Patheos
April 12 2015
Pope recalls slaughter of Armenians in ‘first genocide of the 20th century’
Rome, Italy, Apr 12, 2015 / 08:24 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis
today referred to the mass killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks
in 1915 as a “genocide,” prompting the Turkish government to summon
the Vatican’s ambassador for questioning.
“In the past century our human family has lived through three massive
and unprecedented tragedies. The first, which is widely considered
‘the first genocide of the twentieth century,’ struck your own
Armenian people, the first Christian nation,” the Pope said April 12.
Francis’ reference to the genocide was taken from a common declaration
signed by both Pope Saint John Paull II and Supreme Armenian Patriarch
Karekin II in 2001.
His comments took place before celebrating Mass on Divine Mercy
Sunday, which is a feast instituted by St. John Paul II and celebrated
on the Second Sunday of the Church’s liturgical Easter season.
Francis offered the Mass for faithful of the Armenian rite in
commemoration of the centenary of the “Metz Yeghern,” or Armenian
“martyrdom.” April 24 is recognized in Armenia as the official date of
the start of the event.
Many faithful and members of the Armenian rite were present for
Sunday’s Mass, including Armenian president Serz Azati Sargsyan,
Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians Karekin II,
Catholicos Aram I and Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX.
The Pope has kept strong ties with the Armenian community since his
time as archbishop of Buenos Aires, and a group of Argentinian
Armenians were among those gathered for the Mass.
During the Mass, Francis also proclaimed Armenian-rite Saint Gregory
of Narek a Doctor of the Church, making the 10th century priest, monk,
mystic, and poet the first Armenian to receive the title.
Widely referred to as a genocide, the mass killings took place in
1915-1916 when the Ottoman Empire systematically exterminated its
minority Armenian population who called Turkey their homeland, most of
whom were Christians. Roughly 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives.
Turkey has repeatedly denied that the slaughter was a genocide, saying
that the number of deaths was much smaller, and came as a result of
conflict surrounding World War I. The country holds that many ethnic
Turks also lost their lives in the event.
However, most non-Turkish scholars refer to the episode as a genocide.
Argentina, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Russia and Uruguay are
among the 22 nations that formally recognize the massacre as a
genocide.
Reports have circulated saying that the Turkish government summoned
the Vatican’s papal nuncio, Archbishop Antonio Lucibello, for
questioning after the Pope’s genocide comment.
When CNA phoned the Turkish embassy to the Holy See, they declined to
comment, however the apostolic nunciature in Ankara responded by
saying that the nuncio had in fact been called.
After Francis made his comments, the Turkish Foreign Ministry released
a statement expressing their “great disappointment and sadness” at the
Pope’s remarks. They said the words signaled a loss of trust and
contradicted his message of peace, the Associated Press reports.
The foreign ministry also held that Francis’ words were
discriminatory, because he only mentioned the pain suffered by
Christians, and not Muslims or any other religious group.
In his greeting ahead of Sunday’s Mass, Pope Francis noted how
“bishops and priests, religious, women and men, the elderly and even
defenseless children and the infirm were murdered” in the 1915
massacre, which targeted Catholic and Orthodox Syrians, Assyrians,
Chaldeans and Greeks.
Francis also called to mind other tragic events of the 20th century,
including the violence perpetrated by Nazism and Stalinism, as well as
other mass killings carried out in Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi and
Bosnia.
“It seems that humanity is incapable of putting a halt to the shedding
of innocent blood (and) has refused to learn from its mistakes caused
by the law of terror,” he said, noting that the enthusiasm to end such
violence that came at the end of the Second World War seems to be
“disappearing.”
By the “complicit silence of others who simply stand by,” the agenda
of those who seek to eliminate others continues, the Pope said.
“Today too we are experiencing a sort of genocide created by general
and collective indifference, by the complicit silence of Cain, who
cries out: ‘What does it matter to me? Am I my brother’s keeper?'”
It is both necessary and a duty to honor the centenary of the “immense
and senseless slaughter” the Armenians had to endure, Pope Francis
said, because when memories fade, evil can enter and make old wounds
fester.
“Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding
without bandaging it!” he said, and stressed that evil is never
something that comes from God.
In a message given to the Armenian community after the celebration,
Pope Francis said that to remember the event is the responsibility of
the whole world, so that it can serve as a warning not to repeat
similar “horrors” in the future.
He expressed his hope that Turkey and Armenia would work toward a
greater reconciliation, and prayed that the Mass and proclamation of
St. Gregory as a Doctor of the Church would be an occasion for all
Christians to unite in prayer.
At the close of the Mass, Catholicos Karekin II spoke in English,
saying that the Armenian genocide is “an unforgettable and undeniable
fact of history.”
The genocide is deeply engrained into the consciousness of the
Armenian people, the patriarch said, therefore “any attempt to erase
it from history and from our common memory is doomed to fail.”
Karekin observed that according to international law, genocide is a
crime against humanity that closely intertwines with condemnation,
recognition and repatriation for the act, so therefore the Armenian
cause is one of “justice.”
In the years after the genocide the Armenian Church has never
forgotten “the continuous concern, assistance and solidarity of the
Church of Rome toward Armenians,” he said.
The patriarch then expressed his “deep gratitude” to Pope Francis,
praying that he would be strengthened in body and spirit so as to
continue his ministry “with renewed dynamism and spiritual courage.”