DiasporaStatements

Catholicos Aram I issues statement: “When injustice is committed in Armenia, Antelias says no”

When injustice is committed in Armenia, Antelias says no.

When values are disregarded and symbols are ignored in Armenia, Antelias says no — and has always said no.

When the Church and clergymen in Armenia are subjected to all kinds of persecutions and arrests, Antelias has had — and continues to have — the courage to say no.

When, in Armenia, the interests of our people and our supreme national ideals are neglected to our detriment, Antelias has said no and will continue to say no.

His Holiness Catholicos Aram I
Cyprus, Dec. 7, 2025

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.
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