Crux

Pope Leo XIV hopes to visit Jerusalem in 2033, to mark the 2000^th anniversary of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection.

In his closing remarks at Saturday morning’s ecumenical meeting in the Church of Mor Ephrem – the Syriac Orthodox church in Istanbul that was the first new church building erected since the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923 – Pope Leo XIV invited everyone present at the ecumenical gathering “to journey together on the spiritual journey leading to the Jubilee of Redemption in 2033, with the prospect of a return to Jerusalem, to the Upper Room.”

That’s according to a statement from the press office of the Holy See, given to journalists traveling with Leo in Turkey, where the pontiff has been since Thursday to mark the 1700^th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea.

The Upper Room – often called the cenacle (a Latin-root word meaning “supper-room”) – is the site of the Last Supper and one of the key sites in the Gospel accounts of Pentecost.

Pope St. John Paul II said a private Mass in the Upper Room during the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, and Benedict XVI visited the Upper Room during his 2009 pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

The press office statement said Leo called the spiritual journey one “that leads to full unity, citing his motto: In illo Uno unum.”

Representatives from the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and other Christian world communions and Ecumenical Organizations joined the Pope Leo and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew for the meeting, the lion’s share of which unfolded over two hours behind closed doors.

Among the participants were also envoys from the Anglican Communion, the Lutheran World Federation, the Baptist World Alliance, the World Evangelical Alliance, and the World Council of Churches.

The press office statement reported Leo “asked for and assured prayers for new encounters and moments like the one he experienced,” including “with those Churches unable to be present.”

Representatives from the Russian Orthodox Church have been conspicuously absent from ecumenical events during the visit, which has been intensely focused on Christian unity.

Speaking to Crux on Friday, the head of the Vatican’s dicastery for Christian unity, Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch, told Crux the Patriarchate of Constantinople issued the invitations to the service in Iznik and the Russian Orthodox were not on the list of invitees.

There are long-simmering tensions between the Patriarchates of Moscow and Constantinople, as well as tensions between Rome and Moscow, which boiled over during the pontificate of Francis as a result of both the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the DDF Doctrinal Note by Cardinal Victor Fernández, Fiducia supplicans, issued just before Christmas in 2023, which also caused a major stir within the Catholic fold owing to its daring take on the possibility of blessing persons in irregular unions, including same-sex relationships.

Vatican Media reported the words Pope Leo XIV left in the Book of Honor at Mor Ephrem.

“On the historic occasion in which we celebrate 1,700 years since the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, we gather to renew our faith in Jesus Christ, true God and true man, celebrating the faith we share together,” Leo wrote.

“I wish many blessings on all who have gathered here and on all the communities they represent,” he also wrote.