THE ARMENIAN CHURCH IS OUR STRONGHOLD

Last Thursday I missed you because at the end of the National Representative Assembly, soon after I was reelected to serve as your Prelate for a third term, I had to join the delegation His Holiness Catholicos Aram I led to the Vatican to congratulate His Holiness Pope Leo XIV on his enthronement.  

Even though a year has passed since the Pope’s election, both Pontiffs’ busy schedules and the turmoil in the Middle East prevented an earlier meeting. Any time, however, is a good time to advance the mission of ecumenism with our brothers in Christ on the arduous yet fulfilling path to serve a higher purpose.  

You may have followed in the news the packed agenda of the visit, including meetings with the Holy Father; Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State; Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity; Cardinal George Koovakad, Prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, and Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Catholic Churches. Catholicos Aram I also delivered a lecture at the Pontifical Oriental Institute; held a press conference at Radio Vaticana, and paid a visit to the Pontifical Armenian College, where His Beatitude Patriarch Raphael Bedros XXI of the Armenian Catholic Church welcomed His Holiness, together with the institute’s rector and students.  

The importance of the Catholicos’ visit to the Pope cannot be overstated as the Holy Father honored the head of our Church with a unique opportunity for ecumenical dialogue. Both had met last year in Lebanon during Leo XIV’s first international apostolic journey following his election as Pope, thus continuing and cementing the relationship between both Churches that began following the Second Vatican Council held between 1962 and 1965. The praise expressed by the Holy Father for the Catholicosate of Cilicia is revelatory of the value he places on the relationship, as he remarked that Catholicos Khoren I of blessed memory was the first Orthodox spiritual leader to visit the Vatican.  

Hectic as it inevitably had to be, the historic visit paved the way for the fresh cooperation between both Holy Sees, for the glory of the Almighty Lord, our Heavenly Father, manifested in His Only-Begotten Son and working through the Holy Spirit. 

Yes, my dear brothers and sisters, along with Armenia’s statehood, the Armenian Church is our stronghold, preserving Christian Armenian identity as well as presenting to the world our centuries-old creative legacy and positive contribution to enriching society at large.  

Let us therefore always be grateful for the providential care leading us from age to age and, in turn, wholeheartedly support the mission of the Armenian Church, the most precious gift of Compassionate God to the people of Ararat.