By Kristina Millare
Rome Newsroom, May 19, 2025 / 14:04 pm
Pope Leo XIV met with faith leaders at the Vatican on Monday, emphasizing his commitment to continue Pope Francis’ legacy on synodality in relation to ecumenical dialogue with other churches and religions.
Inviting representatives of other Christian churches, ecclessial communities, and other religions who attended his Sunday inauguration Mass to the Apostolic Palace for a private audience, the Holy Father stated his desire to continue the Church’s “ecumenical journey and interreligious dialogue” following the legacy of his predecessors St. John XXIII and Pope Francis.
“Synodality and ecumenism are closely linked,” he said. “I wish to assure you of my intention to continue Pope Francis’ commitment to promoting the synodal character of the Catholic Church and to developing new and concrete forms for an ever more intense synodality in the ecumenical field.”
“Today is the time for dialogue and for building bridges,” he added. “Therefore I am happy and grateful for the presence of the representatives of other religious traditions, who share the search for God and his will, which is always and only the will of love and life for men and women and for all creatures.”
Expressing his particular fraternal affection for the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem, and Assyrian Patriarch Mar Awa III in the meeting, Leo XIV highlighted the need for Christian unity in light of the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea to be celebrated on May 20.
“That council represents a fundamental stage in the development of the Creed shared by all the Churches and ecclesial communities,” the Holy Father said.
