Pope Leo XIV invites Christians to a shared 2033 Jubilee pilgrimage to Jerusalem’s Upper Room, evoking the 2000th anniversary of Christ’s passion and resurrection.
Newsroom (01/12/2025 Gaudium Press ) In a poignant call for Christian unity issued from the first new church built in Turkey since the republic’s founding a century ago, Pope Leo XIV on Saturday expressed his hope to lead a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 2033, coinciding with the 2,000th anniversary of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Speaking at the close of an ecumenical gathering in the Syriac Orthodox Church of Mor Ephrem in Istanbul, the pontiff invited all present “to journey together on the spiritual journey leading to the Jubilee of Redemption in 2033, with the prospect of a return to Jerusalem, to the Upper Room,” according to an official statement released by the Holy See Press Office to journalists accompanying the pope in Turkey.
The Upper Room, known in tradition as the Cenacle, is venerated as the site of the Last Supper and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Pope St. John Paul II celebrated a private Mass there during the Great Jubilee of 2000, while Benedict XVI prayed in the same space during his 2009 pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
The pope framed the proposed 2033 pilgrimage as part of a broader path “that leads to full unity,” invoking his papal motto, In illo Uno unum—“In that One, we are one.”
The two-hour ecumenical meeting, much of which took place behind closed doors, brought together Pope Leo and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople with representatives of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Anglican Communion, the Lutheran World Federation, the Baptist World Alliance, the World Evangelical Alliance, and the World Council of Churches.
Notably absent were delegates from the Russian Orthodox Church, underscoring persistent fractures in global Orthodoxy and between Moscow and both Rome and Constantinople. The rift has been exacerbated in recent years by the war in Ukraine and differing reactions to the Vatican’s 2023 document Fiducia supplicans.
Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, confirmed to Crux on Friday that invitations to related events in Turkey were extended by the Ecumenical Patriarchate and did not include the Moscow Patriarchate.
In the Golden Book of the Church of Mor Ephrem, Pope Leo left a handwritten message commemorating the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, held in 325 in what is now Iznik, Turkey:
“On the historic occasion in which we celebrate 1,700 years since the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, we gather to renew our faith in Jesus Christ, true God and true man, celebrating the faith we share together. I wish many blessings on all who have gathered here and on all the communities they represent.”
The pope also requested and assured continued prayers for future encounters, including with churches unable to attend the Istanbul gathering.
Pope Leo arrived in Turkey on Thursday for a three-day visit centered on the Nicaea milestone, widely regarded as a cornerstone of Trinitarian and Christological doctrine shared by nearly all Christian traditions.
His expressed desire to return with other Christian leaders to the Upper Room in eight years’ time signals an ambitious ecumenical horizon for the remainder of his pontificate, tying the ancient hope of visible unity to the biblical and historical heart of the Christian story in Jerusalem.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Crux Now
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