PRESS RELEASE
CENTER FOR ARMENIAN REMEMBRANCE (CAR)
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PO BOX 250322 Glendale, CA 91225-0322
Tel: 818-982-5246
Email: [email protected]
June 11, 2009
ARMENIANS PARTICIPATE IN POPE BENEDICT’S MIDDLE EAST VISIT
Alarmed by the declining presence of Christians in the Holy Land and the
wider Middle East, Pope Benedict XVI recently visited Jordan, the West Bank
and Jerusalem. After expressing his `deep respect’ for Islam upon arrival,
the Pontiff, on his last day in Jordan, held a public mass before tens of
thousands at the football stadium in Amman.
A delegation of high-ranking Armenian catholic clergy, and Armenians from as
far away as Los Angeles participated at the high-spirited mass in the
stadium. The Armenian delegation consisted of His Beatitude Nerses Bedros
XIX, Patriarch of the Catholic Armenians, Kerabaydzar Raphael Minassian,
Patriarch Exarchate and spiritual leader of the Catholics in Jordan and
Jerusalem, Kerabaydzar Michael Vartabed Mouradian, and His Grace Father
Antrang Ayvazian, Dzayrakouyn Vartabed and spiritual leader of the Kamishli
Eparchy.
Amongst the tens of thousands of the faithful at the stadium were Attorney
Vartkes Yeghiayan and his daughter Tamar from Los Angeles.
We asked Mr. Yeghiayan to describe the feeling in the stadium.
"With choruses singing ‘Yes to love, yes to peace,’ children waving flags,
military forces on the alert, I couldn’t help but feel that I was
participating in an extraordinary event."
Did you have a chance to meet the Pontiff?
"I knelt before the pontiff and after presenting rare wine from the
world-famous Armenian Catholic Monastery of Zommar in Lebanon, I was
inspired to tell the Holy father, ‘your Holiness, we pray that the Lord will
continue to grant you a long life, blessings, and wisdom, so that you
continue serving and ruling your people. And I have one request. Would you
please remember Armenians and Armenia in your prayers?’ The Pope paused a
moment and said ‘Ah, the Armenians, yes,’ and he gave a blessing.
"I felt that there was a great deal of meaning behind his ‘Ah,’" said Mr.
Yeghiayan. "It’s as if he instantly recalled our history from Etchmiadzin to
the Genocide, and the current tribulations in Armenia and the Diaspora."
In fact, the next day, the Pontiff visited the Armenian Apostolic
Patriarchal Church of St. James in Jerusalem, and in the presence of
Archbishop Torkom II Manougian and members of the Armenian Church, the Holy
Father acknowledged the recent "significant growth in the relationship
between the Catholic Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church.
"From the first Christian centuries," said the Holy Father, "the Armenian
community in Jerusalem has had an illustrious history, marked not least by
an extraordinary flourishing of monastic life and culture linked to the holy
places and the liturgical traditions which developed around them. This
venerable Cathedral Church, together with the Patriarchate and the various
educational and cultural institutions attached to it, testifies to that long
and distinguished history. I pray that your community will constantly draw
new life from its rich traditions, and be confirmed in its witness to Jesus
Christ and the power of his resurrection."
It is worth noting that during the past six decades, the Armenian Apostolic
Church has drawn closer to the Vatican. In fact Pope Benedict’s predecessor,
John Paul II, and the late Catholicos Karekin II, signed a joint statement
ending the doctrinal disputes that had plagued the relationship since the
Council of Chalcedon in 451.
It is also worth noting that Pope John Paul went to Armenia in 2001 to
celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the founding of Christianity in Armenia.
During that memorable visit, the Pontiff paid a visit to the Armenian
Genocide Monument in Dzidzernagapert, to pay tribute to the 1.5 million
Armenians who were killed in the early 20th century. Who can forget the
scene of Charles Aznavour singing "Ave Maria" as the pontiff, his weary face
buried in his hand, listened in deep reverie, remembering the fallen. Watch
the video HERE.
It is also instructive to once again read what the Pontiff said on that day:
"O Judge of the living and the dead, have mercy on us!
Listen, O Lord, to the lament that rises from this place,
to the call of the dead from the depths of the Metz Yeghérn,
the cry of innocent blood that pleads like the blood of Abel,
like Rachel weeping for her children because they are no more.
Listen, Lord, to the voice of the Bishop of Rome,
echoing the plea of his Predecessor Pope Benedict XV,
when in 1915 he raised his voice in defence of
"the sorely afflicted Armenian people
brought to the brink of annihilation".
Look upon the people of this land
who put their trust in you so long ago,
who have passed through the great tribulation
and never failed in their faithfulness to you.
Wipe away every tear from their eyes
and grant that their agony in the twentieth century
will yield a harvest of life that endures for ever.
We are appalled by the terrible violence done to the Armenian people,
and dismayed that the world still knows such inhumanity.
But renewing our hope in your promise, we implore, O Lord,
rest for the dead in the peace which knows no end,
and the healing of still open wounds through the power of your love.
Our soul is longing for you, Lord, more than the watchman for daybreak,
as we wait for the fullness of redemption won on the Cross,
for the light of Easter which is the dawn of invincible life,
for the glory of the new Jerusalem where death shall be no more.
O Judge of the living and the dead, have mercy on us all!"
Finally, although like President Obama, His Holiness used the Armenian
concept "Metz Yeghérn," at Dzidzernagapert, the next day, Etchmiadzin and
the Vatican issued a joint Declaration which read: "The extermination of a
million and a half Armenian Christians, in what is generally referred to as
the first genocide of the Twentieth Century, and the subsequent annihilation
of thousands under the former totalitarian regime are tragedies that still
live in the memory of the present-day generation."
More recently, the Vatican, through Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of
the Pontifical Council for promoting Christianity, reiterated John Paul II’s
recognition of the Genocide during talks with Catholicos Aram I of the Great
House of Cilicia. Cardinal Kasper said: "The Armenian Genocide is a reality,
which remains a bleeding wound in the hearts and souls of Armenia’s. The
Vatican’s position on this matter was articulated by Pope John
Paul< paul/>II’s visit to Armenia.
The Pope visited the Genocide
memorial < gt; monument, and as
much as this might not please the Turks, he used the word `Genocide.”
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