His Holiness Pope Francis to Orthodox Priests: Nicene Creed unites all Christians

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His Holiness Pope Francis meets with young priests and monks of the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and urges Christians to express our common faith in respect and fraternal love.

By Devin Watkins

“The proclamation of our common faith requires before all else that we love one another.”

His Holiness Pope Francis offered that reminder on Thursday as he met with a delegation of Orthodox clergy taking part in a study visit to Rome.

Promoted by the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, the fifth Study Visit brought together priests and monks from the Armenian, Coptic, Ehiopian, Eritrean, Malankara, and Syrian Oriental Orthodox Churches.

In his greetings to the group at the Casa Santa Marta, the Pope called the annual visit an “exchange of gifts,” which helps theological dialogue to go hand-in-hand with the dialogue of charity.

He noted that this year marks the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, the first Ecumencial Council, which produced the Nicene Creed, a Symbol of Faith professed by all Christians.

‘Symbol’ of Christian faith

Pope Francis went on to explore the meaning of the term “Symbol” in reference to the Nicene Creed.

On a theological level, he said, the Creed “sets forth the ensemble of the principal truths of the Christian faith, which harmoniously complement one another.”

The Nicene Creed, he added, was the first synthetic Symbol created by the Church, and was therefore “exemplary and unparalleled.”

The Pope said the Creed also bears an ecclesiological significance, since it unites both truth and believers as a single Christian people.

“In antiquity, the Greek word symbolon indicated half of a document broken in two, to be presented as a sign of identity,” he said, noting that the Nicene Creed represents a sign of our identity and communion…

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