Catholic World News

Pope, Orthodox Patriarch look to new meeting at Nicea

May 30, 2014

Pope Francis and Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople have agreed to plan for an ecumenical meeting to be held in Nicea in 2025, the AsiaNews service reports.

Patriarch Bartholomew revealed that he and the Roman Pontiff had “agreed to leave as a legacy to ourselves and our successors a gathering in Nicaea in 2025, to celebrate together, after 17 centuries, the first truly ecumenical synod, where the Creed was first promulgated.” The Council of Nicea, held in 325, brought together over 300 bishops and approved the formula of faith now known as the Nicene Creed.

Pope Francis and the Ecumenical Patriarch chose Nicea—now known as Iznik, Turkey—as the site for a council that could bring together Eastern and Western Christians, as the original Council of Nicea did.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this CWN story referred to a "council" at Nicea. The nature of the meeting described by Patriarch Bartholomew is not entirely clear, and could change in the intervening years. But it would be premature, at the least, to say that the plan is for an ecumenical council. We apologize for using a word that could be misleading in this context.

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