POPE LEO XIV has pledged support for new efforts by Churches to achieve a common date for Easter, as part of an advance towards “full communion”, while also urging an end to any “unhealthy desire for domination”.
“Sadly, differences in their calendars no longer allow Christians to celebrate together the most important feast of the liturgical year, causing pastoral problems within communities, dividing families, and weakening the credibility of our witness to the Gospel,” the Pope told Roman Catholic and Orthodox theologians.
“In this year, when all Christians have celebrated Easter on the same day, I would reaffirm the openness of the Catholic Church to the pursuit of an ecumenical solution . . . thus giving greater missionary force to our preaching.”
His remarks came as he addressed an ecumenical symposium to mark the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, which was itself convened by Emperor Constantine to establish unity in Christian belief and practice.
The Pope said that the Council remained a “compass” in guiding Christians towards “full visible unity”. His own Church, he said, had re-committed itself to the “synodal path” during its 2023-24 Vatican Synod, and this path had been first inaugurated at Nicaea in 325.
“By returning to the Council of Nicaea and drawing together from this common source, we will be able to see in a different light the points that still separate us,” Pope Leo told the symposium, organised jointly by the St Thomas Aquinas Pontifical University in Rome and the International Orthodox Theological Association.
“By celebrating together this Nicene faith and by proclaiming it together, we will also advance towards the restoration of full communion among us.”
The Pope, who said that he still faced “a lot of learning experiences”, has held talks over the past week with the Presidents of Italy and Argentina, as well as with António Costa, the Portuguese President of the European Council. Mr Costa reported in a social-media post that their “very inspiring conversation” had focused on “how best to achieve peace”, and “global issues like climate change, the reduction of inequalities and the dignity of work”.
Preaching at Pentecost, Pope Leo said the “strong wind of the Spirit” could assist mutual acceptance and reconciliation within his Church, while also helping free people from the “vortex of individualism” and “all the masks we wear”.
“Sadly, oddly enough, in a world of burgeoning social media, we risk being ever more alone. Constantly connected, yet incapable of networking — always immersed in a crowd, yet confused and solitary travellers,” he told the congregation in St Peter’s Square.
“Where there is love, there is no room for prejudice, for security zones separating us from neighbours, for the exclusionary mindset that, tragically, we now see emerging also in political nationalisms.”
