PRESS RELEASE

Publication of the Document

Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior:
1700^th Anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325-2025)

of the International Theological Commission

3 April 2025

On 20 May 2025, the Christian world will commemorate the 1700^th anniversary of the opening of the Council of Nicaea, which took place in Asia Minor in the year 325.  This was the first ecumenical council in history, and it produced the creed that, completed by the First Council of Constantinople in 381, has become the distinctive expression of the Church’s faith in Jesus Christ.  This anniversary occurs within the Jubilee Year, which is centred on the theme “Christ our Hope,” and it coincides with the common celebration of Easter by Christians of both East and West.  As Pope Francis has emphasized, in this historic moment—marked by the tragedy of war along with countless anxieties and uncertainties—what is essential, most beautiful, most attractive, and also most necessary for Christians is precisely the faith in Jesus Christ proclaimed at Nicaea.   Indeed, the proclamation of this faith is “the fundamental task of the Church” (Address to Participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, 26 January 2024).

The International Theological Commission has now published an important and comprehensive document entitled, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior: The 1700^th Anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea.”  It aims not only to recall the nature and significance of the Council, given its great historical importance for the Church, but also to highlightthe extraordinary resources that the Nicene creed, continuously professed up to our own time, contains and re-proposes, especially in view of the new phase of evangelization that the Church is presently called to undertake.  The document also highlights the relevance of these resources for a responsible and shared approach to addressing the epochal changes that are impacting culture and society worldwide.  For the faith professed at Nicaea makes us see the explosive and enduring newness of the coming of the Son of God among us.  It encourages us to expand our hearts and minds in order to welcome and engage with the gift of this decisive insight into the meaning and direction of history in light of the God who, through his only-begotten Son, to whom he communicates the fullness of his own life, makes us participants in that life through the Incarnation, and generously bestows on all the breath of the Holy Spirit, which overcomes all barriers: a breath of freedom from selfishness, of openness to reciprocal relationships, and of communion with others.

The faith that the Council of Nicaea witnesses to and hands on is the truth of a God who, being Love, is Trinity, and who, out of love, becomes one of us in his Son.  This truth is the authentic principle of fraternity between individuals and peoples, and of the transformation of history in accordance with the prayer that Jesus addressed to the Father on the eve of the supreme gift of his life for us, “that they may be one, as we are one” (Jn 17:22).  The Nicene Creed thus stands at the heart of the Church’s faith as a wellspring of living water to be drawn upon also today.  Through it, we can enter into Jesus’ gaze and, in him, into the gaze with which God, Abba, looks upon all his children and upon the whole of creation, starting with the least, the poor and the outcast.  For the only-begotten Son of the Father—who became the “firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Rom 8:29)—identifies with them to the point that he considers that what is done to each one of them is done to him (cf. Mt 25:40).

The document of the International Theological Commission is not intended simply to be a text of academic theology.  It is offered as a valuable and timely synthesis that can positively assist growth in faith and lived witness to faith within the Christian community.  As such, it seeks not only enrich participation in liturgical life with new insights and guide the People of God in their understanding and experience of the faith, but also to inspire and direct the cultural and social commitment of Christians during this challenging time of epochal change.  Significantly, it was at Nicaea that the Church’s unity and mission were first expressed emblematically at a universal level (hence its designation as “ecumenical”) through the synodal experience of “journeying together,” which is proper to the Church.  Nicaea thus stands as an authoritative reference point and inspiration for the synodal process in which the Catholic Church is engaged today, in her commitment to experience a conversion and reform marked by the principle of relationship and reciprocity for mission, as the Final Document of the last Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, issued by Pope Francis, vigorously affirms.

The International Theological Commission therefore extends an invitation to attend the Study Day on the document, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior: The 1700^th Anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325-2025),” to be held on 20 May 2025 at the “Saint John Paul II” Auditorium of the Pontifical Urbaniana University. (For more information, see: https://www.doctrinafidei.va/it/commissioni-collegate/commissione teologica/storia/eventi.html).