eNewsletter of the Eastern Diocese
In a touching gesture of solidarity with the 100th year of remembrance of the Armenian Genocide, His Holiness Pope Francis will celebrate a special Mass in memory of the Armenian martyrs of 1915. The leader of the Roman Catholic Church will celebrate the Mass this Sunday, April 12, at the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome. His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, and His Holiness Aram I, the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, will both be present for the liturgy, as will Armenian Catholic Patriarch His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX, and other Armenian religious dignitaries. Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan and officials of the Republic of Armenia will also be in attendance.
(His Holiness Pope Francis will celebrate a special Mass in memory of the Armenian martyrs of 1915.)
Also on hand for the special Mass will be a group of Armenian-Americans from the Easte(rn and Western Dioceses of the Armenian Church of America. Their “spiritual journey” to Rome has been organized under the auspices of diocesan primates Archbishop Khajag Barsamian and Archbishop Hovnan Derderian. Archbishop Barsamian will lead the group in Rome.
In a statement this week anticipating Sunday’s liturgy, Pope Francis praised the fidelity showed by the Armenian Christian martyrs of 1915, and prayed that God’s mercy “might help us all, in love for truth and justice, to heal every wound and to hasten concrete gestures of reconciliation and peace among the nations that have not yet reached a consensus on the reading of such sorrowful events.”
Sunday’s Mass in memory of the Armenian martyrs is one of several acts of recognition to issue from the Vatican this year. In March, the Vatican archive released historic documents pertaining to the Genocide period. And in February came the announcement that the great Armenian mystic St. Gregory of Narek would be designated as a “doctor of the church,” joining Augustine of Hippo, John Chrysostom, Thomas Aquinas and 32 others who are considered to offer key theological insights for the faith. The doctoral status will be officially conferred on Narek during the April 12 liturgy.
While in Italy, His Holiness Karekin II will visit the city of Naples, where he will participate in the re-opening of the Chapel of St. Gregory the Armenian, and will bless a khatchkar to honor the centennial of the Genocide. That service will take place on April 11.
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