During a special audience with religious leaders who came to Rome for the inauguration of his papal ministry, Pope Leo XIV vowed to continue working toward Christian unity and promoting dialogue among all religions. Source: Catholic Review.
“Now is the time for dialogue and building bridges,” the Pope said yesterday as he met with the leaders in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace.
His guests included Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem, and Catholicos Awa III, patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, as well as Anglican, Methodist and Lutheran leaders. Representatives of the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh and Jain communities also attended.
“As bishop of Rome,” Pope Leo told them, “I consider one of my priorities to be that of seeking the reestablishment of full and visible communion among all those who profess the same faith in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
Full Christian unity must be based on unity in faith, he said, noting how his election took place in the year that Christians are celebrating the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, which “represents a milestone in the formulation of the Creed shared by all churches and ecclesial communities”.
The late Pope Francis had been planning to travel to Iznik, Türkiye, site of the ancient city of Nicaea, to commemorate the anniversary with Patriarch Bartholomew. A Vatican official said planning is underway for Pope Leo to make the trip.
“Unity has always been a constant concern of mine,” the new Pope told his guests, pointing to the motto he chose when he became a bishop in 2014: “In Illo uno unum, an expression of St Augustine of Hippo that reminds us how we, too, although we are many, ‘in the One – that is Christ – we are one.’”
Pope Leo told the Christian leaders that “the more faithful and obedient we are” to Jesus, “the more united we are among ourselves. We Christians, then, are all called to pray and work together to reach this goal, step by step, which is and remains the work of the Holy Spirit.”
“Aware, moreover, that synodality and ecumenism are closely linked, I would like to assure you of my intention to continue Pope Francis’s commitment to promoting the synodal nature of the Catholic Church and developing new and concrete forms for an ever stronger synodality in ecumenical relations,” he said.
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Pope reaffirms commitment to ecumenical, interreligious dialogue (By Cindy Wooden, CNS via Catholic Review)
