Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, has not ruled out the possibility of Pope Leo XIV traveling to Nicaea, located in the present-day Turkish town of Iznik, where the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council will be celebrated later this month.
“It’s an important moment for the Catholic Church and for ecumenism,” the Italian cardinal stated after noting that it could be the new pontiff’s first international destination.
“It was definitely planned that Pope Francis would go. I imagine Pope Leo will follow the same path,” he added, speaking with Vatican media on the sidelines of the event “Toward a Theology of Hope for and from Ukraine,” held at the Gregorian University on May 14–15, organized under the patronage of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
The death of Pope Francis on April 21 had dashed the hopes of the Eastern Orthodox ecumenical patriarch, Bartholomew, of being able to celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea with the bishop of Rome around May 24.
The pivotal ecclesial meeting, which took place in A.D. 325 at the initiative of Emperor Constantine, marked a milestone in the history of Christianity as the first ecumenical council of the Church, during which the Nicene Creed, the first official summary of Christian belief, was formulated.
Nonetheless, Patriarch Bartholomew did not rule out the possibility of a visit by Leo XIV. On May 8, during a tribute he received at the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation in Athens, Greece, he proposed an alternative plan to travel to Turkey at the end of November in observance of the feast of the patron saint of the ecuemenical patriarchate, St. Andrew, on Nov. 30.
He also indicated that he would be present at the Mass to inaugurate Leo XIV’s pontificate, scheduled for Sunday, May 18, at St. Peter’s.
Istanbul, a path to peace in Ukraine
On another note, Parolin also encouraged peace negotiations between the presidents of Ukraine and Russia during the meeting to be held in Turkey with the mediation of the United States.
He expressed his hope that the meeting planned for Istanbul could be “a serious starting point for ending the war.”
“We always hope there are openings for peace,” Parolin said. “We are pleased that there is finally the possibility of a direct meeting. We hope that the existing issues can be resolved there and that a genuine peace process can begin.”
No immediate plans for a papal trip to Ukraine
Regarding a possible visit by Pope Leo XIV to Kyiv, Ukraine, following President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s telephone invitation Monday, the Vatican secretary of state indicated that it is still “premature” to consider such a possibility.
Pope Leo XIV “will continue, as he has done numerous times since the start of his pontificate, to call for an end to the war,” Parolin affirmed.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
