The Vatican issued another stamp marking the Pope’s 2016 visit to Armenia
The Vatican has issued a new stamp on the fourth anniversary of the Pope’s visit to Armenia. The Holy See chose this stamp to mark the United Nations International Year of Plant Health (IYPH), the Armenian Embassy to the Holy See reported.
The stamp depicts Pope Francis and His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, watering the symbolic vine planted in Noah’s Ark, thus confirming that the theme of plant and earth health is a spiritual value.
In 2017 the Vatican issued stamps dedicated to the Pope’s 2016 visit to Armenia—“Visit to the First Christian Nation.” That stamp was designed by Daniela Longo and depicts the pope in front of the Dzidzernagapert Memorial Monument.
Upon arriving in Armenia on June 24, 2016, the pope broke from his officially-prepared remarks and denounced the Armenian Genocide calling it the “First of Deplorable Catastrophes” of the 20th century.
“The occasion was the commemoration of the centenary of the Metz Yeghern, the ‘Great Evil’ that struck your people and caused the death of a vast multitude of persons. Sadly, that tragedy, that genocide, was the first of the deplorable series of catastrophes of the past century, made possible by twisted racial, ideological or religious aims that darkened the minds of the tormentors even to the point of planning the annihilation of entire peoples,” said Pope Francis in Armenia.