Pope Francis calls mass killings of Armenians ‘genocide’ (video)

16:03 | April 12,2015 | Politics

Pope Francis today used the word “genocide” to describe mass killings
of Armenians under Ottoman rule in WW1 100 years ago, at a Vatican
church service dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide.

At Sunday’s Mass in the Armenian Catholic rite at Peter’s Basilica, he
said that humanity had lived through “three massive and unprecedented
tragedies” in the last century.

“The first, which is widely considered ‘the first genocide of the 20th
Century’, struck your own Armenian people,” he said, in a form of
words used by a declaration by Pope John Paul II in 2001.

He said it was his duty to honour the memory of the innocent men,
women, children, priests and bishops who were “senselessly” murdered
by Ottoman Turks.

“Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding
without bandaging it,” the Pope he said at the start of Sunday’s Mass.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan attended the service to honour a
10th century Armenian mystic.

It is estimated that up to 1.5 million Armenians were systematically
killed by Ottoman forces in 1915.

On Sunday, Pope Francis also honoured the 10th Century mystic St
Gregory of Narek by declaring him a doctor of the church. Only 35
people have been given the title, reports AP.