For Pope Leo XIV, Christian unity is not just an ideal, but an imperative

As the Catholic Church prepares to join Christians around the world in commemorating the 2026 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the theme chosen also reflects Pope Leo XIV’s hope of unified humanity in an increasingly individualistic world.

“There is one body and one Spirit,” drawn from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, is the theme.

Unity is “more than simply an ideal,” but a “divine mandate at the core of our Christian identity,” according to resource materials for the week published by the Vatican,

“It represents the essence of the Church’s calling — a call to reflect the harmonious oneness of our life in Christ amidst our diversity,” the materials stated. “This divine unity is central to our mission and is sustained by the profound love of Jesus Christ, who has set before us a unified purpose.”

The material for the Jan. 18-25 octave of prayer, which was published on the website of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, was prepared by the Armenian Apostolic Church, as well as members of the Armenian Catholic Church, and evangelical churches.

The full theme chosen for the week of prayer reads, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling,” which “encapsulates the theological depth of Christian unity,” the materials said.

The theological vision of Christian unity has also been a recurring theme since the start of Pope Leo’s pontificate, starting with his motto: “In Illo uno unum” (“In the One, we are one.”)

During his return flight from Lebanon Dec. 2, Pope Leo noted that although his motto is a Christ-centric hope for unity, that hope is not limited to just Christians, but an invitation “to all of us and to others” to promote “authentic unity and understanding, respect and human relationships of friendship and dialogue in the world.”

For the pope, true and sincere unity increases the hope that “we will put aside the arms of war, that we will leave aside the distrust, the hatred, the animosity that has so often been built up, and that we will find ways to come together and be able to promote authentic peace and justice throughout the world.”

Pope Leo also told journalists aboard the papal flight that his first apostolic visit to Turkey and Lebanon, which commemorated the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, was “organized thinking about ecumenical affairs” and “seeking unity in the Church.”

During his visit, the pope signed a joint declaration with Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, which stressed that unity could not be reduced to mere agreements.

Christian unity, the declaration stated, “is not merely the result of human efforts, but a gift that comes from on high.” It went on to call all Christians to earnestly seek “the fulfilment of the prayer that Jesus Christ addressed to the Father: ‘that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you … so that the world may believe.'”

The choice of the Armenian Apostolic Church in preparing the resource materials for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, was notable given the pope’s admiration for the suffering endured by the people of Armenia, which he expressed during his Nov. 30 visit to Archbishop Sahak II Mashalian, the Armenian Apostolic patriarch of Constantinople, in Istanbul.

Reflecting on the Nicene Creed, Pope Leo said unity must take the form of “a communion which does not imply absorption or domination, but rather an exchange of the gifts received by our Churches from the Holy Spirit.”

When Christians gather to pray as one during the week of prayer, its theme, the witness of Armenian Christians and Pope Leo’s vision for unity all converge on a central message that Christians are called not only to reflect on unity, but to live it.

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