Pope, Orthodox Patriarch look to new council at Nicea

Pope Francis and Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople have agreed to plan for an ecuмenical meeting to be held in Nicea in 2025, the AsiaNews service reports.

Patriarch Bartholomew revealed that he and the Roman Pontiff had “agreed to leave as a legacy to ourselves and our successors a gathering in Nicaea in 2025, to celebrate together, after 17 centuries, the first truly ecuмenical synod, where the Creed was first promulgated.” The Council of Nicea, held in 325, brought together over 300 bishops and approved the formula of faith now known as the Nicene Creed.

Pope Francis and the Ecuмenical Patriarch chose Nicea—now known as Iznik, Turkey—as the site for a council that could bring together Eastern and Western Christians, as the original Council of Nicea did.

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=21561


In an interview with AsiaNews , the Ecuмenical Patriarch of Constantinople reveals the future steps to strengthen unity between Catholics and Orthodox. In addition to the appointment of Nicaea, the first truly ecuмenical council , in the autumn the next meeting of the Catholic-Orthodox Joint Commission will be held in Jerusalem, where everyone "must commit themselves without hypocrisy".
stanbul (AsiaNews) - On his return from Jerusalem , where he met with Pope Francis at the Holy Sepulchre, the Ecuмenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, has revealed an important appointment for unity between Catholics and Orthodox: a gathering at Nicaea in 2025, where the first real ecuмenical council of the undivided Church was celebrated.

Speaking exclusively with AsiaNews, Bartholomew says that together with Pope Francis "we agreed to leave as a legacy to ourselves and our successors a gathering in Nicaea in 2025, to celebrate together, after 17 centuries , the first truly ecuмenical synod, where the Creed was first promulgated".


The Council of Nicaea (now Iznik, 130 km south- east of Istanbul) , brought together more than 300 bishops from East and West in  325 and is considered the first true ecuмenical council. It was there that the formula of the Creed was decided, similar to the one recited during the liturgy today, saying that Jesus "is co-substantial to the Father,"to counter the Aryan ideology.

Francis and Bartolomew met to mark 50 years since the embrace between Paul VI and Athenagoras. The 1964 meeting broke a centuries old silence between the Christian East and the West, with all the socio-political consequences that have arisen, and from which Europe still suffers.

The meeting at the Holy Sepulchre has revitalized dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox , two Christian visions that despite their differences, have a common vision of the sacraments and  apostolic tradition.

"The dialogue for unity between Catholics and Orthodox - Bartholomew tells AsiaNews - will start again from Jerusalem. In this city, in the autumn , a meeting of the Catholic-Orthodox Joint Commission  will be held hosted by the Greek -Orthodox patriarch Theophilos III . It is a long journey in which we all must be committed without hypocrisy".

 "Jerusalem - continues Bartholomew - is the place, the land of the dialogue between God and man, the place where the Logos of God was incarnated. Our predecessors Paul VI and Athenagoras have chosen this place to break a silence that lasted centuries between the two sister Churches".

"I walked with my brother Francis in the Holy Land not with the fears of Luke and Cleopas on their way to Emmaus (cf. Luke 24: 13-35), but inspired by a living hope which we learn from our Lord".

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Bartholomew-:-With-Francis,-we-invite-all-Christians-to-celebrate-the-first-synod-of-Nicaea-in-2025-31213.html

Rumors are making the rounds on the blogosphere today as AsiaNews.it released a story according to which the Eastern Schismatic (“Orthodox”) Patriarch Bartholomew I revealed that “Pope” Francis and he “agreed to leave as a legacy to ourselves and our successors a gathering in Nicaea in 2025, to celebrate together, after 17 centuries, the first truly ecuмenical synod, where the Creed was first promulgated.”
The full story can be read here:
"Bartholomew: With Francis, we invite all Christians to celebrate the first synod of Nicaea in 2025” (AsiaNews.it)

When you read the text, you can see that it really doesn’t say anything about a new “ecuмenical council” to be held in 2025, only that there will be a gathering in Nicea to commemorate the First Council of Nicea of 325 AD.
Yet, when the Novus Ordo flagship site Catholic Culture reported on this story, it went a step further and titled: “Pope, Orthodox Patriarch look to new council at Nicea.” The report begins thus: “Pope Francis and Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople have agreed to plan for an ecuмenical meeting to be held in Nicea in 2025, the AsiaNews service reports” (italics added).
A new council at Nicea? A Third Council of Nicea? A Nicea III? A twenty-second Ecuмenical Council (by Novus Ordo reckoning, which includes Vatican II)? Is this what they are planning? It’s not what AsiaNews.it’s report says, but then, they did not release the full interview with the Patriarch but only a blurb. Does CatholicCulture.org know more? So far, they have not issued a clarification to say otherwise.
Meanwhile, a blogger at Commonweal writes: “The exact nature of the planned meeting at Nicea (now Iznik, Turkey) is not known. But how could it be, over a decade in the future?” (Peppard, “Nicea III in 2025?”). La Stampa’s “Vatican Insider” page also has a report on this, though only in Italian so far.
Let’s see how this develops. If anyone could pull this off, it would be Francis

http://www.novusordowatch.org/wire/council-nicea-2025.htm

Dialogue can technically go on forever and this keeps the bureaucrats employed.

If a council in 2025 rescinds the Second Vatican Council and returns the Orthodox to the Catholic faith, then it sounds good.  This is, to understate it coolly, unlikely.

Doubly this ecuмenical council will achieve an actual return to Rome from the Orthodox. This will be more like another expression of new "ecclesiology of communion", which only ends in indifferentism. The Catholic truth is utterly exclusive and accepts no compromise. Until there is not a real return from the Orthodox to Eternal Rome and subjection to the Pontiff, this attempt will only bring more undermining of the "Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus" salutary dogma. There will never be a formal reunion until the Orthodox actually subjects to the Bishop of Rome.

I'm sure that the Orthodox believe that there's no salvation outside the Church.  They just redefine what Church means.

Hmmm.

Sound familiar?

 :scratchchin:

Extremely familiar!, since dogmas can be redefined to say something different than what they mean, every single novelty becomes possible to accommodate modern thoughts.

Modernists will, at least in public, affirm the words of the defined dogmas. However, they will teach a meaning that is different from what the words literally say and mean. This sneaky method allows for an evolution of meaning within a dogma. This absolutely undermines the immutability of divinely revealed truth. It then allows for an actual denial of the dogma as the Church has always understood it and taught it.