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Catholicos Aram I Declares 2020 the Year of Armenians with Special Needs

From the Monastery of Antelias of the Great House of Cilicia, we greet with pontifical blessing, warm Christian love and intense patriotism the World General Assembly, the Religious and Lay Councils of the Central Executive Council, the Prelates, the ecclesiastical class, the community leaders and our beloved people.

With deep satisfaction, we note that our decision to highlight a given feature or value intimately linked to our national life continues to have strong repercussions. As you know, we had proclaimed 2019 the “Year of the Armenian Press.” Indeed, not only in the Diaspora but across our national life, the press became the object of analysis and concern of our compatriots and, particularly, media outlets, the ecclesiastical class, journalists, intellectuals, as well as national, cultural and educational organizations. In this regard, the pan-Armenian conference organized at the monastery of Antelias by the initiative of the Holy See, was especially important. 

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His Holiness Catholicos Aram I

Born in 1947, in Beirut, Lebanon, His Holiness Catholicos Aram I of the Great House of Cilicia, studied at the Armenian Theological Seminary, Antelias, Lebanon and the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey, Geneva, Switzerland. He received his M.Div. from the Near East School of Theology, his S.T.M. jointly from the American University of Beirut and Near East School of Theology, and his PhD from Fordham University in New York. He also holds several honorary degrees. His major areas of specialization are philosophy, systematic theology, and Near Eastern church history. Catholicos Aram I was ordained as a celibate priest in 1968 and obtained the title of Vartabed (Doctor of the Armenian Church) in 1970. In 1979, after serving for one year as Locum Tenens, he was elected Primate of the Armenian Orthodox Community in Lebanon; the next year he received episcopal ordination. In June 1995, His Holiness was elected Catholicos (the Head of the Church) by the Electoral Assembly of the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia.

3 Comments

  1. Beautifully and powerfully written. The dignity of people with special needs certainly lies in the fact they, like all of us, are made in the image of God.

  2. Armeniaweekly it’ll be great to have translation of this powerful message by Catholicos Aram |. Will spread all over Armenia

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