BUENOS AIRES—Pope Francis will hold Mass for the Armenian Genocide Centennial in the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican, on April 12, 2015. The Announcement was made by the Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires Mario Poli during a mass in the Armenian Catholic Parish of Our Lady of Narek on Sunday, Aug. 17, reported Presna Armenia.
Pablo Hakimian, the pastor of the Armenian Catholic Parish of Our Lady of Narek, said that the announcement of a Mass for the Armenian Genocide centennial is in response to an invitation by the Armenian Catholic Church.
“The Pope replied to the invitation from the Armenian Catholic Church a year ago through Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX to hold a mass for the recognition of the Genocide,” Father Hakimian told Prensa Armenia.
On June 3, 2013, Pope Francis held a meeting with a delegation led by Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX, during which he also met a descendant of Armenian Genocide survivors and stated, “It was the first genocide of the twentieth century.” The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded with a statement of its own: “The expressions of Pope Francis are absolutely unacceptable.”
This is not the first time Pope Francis has publicly recognize the Armenian Genocide. In 2006, when he was still known as Cardinal Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, he called the Genocide “The gravest crime of Ottoman Turkey against the Armenian people and the entire humanity.”
More recently, in May 2014, Pope Francis received His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians. During the meeting, he said that we should never forget the blood poured by the Armenians in the last century. In June 2014, Pope Francis also received His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia.
Pope Francis is not the first Pope calling on Turkey to admit its crimes. John Paul II also recognized the Armenian Genocide. In September 2001, during his farewell ceremony at the Zvartnotz International Airport in Yerevan, he said “The Armenian people have paid dearly for their frontier existence, so much so that the words ‘holiness’ and ‘martyrdom’ have become almost identical in your vocabulary. The terrible events at the beginning of the last century, which brought your people to the brink of annihilation, the long years of totalitarian oppression:none of these has been able to prevent the Armenian soul from regaining courage and recovering its great dignity.” Pope John Paul II also said a prayer at the Tzitzernakaberd Memorial, during which he said: “Wipe away every tear from their eyes and grant that their agony in the twentieth century will yield a harvest of life that endures forever. We are appalled by the terrible violence done to the Armenian people, and dismayed that the world still knows such inhumanity.”
The scheduled Mass on April 12, 2015, may be one of the largest events organized around the Genocide Centennial.
Mr. Sassounian wrote an article on how the Jews in Palestine escaped extermination, unlike the Armenians in Turkey; and a couple of articles in Haaretz discuss a new book on how the Pope had interceded with the Germans in Palestine to save the Christians and Jews there; and that the Pope was also involved in the plot too kill Hitler. “An Unlikely Savior.” Haaretz.
Historical moment.
Wonderful article! I applaud Pope Francis for recognizing the Armenian Genocide.
At the very least it had to an Argentine who finally kept his promise on the before and after scenario that many have never upheld, latest case and point being President Obama and Secretary to UN Mrs Samantha Power. Shame to those who sell fake currency and hail to some that still value the price of truth and dignity
We congratulate Pope Francis for commemorating our 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide at the Vatican on April 12th, 2015. God Bless him. He will always be remembered on this well recognized tragedy of the Armenian People.
Congratulations to the Pope-a man of courage and conviction
Where was the public outrage when Mr Obama caved to Turkish pressure?
Let’s hope that on 12-th April Vatican will be full of Armenians from the world to parecipate Pope Mass and request the civil countries for the ricogniction of Genocid!!! That I belive is a unic important manifestation for media
Thank you Pope Francis. A man of dignity, honesty and peace! Please don’t cave like other leaders did.
Thank you Pope Francis. A man of dignity, honesty and peace! Please don’t dave like other leaders did.
May God Bless Pope Francis for his integrity, holiness, courage, honesty and of the highest leadership quality of character to recognize what most of the World knows which is the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottman Turks.