"On the second day of his inaugural foreign trip, Pope Leo XIV visited the site where early Christian leaders met 1,700 years ago for the First Council of Nicaea the gathering that produced the creed still spoken in churches today. The first American pope prayed alongside Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of the world's Eastern Orthodox Christians, amid the archaeological ruins of the lakeside church where bishops met in 325 to resolve divisions threatening to tear the early Church apart."
""We must strongly reject the use of religion for justifying war, violence, or any form of fundamentalism or fanaticism," Pope Leo said in his speech at the site on the shore of the tranquil Iznik Lake. "Instead, the paths to follow are those of fraternal encounter, dialogue and cooperation." Pope Leo has used the trip to press for unity among Christian denominations, and also among other religions and communities."
"Emperor Constantine convened the First Council of Nicaea, bringing bishops from across the Roman Empire to resolve a doctrinal crisis over how to explain Jesus' relation to God. Christians had been persecuted for some 250 years, until a decision by Emperor Constantine allowed the faithful to worship in freedom across the Roman Empire. Constantine saw a unified Church as essential to stabilizing an empire emerging from civil war."
Pope Leo XIV visited the Iznik lakeside ruins where the First Council of Nicaea met in 325 and prayed alongside Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. He condemned using religion to justify war, violence, fundamentalism, or fanaticism and urged fraternal encounter, dialogue and cooperation. The visit served to press for unity among Christian denominations and among other religions and communities, and to warn that division and polarization threaten humanity's future. The First Council, convened by Emperor Constantine, addressed a doctrinal crisis about Jesus' relation to God, rejected Arius's teachings, and affirmed that Jesus is of one substance with the Father.
Read at www.npr.org
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]