The Pilot, MA
Oct 12 2007
Boston faith leaders honor Armenian catholicos
By Neil W. McCabe Pilot Correspondent
Posted: 10/12/2007
NEWTON — Joining leaders of the Massachusetts Council of Churches
and the Greek Orthodox Metropolis in Boston, this week Cardinal Seán
P. O’Malley welcomed His Holiness Karekin II, the supreme patriarch
and catholicos of the Armenian Church and affirmed his recognition of
the Armenia Genocide of 1915.
`Certainly, we realize how important the theme of the genocide is to
the Armenian people and we want to go on record as supporting your
efforts to memorialize this and we hope that this will bring the
healing and the strength to your people that is necessary,’ the
cardinal said is his remarks at the Oct. 8 ecumenical prayer
breakfast held in honor of the visit of the catholicos.
Also at the breakfast, Catholicos Karekin was presented a copy of
resolution passed by the Massachusetts Council of Churches
unequivocally recognizing the reality of the genocide of the Armenian
people waged by the Ottoman Turks from 1915 to 1923. The resolution
was passed by the council’s board of directors earlier in the week
and publicly released to coincide with the catholicos’s visit to
Boston, said Rev. Jack Johnson, the council’s executive director.
The resolution has three clauses. The first rebukes and rebuts those
who deny the genocide, regardless of their motivation, because
denials of the certain truth of the genocide make future instances of
genocide more likely. The second clause remembers those who perished,
the survivors and prays for the end to all genocides. The third
clause calls on all member communions of the council and their
faithful to make special prayers for the Armenian people as the first
Christian nation in the spirit of Christian fellowship and common
witness to human suffering as exemplified by our risen Lord.
Johnson told the patriarch, `We express profound prayers of
thanksgiving for you, your Holiness, for your visit among us and your
leadership in rebuilding your country and the Armenian Church
worldwide.’
In his own remarks, the catholicos thanked the cardinal and Rev.
Johnson. `We extend our thanks for this event. We pray that God will
keep our churches unified in this matter.’
Unity is an important theme in the Armenian Church, he said. `We
believe in unity in the essentials and freedom in the
non-essentials.’
Above all there must be unity with the Gospel and man must never
disunite from the Word of God, he said. `As a nation and people we
have witnessed the evils of this disunity.’
That the Armenian Church could survive the 20th century at all, after
first the genocide and then 70 years of communism is a miracle, he
said.
At the conclusion of his remarks, Catholicos Karekin presented
Cardinal O’Malley with a large gold pectoral cross with purple
stones.
Clutching the cross, the cardinal told the catholicos, `Thank you for
this lovely gift, I will treasure it.’
The catholicos presents the pectoral cross as an honor to those who
are friends of the Armenian Church or have been of special service to
the church, said Father Ktrij Devejian, his foreign secretary.
Catholicos Karekin II is in the midst of a 33-day, 8-city tour of
Armenian communities in the United States, he said.
Father Devejian said His Holiness is seeking to strengthen the bonds
of the Armenian people with their motherland and their mother church.
`It is a pastoral journey bringing the faith home,’ he said.
In addition to Armenian events and gatherings, the patriarch will be
visiting memorials to the Jewish Genocide, such as Boston’s Holocaust
Memorial near Fanueil Hall and the Holocaust Museum in Washington,
said Father Devejian.
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