WHAT IS CATHOLICOS’S ROLE IN THE END?
Hakob Badalyan
Lragir.am
25/11/09
The All-Armenian Catholicos Garegin II left for Moscow on a three-day
visit where he is going to consecrate a cross of a church dome.
Several days before his visit, the Armenian St. Gevorg church collapsed
in Tbilisi. The Armenian Catholicos seems logic not to leave for Moscow
but for Tbilisi where there are still standing Armenian churches. The
cross of a Moscow church dome could be consecrated without the
Armenian Catholicos too. But visiting Moscow is a pleasure. There is
numerous and which is more important a wealthy Armenian community
where churches do not collapse but are only built and he only has
to consecrate them and enjoy hospitality and honor that the wealthy
community will surely offer to the All-Armenian Catholicos. While in
Tbilisi, there are problems which need solutions.
In other words, visiting Tbilisi needs efforts for the defense of
Armenian churches.
The Armenian church in Tbilisi collapsed not because of the lack
of care of the Georgian government but because of the lack of these
efforts. The Georgian government is not caring and will not be. If
we announce that those churches are our, which is the reason why
we complain of others’ carelessness. If it is our property, we have
to take care of it. What did the Armenian Apostolic Church and its
pastor do for the preservation of our churches? In such cases, they
usually say that they work in silence and we without knowing anything
criticize them groundlessly. On the one hand, the information on
their work is strange to be kept in secrecy while information on
the consecration of churches can be compared to the work of world
famous informational agencies. Which is the reason why the Armenian
Church does not want people to know about its efforts aimed at the
preservation of for example Armenian churches in Georgia?
Usually, in such cases they say that in case of being public, their
effectiveness will decrease. As if the Church is negotiating for the
Karabakh issue and needs to keep the negotiations secret. It seems
to be more effective when the negotiation is secret but churches
publicly collapse. Consequently, either there is no negotiation or
if secret efforts are undertaken, they come out to be useless because
Armenian churches collapse the same. Maybe these secret or not secret
efforts are worth being replaced with a public visit of the Armenian
Catholicos to Tbilisi to meet with the members of the Armenian Church
and to hold a public speech in connection with the preservation of
Armenian monuments.
In general, the current situation brings about a question: what in
reality the role and the function of the All-Armenian Catholicos are
in the national life. Is he a symbolic person who is to be honored and
not demanded anything besides benediction or he is a person who has to
participate in the discussion of issues related to the national life?
If the Catholicos is just a symbol, maybe he had better not leave
his residence in Echmiadzin. If he is a person who is elected by
the choice of people having the mission to serve people, he must be
ready to discuss pan-national issues with the very people and look
for answers with them.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
