in every creature? Am I willing to share the goods of the earth, which belong to everyone, in a just and equitable manner? How do I treat creation, the work of his hands? Do I exploit and destroy it, or do I use it with reverence and gratitude, caring for and cultivating it as the common home of humanity?”

Believing that God became human in Jesus means “that we now encounter the Lord in our brothers and sisters in need,” the pope said. That is why Jesus said, “As you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.”

The Creed “does not formulate a philosophical theory,” Pope Leo wrote. “It professes faith in the God who redeemed us through Jesus Christ. It is about the living God who wants us to have life and to have it in abundance.”

Pope Leo XIV greets children and members of the “Coro Mani Bianche” (White Hands Choir) of Chiavari, Italy, who accompany singers with signing the music’s lyrics after his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Nov. 26, 2025. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

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© OSV News / Our Sunday Visitor, Inc. 2025 – from CNS Vatican bureau, used with permission.

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