One in Christ / Daniel Conway
Ecumenical journey reminds us we are all pilgrims of hope
(En Espanol)
On Thursday, July 17, Pope Leo XIV greeted a very special group of pilgrims led by Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, N.J., and Greek Orthodox Archbishop Elpidophoros of America. The pilgrims were embarking on an ecumenical journey that would take them to numerous sites of significance to Catholic and Orthodox traditions as they traveled from Rome to Constantinople (today known as Istanbul).
Bearing the title “From Old Rome to New Rome: A Roman Catholic and Orthodox Pilgrimage,” the event commemorated the 1700th anniversary of the Church’s first ecumenical council, the Council of Nicaea, which resulted in the Nicene Creed that expresses the core beliefs of the Christian faith.
During his welcoming remarks, Pope Leo said:
You have set out from the United States, which as you know, is also my native country, and this journey is meant to be a return to the roots, the sources, the places, the memorials of the Apostles Peter and Paul in Rome, and of the Apostle Andrew in Constantinople. It is also a way to experience anew and in a concrete way the faith that comes from listening to the Gospel, hearing the Gospel handed down to us by the Apostles (cf. Rom 10:16).
It is significant that your pilgrimage is taking place this year, in which we celebrate one thousand seven hundred years of the Council of Nicaea. The symbol of faith adopted by the assembled Fathers remains—together with the additions made at the Council of Constantinople in 381—the common patrimony of all Christians, for many of whom the Creed is an integral part of their liturgical celebrations. Then too, by a providential coincidence, this year the two calendars in use in our Churches coincide, with the result that we were able to chant as one the Easter Alleluia: “Christ is risen! He is truly risen!”
The Easter Alleluia proclaims that the darkness of sin and death has been vanquished by the Lamb that was slain, Jesus Christ our Lord. According to the Holy Father, this acclamation “inspires us with great hope, for we know that no cry of the innocent victims of violence, no lament of mothers mourning their children will go unheard.” We place our hope in God, but “precisely because we constantly draw from the inexhaustible source of his grace, we are called to be witnesses and bearers of hope.”
“Pilgrims of Hope” is the theme chosen by Pope Francis for the current Jubilee Year.
“It is my hope,” Pope Leo said, “that your pilgrimage will confirm all of you in the hope born of our faith in the risen Lord!”
Unity among those who believe in Christ is one of the signs of God’s gift of consolation, the Holy Father said. Scripture promises that “in Jerusalem you will be comforted” (Is 66:13). “Rome, Constantinople and all the other Sees, are not called to vie for primacy, lest we risk finding ourselves like the disciples who along the way, even as Jesus was announcing his coming passion, argued about which of them was the greatest” (cf. Mk 9:33-37).
Pope Leo described this particular pilgrimage as “one of the abundant fruits of the ecumenical movement aimed at restoring full unity among all Christ’s disciples in accordance with the Lord’s prayer at the Last Supper, when Jesus said, “that they may all be one” (Jn 17:21). He noted that at times “we take for granted these signs of sharing and fellowship that, albeit not yet signifying full unity, already manifest the theological progress and the dialogue of charity that have marked recent decades.”
The Holy Father recalled that “on December 7th, 1965, on the eve of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, my predecessor Saint Paul VI and the Patriarch, Athenagoras signed a joint declaration removing from memory and the midst of the Church the sentences of excommunication that followed the events of the year 1054. Before then, a pilgrimage like your own would probably not even have been possible.”
Pope Leo observed that it is the grace of the Holy Spirit that creates in hearts the readiness to take initial steps “as a prophetic presage of full and visible unity.”
He concluded, saying, “For our part, we too must continue to implore from the Paraclete, the Consoler, the grace to pursue the path of unity and fraternal charity.”
(Daniel Conway is a member of The Criterion’s editorial committee.) †