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THE HOLY FATHER ADDRESSES THE PATRIARCHAL SYNOD OF THE ARMENIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
States News Service
April 9, 2015 Thursday
VATICAN CITY
The following information was released by the Vatican Information
Service (VIS):
This morning Pope Francis received in audience twenty bishops of the
Synod of the Armenian Catholic Church, who will attend next Sunday's
Holy Mass to be celebrated for faithful of Armenian rite in St.
Peter's Basilica, during which St. Gregory of Narek will be proclaimed
a Doctor of the Church.
In the discourse he addressed to the bishops, the Holy Father remarked
that on Sunday they will raise a prayer of Christian intercession for
the sons and daughters of your beloved people, who were made victims
a hundred years ago, and invoked Divine Mercy so that it might help
all, in the love for truth and justice, to heal every wound and to
expedite concrete gestures of reconciliation and peace between the
nations that still have not managed to reach a reasonable consensus
on the interpretation of these sad events.
Francis greeted all the clergy and lay faithful of the Armenian
Catholic Church, many of whom have accompanied the bishops to Rome in
these days, as well as those who live in the countries of the diaspora,
such as the United States, Latin America, Europe, Russia, Ukraine,
up to the Motherland. He added, I think with particular sadness of
those areas, such as that of Aleppo, that a hundred years ago were
a safe haven for the few survivors. In such regions the stability of
Christians, not only Armenians, has latterly been placed in danger.
Your people, whom tradition recognises as the first to convert to
Christianity in 301, has a two thousand-year history and preserves
an admirable patrimony of spirituality and culture, united with
a capacity for recovery amid the many persecutions and trials to
which it has been subjected. I invite you always to cultivate a
sentiment of acknowledgement of the Lord, for having been capable of
maintaining fidelity to Him even during the most difficult periods. It
is important, furthermore, to ask of God the gift of wisdom of the
heart: the commemoration of the victims of a hundred years ago indeed
places us before the darkness of the mysterium iniquitatis.
As the Gospel tells us, from the depths of the human heart there
may emerge the darkest powers, capable of planning the systematic
annihilation of one's brother, of considering him an enemy, an
adversary, or even without the same human dignity, he observed. But
for believers the issue of the evil committed by man also introduces
the mystery of participation in the redemptive Passion: a number of
sons and daughters of the Armenian nation were capable of pronouncing
Christ's name to the point of shedding their blood or of death
by starvation during the interminable exodus they were forced to
undertake.
The painful pages in the history of your people continue, in a certain
sense, the Passion of Christ, but in each one of these there is also
the germ of the Resurrection. There is no lack of commitment among
you, Pastors, to the education of the lay faithful to enable them
to interpret reality with new eyes, in order to be able to say every
day: my people consists not only of those who suffer for Christ, but
above all of those who are risen in Him. Therefore it is important
to remember the past, in order to draw from it the new lymph needed
to nurture the present with the glorious announcement of the Gospel
and with the witness of charity. I encourage you to support the path
of continuing formation of priests and consecrated persons. They are
your first collaborators; the communion between them and you will
be strengthened by the exemplary fraternity they may observe in the
Synod and with the Patriarch.
The Pope expressed his gratitude to those who made efforts to alleviate
the sufferings of their ancestors, making special reference to Pope
Benedict XV who intervened before the Sultan Mehmet V to bring an
end to the massacre of the Armenians, and who was a great friend
of the Christian Orient: he established the Congregation for the
Oriental Churches and the Pontifical Oriental Institute, and in 1920
he inscribed St. Ephrem the Syrian among the Doctors of the Universal
Church. Francis continued, I am pleased that our meeting takes place
on the eve of the same gesture I will have the pleasure of performing
on Sunday regarding the great figure of St. Gregory of Narek.
To his intercession, I entrust in particular the ecumenical dialogue
between the Catholic Armenian Church and the Armenian Apostolic
Church, aware of the fact that the 'ecumenism of blood' has already
been achieved through the martyrdom and persecution that took place
one hundred years ago, he concluded. I now invoke the Lord's blessing
upon you and your faithful, and I ask you not to forget to pray for me.
States News Service
April 9, 2015 Thursday
VATICAN CITY
The following information was released by the Vatican Information
Service (VIS):
This morning Pope Francis received in audience twenty bishops of the
Synod of the Armenian Catholic Church, who will attend next Sunday's
Holy Mass to be celebrated for faithful of Armenian rite in St.
Peter's Basilica, during which St. Gregory of Narek will be proclaimed
a Doctor of the Church.
In the discourse he addressed to the bishops, the Holy Father remarked
that on Sunday they will raise a prayer of Christian intercession for
the sons and daughters of your beloved people, who were made victims
a hundred years ago, and invoked Divine Mercy so that it might help
all, in the love for truth and justice, to heal every wound and to
expedite concrete gestures of reconciliation and peace between the
nations that still have not managed to reach a reasonable consensus
on the interpretation of these sad events.
Francis greeted all the clergy and lay faithful of the Armenian
Catholic Church, many of whom have accompanied the bishops to Rome in
these days, as well as those who live in the countries of the diaspora,
such as the United States, Latin America, Europe, Russia, Ukraine,
up to the Motherland. He added, I think with particular sadness of
those areas, such as that of Aleppo, that a hundred years ago were
a safe haven for the few survivors. In such regions the stability of
Christians, not only Armenians, has latterly been placed in danger.
Your people, whom tradition recognises as the first to convert to
Christianity in 301, has a two thousand-year history and preserves
an admirable patrimony of spirituality and culture, united with
a capacity for recovery amid the many persecutions and trials to
which it has been subjected. I invite you always to cultivate a
sentiment of acknowledgement of the Lord, for having been capable of
maintaining fidelity to Him even during the most difficult periods. It
is important, furthermore, to ask of God the gift of wisdom of the
heart: the commemoration of the victims of a hundred years ago indeed
places us before the darkness of the mysterium iniquitatis.
As the Gospel tells us, from the depths of the human heart there
may emerge the darkest powers, capable of planning the systematic
annihilation of one's brother, of considering him an enemy, an
adversary, or even without the same human dignity, he observed. But
for believers the issue of the evil committed by man also introduces
the mystery of participation in the redemptive Passion: a number of
sons and daughters of the Armenian nation were capable of pronouncing
Christ's name to the point of shedding their blood or of death
by starvation during the interminable exodus they were forced to
undertake.
The painful pages in the history of your people continue, in a certain
sense, the Passion of Christ, but in each one of these there is also
the germ of the Resurrection. There is no lack of commitment among
you, Pastors, to the education of the lay faithful to enable them
to interpret reality with new eyes, in order to be able to say every
day: my people consists not only of those who suffer for Christ, but
above all of those who are risen in Him. Therefore it is important
to remember the past, in order to draw from it the new lymph needed
to nurture the present with the glorious announcement of the Gospel
and with the witness of charity. I encourage you to support the path
of continuing formation of priests and consecrated persons. They are
your first collaborators; the communion between them and you will
be strengthened by the exemplary fraternity they may observe in the
Synod and with the Patriarch.
The Pope expressed his gratitude to those who made efforts to alleviate
the sufferings of their ancestors, making special reference to Pope
Benedict XV who intervened before the Sultan Mehmet V to bring an
end to the massacre of the Armenians, and who was a great friend
of the Christian Orient: he established the Congregation for the
Oriental Churches and the Pontifical Oriental Institute, and in 1920
he inscribed St. Ephrem the Syrian among the Doctors of the Universal
Church. Francis continued, I am pleased that our meeting takes place
on the eve of the same gesture I will have the pleasure of performing
on Sunday regarding the great figure of St. Gregory of Narek.
To his intercession, I entrust in particular the ecumenical dialogue
between the Catholic Armenian Church and the Armenian Apostolic
Church, aware of the fact that the 'ecumenism of blood' has already
been achieved through the martyrdom and persecution that took place
one hundred years ago, he concluded. I now invoke the Lord's blessing
upon you and your faithful, and I ask you not to forget to pray for me.