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Receiving a Lutheran delegation on June 20, 2024, Pope Francis, who may be celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed in Turkey in 2025, stressed the importance of this "ecumenical event" for Lutherans and Catholics.
In 2025, the Church will celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, from which came the Nicene Creed, the first major text to summarize the Christian faith, still recognized as central by Catholics, Orthodox, and some Protestants. The Council was held before any major schisms in the Christian Church and thus represents a time of unity.
In his address to the Lutherans, the Pope urged them to remember the common origin of the two confessions, insisting in particular on this phrase from the Creed: "one baptism for the forgiveness of sins."
The 'Nicaea symbol' "creates an ecumenical bond that has its center in Christ," said the Pontiff, echoing a joint declaration signed by Cardinal Kurt Koch, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity, at the Lutheran Federation's general assembly in Krakow in 2023.
Together again, as in 325
In 2025, Pope Francis intends to visit Nicaea, now Iznik in Turkey, according to Patriarch Bartholomew, head of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Orthodox leader is expected to make the trip with the Pontiff. It is not known whether representatives of other Orthodox or Protestant denominations would participate in such a trip.
In his Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee of 2025, another of the year's major festivities, Pope Francis stated that the anniversary of the Council of Nicaea is an "invitation" to all the Churches to make progress "towards visible unity."
Anniversary of the Augsburg Joint Declaration
The Pope's meeting with the Lutheran delegation was also an opportunity to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the signing, in 1999, of an official Joint Declaration in Augsburg, Germany.
This was one of the first joint documents between the two denominations since the Reformation. It was signed by Cardinal Edward Cassidy, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and Bishop Christian Krause, President of the Lutheran World Federation.
The choice of venue at the time was particularly audacious: on June 25, 1530, Luther and the princes who rallied to his cause had told the imperial diet assembled in Augsburg by Charles V of their profound disagreement with the papacy, in a document known today as the "Augsburg Confession."
The Pope reminded his hosts that the signing of the common document in 1999, after centuries of hostility, was a "sign of hope in our history of reconciliation," and a reality that is still "alive."
