The Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, Francis, arrived in Armenia on 24 June. Before coming he’d declared: “It’s a pilgrimage to the country where Christianity was first adopted”.
The head of the Roman Catholic Church spent in Armenia two days. About 600 journalists, including two of JAMnews reporters, covered his visit.
From the address by the Roman Pontiff: “Dear Brothers and Sisters! With the help of God, I come to you to fulfill the objective of my journey – “to visit the first Christian nation. I come to you as a pilgrim in this significant year [Armenia adopted Christianity in 301 – 1,715 years ago) to share in the ancient wisdom of your nation and get closer to the origins of your faith, which is as strong as your famous crosses carved in stone.”
From the address by the Roman Pontiff: “I have come to visit the enigmatic heights of Armenia as a fellow brother in order to see your faces, pray with you and share in the gift of friendship”
From the address by the Roman Pontiff: “Your history and the events that occurred in your beloved nation cause admiration and sorrow in me. I admire you because just as Jesus rose from the dead, you, with your talented minds were able to find the strength to rise again even after the most horrific tragedy that can be remembered in history. I feel sorrow for the pain that your fathers had to endure”
From the address by the Roman Pontiff: “As a servant of the Gospel and a messenger of peace, I want to be one of you to support you in every effort in the pursuit of peace”
During his address at the presidential residence, the Pope used the word ‘genocide’ to describe the 1915 massacre of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey, instead of the word ‘tragedy’ used in the text of his speech
In 2015, Pope Francis termed the 1915 massacre of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as a genocide. On 12 April 2015, His Holiness conducted a mass to commemorate the victims of those events. The Pope also canonized Gregor Narekatsi (Gregory from Narek), an Armenian philosopher, theologian, and poet of the 10th century, author of the ‘Book of Lamentations’, and conferred on him the title of the Doctor of the Church.