Catholics and Orthodox must walk together to be builders of peace in the world. It is the task entrusted by Pope Leo XIV to all Christians on his last day in Türkiye before going to Lebanon where he will continue his first international apostolic journey.
The Divine Liturgy on the feast of the Apostle Andrew, celebrated together with Patriarch Bartholomew I in the Patriarchal Church of San Giorgio in Istanbulwas not just a protocol gesture, but the concrete sign of a fraternity that continues to be reborn, despite the wounds of the past and the complexities of the present.
A moment of the Divine Liturgy
(REUTERS)
«There have been many misunderstandings and even conflicts between Christians of different Churches in the past, and there are still obstacles that prevent us from being in full communion, but we must not go back in our commitment to unity», said Pope Leo. He then listed three “challenges” to face together: “First of all, in this time of bloody conflicts and violence in places near and far, Catholics and Orthodox are called to be builders of peace. It is certainly a question of acting and making choices and signs that build peace, but without forgetting that it is not only the fruit of human commitment, but rather a gift from God. Therefore, peace is asked for with prayer, with penance, with contemplation, with that living relationship with the Lord which helps us to discern words, gestures and actions to undertake, so that they are truly at the service of peace”.
For the Pope then «another challenge that our Churches must face is the threatening ecological crisis» which «requires an authentic spiritual conversion to change direction and safeguard creation. Catholics and Orthodox we are called to collaborate to promote a new mentality in which everyone feels like guardians of the creation that God has entrusted to us.”
The Pope during the Divine Liturgy
(REUTERS)
Finally, «a third challenge I would like to mention is the use of new technologies, especially in the field of communication. Aware of the enormous advantages that they can offer to humanity, Catholics and Orthodox must work together to promote their responsible use at the service of the integral development of people, and universal accessibility, so that these benefits are not just reserved for a small number of people and the interests of a privileged few”.
In front of the members of the Holy Synod, the heads of the Churches and many faithful, Pope Leo «the faith of the Apostle Andrew is ours», the faith defined by the Councils and repeated every Sunday in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, the one that “unites us in a real communion and allows us to recognize ourselves as brothers and sisters”.
The conflicts, misunderstandings and divisions that have marked history have not been erased from memory, but the Pope explained that they cannot be the point of arrival, because “we must not go back in our commitment to unity” and above all we cannot stop loving each other “as such”, as brothers and sisters who share the same root. It is here that the memory of a gesture from sixty years ago becomes light for the present: when Paul VI and Athenagoras they decided to erase the mutual excommunications of 1054 from ecclesial memories, they opened a new path, a journey made of meetings, listening, theology and fraternal embraces.
That path today requires new impetus, and the Pope declared it without hesitation, thanking the Ecumenical Patriarchate for its consistency in dialogue and asking that all the autocephalous Churches return to actively participate in common work. He recognized that pursuing full communion is «one of the priorities of the Catholic Church» and, in particular, of his ministry as Bishop of Rome, called, he said, to «be at the service of all to build and preserve communion and unity».
But in these intense days we didn’t just talk about the Church: the Pope’s gaze broadened to the world, to the history that is happening before our eyes and which calls for courageous responses.
The anniversary celebration of the first Council of Nicaea, Bartholomew I underlined in his homily, «it cannot in any way be reduced to interest in a past event», instead it remains “the foundation of our search for Christian unity today”, a legacy through which “divided Christians will come closer and achieve their much desired unity”.
Bartholomew therefore, as also highlighted by Leo XIV, praised the work conducted by International Joint Commission for Dialogue established by Pope John Paul II and the Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios, on November 30, 45 years ago, which allows the Churches «at this critical moment in history, to face the thorny issues of the past to overcome them and lead us towards the restoration of full communion».
The unity of Christians “it is not a luxury”, recalled the Patriarch, but an “imperative” since Christians are expected to “have a unified message of hope”which condemns war and violence and defends human dignity and creation. Christians, it is the Patriarch’s invocation, cannot be complicit “in the bloodshed that takes place in Ukraine and in other parts of the world, nor remain silent in the face of the exodus of Christians from the cradle of Christianity”, but must “act as peacemakers, show ourselves as those who hunger and thirst for justice and behave as good stewards of creation”.
The Divine Liturgy concluded with the final doxology and blessing imparted by the Pope and Bartholomew I.
Finally, Leone thanked for «the warm and fraternal welcome» received, he invoked the intercession of the Apostle Andrew, of Peter, of St. George the Megalomartyr, of the Holy Fathers of the Council, and asked God to “abundantly bless all those present”.
In the morning, the Pontiff met with the Armenian Church in the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral of Istanbul, underlining the «courageous Christian testimony of the Armenian people over the centuries, often in tragic circumstances». The Armenian people, in fact, experienced a genocide at the beginning of the twentieth century, perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire, recognized as such by many countries. The Pope then concluded the meeting by thanking the Armenians for “the increasingly close fraternal ties” with the Catholic Church.
It is the last day in Türkiye for Pope Leo XIV who flies in in the early afternoon Lebanonone of the countries that suffer most from the troubled situation in the Middle East. The first date at Beirut it will be the meeting with the authorities.
