Pope Leo XIV on Thursday met with a U.S. ecumenical group, led by Cardinal Joseph Tobin and Greek Orthodox Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, encouraging them to “return to the roots of our faith” in their pilgrimage to Italy and Turkey.    

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Welcoming the group from his “native country” to his papal residence in Castel Gandolfo, located 15 miles southeast of Rome, the Holy Father said their visits to various holy sites in both countries are a “concrete way” of renewing their faith in the “Gospel handed down to us by the apostles.”

He said: “Your pilgrimage is 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.’”

Leo reiterated the importance of Christian unity — a key theme of his pontificate — during the meeting, saying Rome, Constantinople, and other episcopal sees “are not called to vie for primacy” but to pursue a path of “fraternal charity” through the Holy Spirit.

“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,” he said. 

“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,” he continued.

Pope Leo specially thanked Elpidophoros for leading the ecumenical group alongside Tobin, saying such “signs of sharing and fellowship” among Catholics and Orthodox should not be taken for granted.

“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,” he said.

“Before then, a pilgrimage like your own would probably not even have been possible,” he added. 

The pope asked both religious leaders to bring his greetings and “an embrace of peace” to Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, who attended his May 18 inauguration Mass, when in Turkey to continue their pilgrimage. 

While encouraging the U.S. delegation to be “witnesses and bearers of hope” during the 2025 Jubilee Year, Leo asked pilgrims to look forward to 2033, when Christians will commemorate the 2,000th anniversary of “the redemption won by the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.”

“Spiritually, all of us need to return to Jerusalem, the City of Peace, where Peter, Andrew and all the Apostles, after the days of the Lord’s passion and resurrection, received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and from there bore witness to Christ to the ends of the earth,” he said.

Before concluding the audience, the Holy Father expressed his hope to meet the group again “in a few months” for an “ecumenical commemoration” to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. 

He did not specify if he would or would not undertake an apostolic journey to Turkey this year to celebrate the occasion in İznik, modern day Nicaea, during the meeting.

This article was originally published by CNA.