(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis arrives in the Armenian capital Yerevan on Friday afternoon for his 14th foreign pastoral visit. He’ll be spending three days in the country, travelling to the nearby town of Etchmiadzin, seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church, as well as to the northern city of Gyumri and to the famous Khor Virap monastery on the border with Turkey.
Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as the state religion at the beginning of the fourth century and the great majority of people in the country today belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church which is part of the Oriental Orthodox family.
Relations with other Christian communities, including the small Armenian Catholic and Roman Catholic Churches, are very good and Pope Francis will be focusing on the importance of ecumenical dialogue and action at a prayer service on Saturday in Yerevan’s Republic Square.
To find out more, Philippa Hitchen spoke to Fr John Barker who heads the tiny Anglican community in Armenia and represents the Archbishop of Canterbury for relations with the Armenian Apostolic Church….
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Fr John says there is an impressive level of warmth, agreement and mutual understanding in Armenia between all the different Churches.
He says the people have a dual hope for this papal visit: firstly that the memory of the genocide, a century ago, will be brought back into the public eye. But “just as importantly” he says, there is a hope that “it will show again that we have the potential to speak as one Christian voice, irrespective of whether we come from an Apostolic, a Catholic or an Anglican background.
The Armenian Church today, he continues, have a “very significant voice” in public life, since around 95% of people are members of the Church and around half of those practice their faith on a regular basis.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has departed from Italy for a three-day Apostolic Voyage to Armenia .
As the Pope began his journey, he sent the following telegram to Sergio Mattarella , the President of Italy:
In the moment in which I undertake my Apostolic Voyage to Armenia in order to draw from the ancient wisdom of that people, to confirm them in the faith, to support every effort along the path of peace and reconciliation, I address to you, Mr President, and to the whole Italian nation my cordial greetings, which I accompany with an encouragement to the entire country to remain on the front line of solidarity, looking to the future with confidence and hope.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis is on his way to Armenia, the “first Christian nation,” for a three day pastoral visit. The journey to the former Soviet Caucasus region will be the Pope’s 14 th foreign trip as pontiff.
He will return to the area again in September for visits to Georgia and Azerbaijan. The focus of the visit will be to consolidate ecumenical relations with the Armenian Apostolic Church, to encourage the small, local minority Catholic Church, and to show the Pope’s closeness to Armenian Christians who historically, suffered periods of persecution and massacres.
Francis departed Rome’s Fiumicino airport shortly before 9.30 am; he is due to arrive in four hours’ time at ‘Zvartnots’ international airport in Yerevan, at around 15:00 local time (12:00 GMT). Following the airport welcoming ceremony with local dignitaries, the Pope will pray at the apostolic Cathedral in Etchmiadzin. For the duration of his visit, Pope Francis will reside at the Apostolic Palace, seat of the Supreme Patriarch (Catholicos) of All Armenians, Karekin II.
Pope Francis will pay a courtesy visit Friday to the President of the Republic Serzh Sargsyan in the Presidential Palace in Yerevan, where he will meet with national and civil authorities and members of the diplomatic corps. Later, the Pope will meet privately with the Catholicos Karekin II in the Apostolic Palace of Etchmiadzin.
As is his tradition, on the eve of his trip, Pope Francis went in private to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore Thursday evening, where he remained in prayer before the image of Our Lady, Salus Populi Romani, asking her to bless his visit to Armenia. As in prior visits to the Marian shrine, the Pope laid flowers on the altar in homage to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) As has become customary, Pope Francis on Thursday paid a private visit to the Basilica of St Mary Major on the eve of his Apostolic Voyage to Armenia .
The Holy Father prayed before the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as “ Salus Populi Romani ,” (Protectress of the Roman People), asking the Blessed Virgin Mary to bless his journey, according to a press release from Father Federico Lombardi, S.J., the Director of the Holy See Press Office. Pope Francis left a bouquet of flowers, in the colours of the Armenian flag, at the altar after his prayer.
Pope Francis departs Rome for Armenia on Friday for a three day visit.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) The 14th Apostolic journey abroad of Pope Francis is to Armenia , a landlocked mountainous nation which borders with to the west Turkey, to the East Azerbaijan, to the north Georgia and to the South Iran.
This visit, to the first country ever to adopt Christianity as a state religion begins in the nation’s capital Yerevan and sports a logo which highlights this historic factor along with the dates of the journey which are the 24th to the 26th of June.
It’s a circular logo divided in half by two colours: yellow for the Vatican and purple for the Armenian city of Etchmiadzin, seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church where Pope Francis will be staying. Within the design one can spy the outlines of two significant places in Armenia: snow capped Mount Ararat with its biblical connotations and the Monastery of Kor Virap located on its flanks, which Pope Francis will also visit. A significant monastery where Gregory the Illuminator credited for the conversion of this nation to Christianity in 301, so at the beginning of the fourth century, was once held prisoner at the bottom of a well.
As we know Pope Francis travels to Armenia in the footsteps of John Paul II who came here in 2001. But there’s an earlier pope connected in a special way to this nation, to be precise to its darkest chapter.
Listen to a programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick:
He’s Benedict XV elected to the See of Peter in 1914, so Roman Pontiff at the time of the Great War. And as historian Professor John Pollard , in his book ‘Benedict XV and the Pursuit of Peace’ writes:
“The Vatican’s relations with the Ottoman Government in Istanbul, had not been good for a long time, but they deteriorated further during the course of the war, due to the Turk’s treatment of Christian populations in their empire and most particularly, the massacre of the Armenians, who were considered disloyal. In April and May 1915 a campaign of what would now be called ‘ethnic cleansing’ was launched against the Christian, mainly Armenian, populations of Anatolia. In July the Apostolic delegate in Constantinople, Monsignor Dolci was instructed to protest against the massacres ; the governments of Germany and Austria-Hungary were also asked to bring pressure to bear on their ally to stop the killings, and Benedict himself sent an autograph letter on the 10th of September to the Sultan who in his role as Caliph of Islam, was like the Pope a world- wide religious leader. By the end of the war it was estimated that over a million Armenians had died, either killed outright by the Turks or as a result of maltreatment by starvation”.
For the record on March 12, 1918 Pope Benedict XV sent a second letter to Sultan Muhammad V. But while his diplomatic endeavors may have fallen on deaf ears his humanitarian efforts in assisting Armenian refugees did not it seems. According to the Jesuit magazine ‘La Civiltà Cattolica’ at the time the Holy See: “mobilized a continual flow of financial aid and supplies in an era when there were no other international humanitarian organizations beyond the Red Cross and the Near East relief.” Significantly too, at the time Benedict XV opened the doors of his summer residence, the Apostolic Palace of Castelgandolfo, to young orphaned refugees from Armenia.
Proof of this is that on Saturday 25th of June when Pope Francis pays tribute to the fallen at the ‘Tzitzernakaberd’ Memorial complex dedicated to the fallen during the massacres of the Armenian population under the Ottoman Empire, which the people of this nation refer to as the ‘Medz Yeghern’ (Great Evil), he’ll be meeting with ten descendants of these same Armenian refugees . In the very place Armenians travel to in great numbers each year as Fr John Barker who heads the tiny Anglican community in Armenia tells Philippa Hitchen.
(from Vatican Radio)…