ISTANBUL (RNS) — Pope Leo XIV is set to touch down in Istanbul at the end of November before visiting Lebanon for his first international trip since his papal election in May. The pontiff will visit eight cities from Nov. 27 to Dec. 2, sitting down with both political and faith leaders and leading Masses for Catholic locals and pilgrims.
Though Leo will first meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and various religious leaders, one of the most significant aspects of his visit will be joint ceremonies with Bartholomew I, ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople and one of Eastern Orthodox Christianity’s chief spiritual leaders.
The two together are slated to visit the Turkish city of İznik, once Greek-speaking Nicaea that 1,700 years ago played host to the first ecumenical council. There, early church fathers determined some of Christianity’s most basic doctrines, such as setting the date of Easter, explaining the trinity and clarifying the divinity of Jesus. It was agreed that Jesus was “God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father,” as reads the Nicene Creed, which many churches hold to be the fundamental declaration of Christian faith.
The anniversary of Nicaea isn’t just a historical moment. It’s a symbol around which ecumenically minded leaders in both Orthodox and Catholic churches have continued to work on bridging …