ISTANBUL — POPE LEO XIV JOINED ORTHODOX PATRIARCHS AND ECUMENICAL LEADERS in commemorating an important moment in Christian history — the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea. They gathered at the site in Turkey of an unprecedented A.D. 325 meeting of bishops to pray that Christians might once again be reunited. Pope Leo, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I and other Christian leaders met on the shores of Lake Iznik, the site of the Council of Nicaea that produced a creed that is still recited by millions of Christians today.

Mentioned less often, though, is the Second Council of Nicaea, which took place 4½ centuries later, also at Lake Iznik, in 787. It was then that another pontiff of the same name (Pope Leo III) issued a decree against worshiping religious icons of Chr

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