- Pope Leo XIV’s Apostolic Letter, “In unitate fidei,” commemorates the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, an event that formulated the foundational Nicene Creed and affirmed the divinity of Jesus Christ, calling on the entire Church to renew its enthusiasm for this enduring profession of faith, especially during his upcoming Apostolic Journey to Türkiye.
- The Letter emphasizes that the Council of Nicaea’s proclamation of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the “heart of the Christian faith,” remains today the unifying profession of faith recited during Sunday Eucharistic celebrations, providing hope amidst contemporary challenges like war, violence, natural disasters, and global injustices.
- Pope Leo XIV highlights the historical significance of the Council by noting that it was convened in 325 CE, during a turbulent period when the Christian Church, though freed from persecution by the Edict of Milan, faced an internal crisis due to Arianism, a doctrine propagated by Arius of Alexandria.
- Arianism, which posited that Jesus was not truly divine but an intermediate being created by God, challenged the essence of Christian faith by claiming there was a time “when the Son did not exist,” thus threatening the theological unity of the nascent Church and the stability of the Roman Empire.
- The Pope explains that in response to Arius’s teachings, courageous figures such as Bishop Alexander of Alexandria and Bishop Hosius of Cordoba defended the orthodox understanding of Jesus’s divinity, with their efforts ultimately leading Emperor Constantine to convene the Council of Nicaea to resolve this critical theological dispute.
FULL TEXT of Pope Leo’s Apostolic Letter “In unitate fidei”
