International Theological Commission Publishes New Document

The International Theological Commission has published a new document, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior: The 1700th Anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea,” according to a press release from the same Commission dated Thursday, 3 April.

“On 20 May 2025,” reads the press release, “the Christian world will commemorate the 1700th 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.” The Commission recalls the late Pope Francis’ words “in this historic moment — marked by the tragedy of war along with countless anxieties and uncertainties” that “what is essential, most beautiful, most attractive, and also most necessary for Christians is precisely the faith in Jesus Christ proclaimed at Nicaea.”

The new document, explains the Commission, “aims not only to recall the nature and significance of the Council, given its great historical importance for the Church, but also to highlight the 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.”

The press release goes on to explain that “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.”

It clarifies that the document “is not intended simply to be a text of academic theology.” Rather, “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 to 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.”