Together, pope and patriarch return to Nicaea on 1,700th anniversary of defining moment in Christendom



Seventeen centuries ago, bishops from around the known world gathered in Nicaea to affirm and codify the core tenets of the Christian faith. Now, as the anniversary of that defining moment in Christendom approaches, leaders on either side of the Great Schism are preparing to return, drawing East and West closer and renewing hope in the promise of Christian unity.

In the year 325, Emperor Constantine I called over 250 bishops — 318, according to tradition — to convene during the pontificate of Pope Sylvester I in the Bithynian city of Nicaea, 55 miles southeast of present-day Istanbul. It was the largest gathering of bishops in the church's history up until that time.

While the council would ultimately address a number of practical and ecclesiastic matters, it prioritized tackling the Arian heresy, which entailed a rebuke and an affirmation of the divinity of Christ — "God from God, light from light, True God from True God, begotten, not made, of the same substance as the Father, by Whom all things were made" — and setting the date on which to commemorate Jesus' resurrection.

This dogmatic council was of critical importance both then to the unified church and now to Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans, and other Protestants, perhaps most notably for its production of the Nicene Creed — a statement of faith, mutually held as authoritative, that predates both the Chalcedonian schism and the Great Schism.

Pope Leo XIV and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople are making a joint trip to the place where their predecessors met 17 centuries earlier. While various obstacles some figured to be insurmountable still stand in the way of full reunification, the meeting of the Christian leaders on this particular anniversary and the anniversary itself have sparked renewed interest in Christian unity and the ground that the faithful share in common.

Of popes and plans

Prior to his passing, Pope Francis proposed celebrating the 1,700th anniversary with Orthodox leaders in a Nov. 30 letter to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, who previously indicated a joint trip was expected to happen in late May.

Pope Francis noted in his letter to the patriarch that the Catholic Church's "dialogue with the Orthodox Church has been and continues to be particularly fruitful," yet acknowledged that the "ultimate goal of dialogue, full communion among all Christians, sharing in the one Eucharistic chalice, has not yet been realized with our Orthodox brother and sisters," which "is not surprising, for divisions dating back a millennium, cannot be resolved within a few decades."

'It is good whenever the pope and the patriarch meet.'

Prior to heading back to Toronto from Rome, where he participated in the conclave that elected the new pope, Archbishop Emeritus Thomas Cardinal Collins told Blaze News, "The 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea is most important for all Christians, because it was there that the bishops clarified the basic Christian faith in the divinity of Christ. The Nicene Creed, from this council and the next one, in Constantinople a few years later, is still the basic expression of our faith in the Trinity."

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First Council of Nicaea. Found in the collection of Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kiev. Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

"The division of East and West that occurred much later in 1054 is most unfortunate and has impeded the spread of the gospel," continued Collins. "But the churches of East and West, while having different theological and liturgical styles, recognize one another's apostolic succession and, with a few issues still in dispute, basically agree on doctrine as well. One thing that divides us is historical memories, but increased cooperation has brought some healing there."

'The remembrance of that important event will surely strengthen the bonds that already exist.'

Cardinal Collins noted further that "it is good whenever the pope and the patriarch meet. All Christians, facing so many external dangers, need to work together. The anniversary of Nicaea, which occurred long before the division of East and West, is a perfect opportunity to deepen our knowledge and love for one another, but especially Jesus. The closer we are to Him, the closer we will be to one another."

Pope Francis, then evidently of a similar mind, told Patriarch Bartholomew I that the anniversary would be "another opportunity to bear witness to the growing communion that already exists among all who are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

"This anniversary will concern not only the ancient Sees that took part actively in the Council, but all Christians who continue to profess their faith in the words of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed," wrote Pope Francis. "The remembrance of that important event will surely strengthen the bonds that already exist and encourage all Churches to a renewed witness in today's world."

The interest in a joint trip was evidently mutual.

During a March address in Harbiye, Turkey, Patriarch Bartholomew underscored his desire for a joint celebration of the anniversary, reported the Orthodox Times. He also emphasized the importance of the Council of Nicaea.

"The Council of Nicaea stands as a landmark in the formation of the Church's doctrinal identity and remains the model for addressing doctrinal and canonical challenges on an ecumenical level," said Patriarch Bartholomew.

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Photo by Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images

Their plans hit a major snag the following month.

Pope Francis died hours after Easter Sunday — the first time the Catholic and Orthodox Churches had celebrated Easter on the same day in eight years.

"He was due to come to our country, and together we would go to Nicaea, where the First Ecumenical Council was convened, to honor the memory of the Holy Fathers and exchange thoughts and wishes for the future of Christianity," Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew said in the wake of Pope Francis' passing. "All of this, of course, was canceled — or rather postponed."

'We are preparing it.'

"I believe that his successor will come, and we will go together to Nicaea to send a message of unity, love, brotherhood, and shared path toward the future of Christianity," added the patriarch.

It would not be clear for several days whom the papal conclave would elect as Francis' successor and whether he would have a similar interest in an East-West convention in Nicaea on the anniversary of the council.

The Chicagoan steps up to the plate

Various leaders in the Christian East welcomed the new bishop of Rome following his May 8 election.

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, among them, expressed hope that Pope Leo XIV will "be a dear brother and collaborator ... for the rapprochement of our churches, for the unity of the whole Christian family, and for the benefit of humankind," reported Vatican News.

Days later, Pope Leo XVI reportedly stated, "The meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will take place; we are preparing it."

When asked about the significance of the joint trip, the likelihood of East-West reunification, and Orthodox interest in such reunification, Fr. Barnabas Powell, a parish priest in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America speaking on his own behalf, told Blaze News, "There is simply no way one can be faithful to Christ and not long for the unity of all Christians."

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Photo (left): Abdulhamid Hosbas/Anadolu via Getty Images; Photo (right): Simone Risoluti - Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images

"We Orthodox pray for the unity of the churches in every service. Our Archbishop [Elpidophoros of America] has proven by his prayers and actions that he longs for unity," said Fr. Powell. "But unity isn't merely accepting certain propositional proposals. St. Paul said the Church is the bride of Christ, and this profound witness of the identity of the Church is ontologically connected to the mystery of relationship and love. This means we must work to know one another and not merely know about one another."

"This is hard work in light of the tragic centuries we have been apart. But just because something is difficult doesn't mean we shouldn't try," added Fr. Powell.

The Greek Orthodox priest expressed optimism about the joint trip to Nicaea, noting that as the "first Nicaea showed us that we are to gather together to struggle and dialogue through our challenges, so this is the normal Christian discipline for us today."

'I'm not in the odds-making business, but there is certainly justified hope.'

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America notes on its website that the "anniversary celebration brings together Orthodox, Catholics, and Protestants to reflect on the enduring significance of Nicaea, fostering conciliarity, dialogue, prayer, and a renewed commitment to the pursuit of Christian unity, echoing the spirit of the first ecumenical council."

Monsignor Roger Landry, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States, told Blaze News that over the past six decades, popes and the patriarchs of Constantinople have been regularly "meeting, praying, and slowly working for restored communion, as have the churches they lead."

Msgr. Landry suggested that "there's no question" that one of Pope Leo XIV's top priorities, "as we celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and move toward the 1000th anniversary of the lamentable split between East and West in 1054, will be to take whatever steps, big or small, that will help the church breathe with both lungs again in communion" — a reference to Pope St. John Paul II's 1995 metaphor of the Western and Eastern churches as two lungs.

Echoing Cardinal Collins and Fr. Powell, Msgr. Landry noted that there remain various obstacles in the way of restoration of full communion — including the date of Easter, the role of the pope, the Filioque controversy, the sacrament of marriage, the respect for the legitimate autonomy of the Eastern churches — but there is nevertheless "a mutual desire for that communion and a mutual humble dependence on God to reveal the path forward."

"I'm not in the odds-making business, but there is certainly justified hope because the issues that divide us are small in comparison to the faith, sacraments, life, and calling that unite us," Msgr. Landry told Blaze News. "We are moving together in the right direction."

In the meantime, he suggested that the ongoing separation "is a scandal that hinders the witness Christians are called to give of God."

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew's joint trip to Nicaea with Pope Leo XIV is hardly the only celebration of the anniversary that has brought East and West together.

Earlier this month in Freehold, New Jersey, hierarchs, clergy, seminarians, and faithful from Eastern and Western traditions — including elements of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Orthodox Church in America, the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of New Jersey, the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic, the St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Eparchy, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn — participated in an ecumenical prayer service "testifying to the unifying power of the Nicene Creed and the enduring vision of the Council Fathers."

Similar celebrations have been held elsewhere across the world.

The Catholic Church's International Theological Commission stated in a recent publication concerning the Council of Nicaea and the 1,700th anniversary:

The celebration of the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea is a pressing invitation to the Church to rediscover the treasure entrusted to her and to draw from it so as to share it with joy, with a new impetus, indeed in a "new stage of evangelisation." To proclaim Jesus our Salvation on the basis of the faith expressed at Nicaea, as professed in the Nicene-Constantinople symbol, is first of all to allow ourselves to be amazed by the immensity of Christ, so that all may be amazed, to rekindle the fire of our love for the Lord Jesus, so that all may burn with love for him. Nothing and no one is more beautiful, more life-giving, more necessary than he is."

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Memo to Hegseth: It isn’t about AI technology; it’s about counter-AI doctrine



Secretary Hegseth, you are a fellow grunt, and you know winning isn’t about just about technology. It’s about establishing a doctrine and training to its standards, which will win wars. As you know, a brand-new ACOG-equipped M4 carbine is ultimately useless if your troops do not understand fire and maneuver, communications security, operations security, supporting fire, and air cover.

The French and British learned that the hard way. Though they had 1,000 more tanks than the Germans when the Nazis attacked in 1940, their technological advantage disappeared under the weight of the far better German doctrine: Blitzkrieg.

So while the Washington political establishment is currently agog at China’s gee-whiz DeepSeek AIthis and oh-my-goodness Stargate AIthat, it might be more effective to develop a counter-AI doctrine right freaking now, rather than having our collective rear ends handed to us later.

While it is true that China’s headlong embrace of artificial intelligence could give the People’s Liberation Army a huge advantage in areas such as intelligence-gathering and analysis, autonomous combat air vehicles, and advanced loitering munitions, it is imperative to stay ahead of the Chinese in other crucial ways — not only in terms of technological advancement and the fielding of improved weapons systems but in the vital establishment of a doctrine of artificial intelligence countermeasures to blunt Chinese AI systems.

Such a doctrine should begin to take shape around four avenues: polluting large language models to create negative effects; using Conway’s law as guidance for exploitable flaws; using bias among our adversaries’ leadership to degrade their AI systems; and using advanced radio-frequency weapons such as gyrotrons to disrupt AI-supporting computer hardware.

Pollute large language models

Generative AI is the extraction of statistical patterns from an extremely large data set. A large language model developed from such an enormous data set using “transformer technology” allows a user to access it through prompts, which are natural language texts that describe the function the AI must perform. The result is a generative pre-trained large language model (which is where ChatGPT comes from).

Such an AI system might be degraded in at least two ways: Either pollute the data or attack the “prompt engineering.” Prompt engineering is a term that describes the process of creating instructions that can be understood by the generative AI system. A deliberate programming error would cause the AI large language model to “hallucinate.

The possibility also exists of finding unintended programming errors, such as the weird traits discovered in OpenAI’s “AI reasoning model” called “o1,” which inexplicably “thinks” in Chinese, Persian, and other languages. No one understands why this is happening, but such kindred idiosyncrasies might be wildly exploitable in a conflict.

An example from World War II illustrates the importance of countermeasures when an enemy can deliver speedy and exclusive information to the battlespace.

Given that a website like Pornhub gets something in excess of 115 million hits per day, perhaps the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter should be renamed ‘Stormy Daniels.’

The development of radar (originally an acronym for radio azimuth detecting and ranging) was, in itself, a method of extracting patterns from an extremely large database: the vastness of the sky. An echo from a radio pulse gave the accurate range and bearing of an aircraft.

To defeat enemy radar, the British intelligence genius R.V. Jones recounted in “Most Secret War,” it was necessary to insert information into the German radar system that resulted in gross ambiguity. For this, Jones turned to Joan Curran, a physicist at the Technical Research Establishment, who developed aluminum foil strips, called “window” by the Brits and “chaff” by the Americans, of an optimum size and shape to create thousands of reflections that overloaded and blinded the German radar system.

So how can present-day U.S. military and intelligence communities introduce a kind of “AI chaff” into generative AI systems, to deny access to new information about weapons and tactics?

One way would be to assign ambiguous names to those weapons and tactics. For example, such “naturally occurring” search terms might include “Flying Prostitute,” which would immediately reveal data about the B-26 Marauder medium-range bomber of World War II.

Or a search for “Gilda” and “Atoll,” which will retrieve a photo of the Mark III nuclear bomb that was dropped on Bikini Atoll in 1946, upon which was pasted a photo of Rita Hayworth.

A search of “Tonopah” and “Goatsucker” retrieves the F-117 stealth fighter.

Since a contemporary computer search is easily fooled by such accidental ambiguities, it would be possible to grossly skew results of a large language model function by deliberately using nomenclature that occurs with great frequency and is extremely ambiguous.

Given that a website like Pornhub gets something in excess of 115 million hits per day, perhaps the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter should be renamed “Stormy Daniels.” For code names of secret projects, try “Jenna Jameson” instead of “Rapid Dragon.”

Such an effort in sleight of hand would be useful for operations and communications security by confusing adversaries seeking open intelligence data.

For example, one can easily imagine the consternation that Chinese officers and NCOs would experience when their young soldiers expended valuable time meticulously examining every single image of Stormy Daniels to ensure that she was not the newest U.S. fighter plane.

Even “air-gapped” systems like the ones being used by U.S. intelligence agencies can be affected when the system updates information from internet sources.

Note that such an effort must actively and continuously pollute the datasets, like chaff confusing radar, by generating content that would populate the model and ensure that our adversaries consume it.

A more sophisticated approach would use keywords like “eBay” or “Amazon” or “Alibaba” as a predicate and then very common words such as “tire” or “bicycle” or “shoe.” Then contracting with a commercial media agency to do lots of promotion of the “items” across traditional and social media would tend to clog the system.

Use Conway’s law

Melvin Conway is an American computer scientist who in the 1960s conceived the eponymous rule that states: “Organizations which design systems are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.”

De Caro’s corollary says: “The more dogmatic the design team, the greater the opportunity to sabotage the whole design.”

Consider the Google Gemini fiasco. The February 2024 launch of Gemini, Google’s would-be answer to ChatGPT, was an unmitigated disaster that tanked Google’s share price and made the company a laughingstock. As the Gemini launch went forward, its image generator “hallucinated.” It created images of black Nazi stormtroopers and female Asian popes.

In retrospect, the event was the most egregious example of what happens when Conway’s law collides with organizational dogma. The young, woke, and historically ignorant programmers myopically led their company into a debacle.

But for those interested in confounding China’s AI systems, the Gemini disaster is an epiphany.

Xi’s need for speed, especially in 'informatization,' might be the bias that points to an exploitable weakness.

If the extremely well-paid, DEI-obsessed computer programmers at the Googleplex campus in Mountain View, California, can screw up so immensely, what kind of swirling vortex of programming snafu is being created by the highly regimented, ill-paid, constantly indoctrinated, young members of the People’s Liberation Army who work on AI?

A solution to beating China’s AI systems may be an epistemologist who specializes in the cultural communication of the PLA. By using de Caro’s Corollary, such an expert could lead a team of computer scientists to replicate the Chinese communication norms and find the weaknesses in their system — leaving it open to spoofing or outright collapse.

When a technology creates an existential threat, the individual developers of that technology become strategic targets. For example, in 1943, Operation Hydra, which employed the entirety of the RAF British Bomber Command — 596 bombers — had the stated mission of killing all the German rocket scientists at Peenemunde. The RAF had marginal success and was followed by three U.S. Eighth Air Force raids in July and August 1944.

In 1944, the Office of Strategic Services dispatched multilingual agent and polymath Moe Berg to assassinate German scientist Werner Heisenberg, if Heisenberg seemed to be on the right path to building an atomic bomb. Berg decided (correctly) that the German was off track. Letting him live actually kept the Nazis from success. In more recent times, it is no secret that five Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated (allegedly) by the Israelis in the last decade.

Advances in AI that could become existential threats could be dealt with in similar fashion. Bullets are cheap. So is C-4.

Exploit design biases to degrade AI systems

Often, the people and organizations funding research and development skew the results because of their bias. For example, Heisenberg was limited in the paths he might follow toward developing a Nazi atomic bomb because of Hitler’s perverse hatred of “Jewish physics.” This attitude was abetted by two prominent and anti-Semitic German scientists, Philipp Lenard and Johannes Stark, both Nobel Prize winners who reinforced the myth of “Aryan science.” The result effectively prevented a successful German nuclear program.

Returning to the Google Gemini disaster, one only needs to look at the attitude of Google leadership to see the roots of the debacle. Google CEO Sundar Pichai is a naturalized U.S. citizen whose undergraduate college education was in India before he came to the Unites States. His ties to India remain close, as he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian award, in 2022.

In congressional hearings in 2018, Pichai seemed to dance around giving direct answers to explicit questions, a trait he demonstrated again in 2020 and in an antitrust court case in 2023.

His internal memo after the 2024 Gemini disaster mentioned nothing about who selected the people in charge of the prompt engineering, who supervised those people, or who, if anyone, got fired in the aftermath. More importantly, Pichai made no mention of the internal communications functions that allowed the Gemini train wreck to occur in the first place.

Again, there is an epiphany here. Bias from the top affects outcomes.

As Xi Jinping continues his move toward autocratic authoritarian rule, he brings his own biases with him. This will eventually affect, or more precisely infect, Chinese military power.

In 2023, Xi detailed the need for China to meet world-class military standards by 2027, the 100th anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army. Xi also spoke of “informatization” (read: AI) to accelerate building “a strong system of strong strategic forces, raise the presence of combat forces in new domains and of new qualities, and promote combat-oriented military training.”

It seems that Xi’s need for speed, especially in “informatization,” might be the bias that points to an exploitable weakness.

Target chips with energy weapons

Artificial intelligence depends on extremely fast computer chips whose capacities are approaching their physical limits. They are more and more vulnerable to lack of cooling — and to an electromagnetic pulse.

In the case of large cloud-based data centers, cooling is essential. Water cooling is cheapest, but pumps and backup pumps are usually not hardened, nor are the inlet valves. No water, no cooling. No cooling, no cloud.

The same goes for primary and secondary electrical power. No power, no cloud. No generators, no cloud. No fuel, no cloud.

Obviously, without functioning chips, AI doesn’t work.

AI robots in the form of autonomous airborne drones, or ground mobile vehicles, are moving targets — small and hard to hit. But their chips are vulnerable to an electromagnetic pulse. We’ve learned in recent times that a lightning bolt with gigawatts of power isn’t the only way to knock out an AI robot. High-power microwave systems such as Epirus, Leonidas, and Thor can burn out AI systems at a range of about three miles.

Another interesting technology, not yet fielded, is the gyrotron, a Soviet-developed, high-power microwave source that is halfway between a klystron tube and a free electron laser. It creates a cyclotron resonance in a strong magnetic field that can produce a customized energy bolt with a specific pulse width and specific amplitude. It could therefore reach out and disable a specific kind of chip, in theory, at greater ranges than a “you fly ’em, we fry ’em” high-power microwave weapon, now in the early test stages.

Obviously, without functioning chips, AI doesn’t work.

The headlong Chinese AI development initiative could provide the PLA with an extraordinary military advantage in terms of the speed and sophistication of a future attack on the United States.

Thus, the need to develop AI countermeasures now is paramount.

So, Secretary Hegseth, one final idea for you to consider: During World War I, the great Italian progenitor of air power, General Giulio Douhet, very wisely observed: “Victory smiles upon those who anticipate the changes in the character of war, not upon those who wait to adapt themselves after the changes occur.”

In terms of the threat posed by artificial intelligence as it applies to warfare, Douhet’s words could not be truer today or easier to follow.

Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared originally on Blaze Media in August 2024.

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