Pope Leo issued an apostolic letter titled, “In Unitate Fidei” (“In the Unity of Faith”), ahead of his first official visit outside Italy, where he traveled to Türkiye and met His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the leader of the Orthodox Churches, and celebrated the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea.
The document was published Nov. 23, which coincided with the Feast of Christ the King. In his apostolic letter, Pope Leo connected Nicaea’s anniversary with the 2025 Holy Year. As such, he acknowledged the council’s importance alongside the Ecumenical Patriarch during his journey to Türkiye on Nov. 30. He also visited Ankara, Istanbul and Iznik (formerly Nicaea).
The Council of Nicaea, which took place in A.D. 325, sought to address the theological disputes of its day and to forge a unified doctrine that solidly proclaims Christ’s divinity as they produced the Nicene Creed to clarify the faith and promote unity in the Church. To this end, Pope Leo began his apostolic letter promoting this same unity.
He wrote, “In the unity of the faith, proclaimed since the beginning of the Church, Christians have been called to walk in harmony, guarding and transmitting the gift they have received with love and joy. This is expressed in the words of the Creed, ‘I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God … for our salvation he came down from heaven.’”
“For centuries, this enduring confession of faith has been the common heritage of Christians, and it deserves to be professed and understood in ever new and relevant ways.”
“In Unitate Fidei” urges Christians to reaffirm their core beliefs and promote unity, especially given current global divisions. The pope calls for all Christians to re-engage with the teachings of the Creed as both a source of hope and a guide for living their faith in the modern world. He explained that the Creed “can be the basis and reference point” to restore the lost unity of the Church.
“It offers us a model of true unity in legitimate diversity. Unity in the Trinity, Trinity in unity, because unity without multiplicity is tyranny, multiplicity without unity is fragmentation,” he said. “We must therefore leave behind theological controversies that have lost their ‘raison d’etre’ in order to develop a common understanding and even more, a common prayer to the Holy Spirit, so that he may gather us all together in one faith and one love. The restoration of unity among Christians does not make us poorer; on the contrary, it enriches us.” Explaining that the goal of full visible unity, is, “a theological challenge and, even more so, a spiritual challenge, which requires repentance and conversion on the part of all.”
During the upcoming season of Advent, this apostolic letter gives us all a wonderful meditation on the mystery of the Incarnation, when the pope writes, “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. His immensity is revealed when he makes himself small, laying aside his infinite majesty to become our neighbor in the little ones and in the poor.”
The conclusion of the letter calls upon the Holy Spirit to renew our faith and heal the wounds of division in the Body of Christ. Let us meditate on the words of his closing prayer in the letter:
“Holy Spirit of God, you guide believers along the path of history. We thank you for inspiring the symbols of faith and for stirring in our hearts the joy of professing our salvation in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, consubstantial with the Father. Without him, we can do nothing. Come, divine Comforter, source of harmony, unite the hearts and minds of believers. Come and grant us to taste the beauty of communion. Come, Love of the Father and the Son, gather us into the one flock of Christ. Show us the ways to follow, so that with your wisdom, we become once again what we are in Christ; one, so that the world may believe.”
Father Joseph D. Wallace is diocesan director of Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs and pastor of Christ the Redeemer Parish, Atco.
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