Pope Francis has expressed a desire to visit Nicaea, the ancient name for the port city of İznik in northwestern Turkey, in 2025 to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the first ecumenical council, the Vatican news website reported.
The First Council of Nicaea was held in İznik, which became an important religious center during the Byzantine period, in 325 AD, with the participation of more than 300 bishops who came from different parts of the empire.
The council produced the Nicene Creed, the first major text to summarize the Christian faith, still recognized as central by Catholics, Orthodox and some Protestants.
“It is a trip I wholeheartedly desire to make,” the 87-year-old pope said Friday morning as he greeted a delegation from from İstanbul’s Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, which was in Rome for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the founders of the church in Rome.
The customary visit is reciprocated by a delegation from the Catholic Church to İstanbul on the November 30 feast of Saint Andrew, who tradition holds founded the church at Constantinople.
“I am pleased that the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity have begun to reflect on how to join in commemorating this anniversary, and I thank His Holiness Bartholomew for inviting me to celebrate it near the place where the council met,” the pope said.
Based on the Lausanne Treaty signed in 1923, Turkey does not recognize Bartholomew’s “ecumenical” title, which means universal and relates to unity among the world’s Orthodox churches.
If Francis can make a visit to Turkey in 2025, it will be his second trip to the country since he was elected in 2013.
He paid a three-day visit to İstanbul and Ankara in 2014 aiming to build bridges with Islam and support the Christian minorities of the Middle East.