eNewsletter of the Eastern Diocese
In a touching gesture of solidarity with the 100th year of
remembrance of the Armenian Genocide, His Holiness Pope Francis will celebrate
a special Mass in memory of the Armenian martyrs of 1915. The leader of the
Roman Catholic Church will celebrate the Mass this Sunday, April 12, at the
Basilica of St. Peter in Rome. His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme Patriarch
and Catholicos of All Armenians, and His Holiness Aram I, the Catholicos of the
Great House of Cilicia, will both be present for the liturgy, as will Armenian
Catholic Patriarch His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX, and other Armenian
religious dignitaries. Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan and officials of the
Republic of Armenia will also be in attendance.
(His Holiness Pope Francis will celebrate a special Mass in memory of the Armenian martyrs of 1915.)
Also on hand for the special Mass will be a group of
Armenian-Americans from the Easte(rn and Western Dioceses of the Armenian Church
of America. Their “spiritual journey” to Rome has been organized under the
auspices of diocesan primates Archbishop Khajag Barsamian and Archbishop Hovnan
Derderian. Archbishop Barsamian will lead the group in Rome.
In a statement this week anticipating Sunday’s liturgy, Pope
Francis praised the fidelity showed by the Armenian Christian martyrs of 1915,
and prayed that God’s mercy “might help us all, in love for truth and justice,
to heal every wound and to hasten concrete gestures of reconciliation and peace
among the nations that have not yet reached a consensus on the reading of such
sorrowful events.”
Sunday’s Mass in memory of the Armenian martyrs is one of
several acts of recognition to issue from the Vatican this year. In March, the
Vatican archive released historic documents pertaining to the Genocide period.
And in February came the announcement that the great Armenian mystic St.
Gregory of Narek would be designated as a “doctor of the church,” joining
Augustine of Hippo, John Chrysostom, Thomas Aquinas and 32 others who are
considered to offer key theological insights for the faith. The doctoral status
will be officially conferred on Narek during the April 12 liturgy.
While in Italy, His Holiness Karekin II will visit the city
of Naples, where he will participate in the re-opening of the Chapel of St.
Gregory the Armenian, and will bless a khatchkar to honor the centennial of the
Genocide. That service will take place on April 11.
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