On July 17, Pope Leo XIV received at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo participants in a pilgrimage “From Rome to New Rome,” which involves fifty Orthodox Christians and Roman Catholics from the United States, led by Archbishop Elpidophoros of the United States (Ecumenical Patriarchate) and Cardinal Joseph Tobin, Archbishop of Newark, New Jersey. The pilgrimage includes visits to sacred sites associated with the apostles Peter and Paul in Rome and St. Andrew in Constantinople, and is being held on the occasion of the 1,700th anniversary of the convening of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325 AD).
During the meeting, the Pope expressed the hope that he would be able to travel to Nicaea in person and participate in the celebration of the jubilee. In his address, he extended a special greeting to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, which the pilgrims should convey, and emphasized the importance of the Creed, formulated at the Council of Nicaea and supplemented in 381 in Constantinople, as “the common heritage of all Christians.”
