Francis will affirm courage of first Christian nation

Next week sees only the second visit by a Pope to the tiny, landlocked former Soviet republic of Armenia, in an historic three-day trip starting on 24 June. Armenia adopted Christianity as its official religion in 301 AD, and the visit is being officially billed as the “Visit to the first Christian nation”. Many hope the tour will bring messages of ecumenism, peace and remembrance, highlighting the refusal of Turkey to join other countries, most recently Germany, in recognising the Armenian Genocide. The Ottoman Turks massacred 1.5 million Armenian Christians between 1915 and 1917.

The visit will include a welcome ceremony at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, audiences with President Serzh Sargsyan, ecumenical liturgies and a visit to the second city of Gyumri.

It will also include a trip to the Khor Virap Monastery where St Gregory the Illuminator, who is credited with converting Armenia from paganism, was imprisoned.

But one of the most significant items on the papal itinerary will be the 25 June visit to Tsitsernakaberd, the Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex in the capital Yerevan. Last year, at a Mass in St Peter’s Basilica, Francis made history when he referred to the massacres by Ottoman Turks as genocide. The Turkish Government, which continues to deny that the slaughter constituted genocide, recalled its Vatican ambassador in protest.

Garen Nazarian, Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, believes that Pope Francis’ visit during this Jubilee Year of Mercy is a “solid message” in itself, but will also be a “demonstration of courage to face the past, and not to hide the truth behind walls of silence”.

When asked about the ongoing conflict with  Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave inside Muslim-majority Azerbaijan, Nazarian says that Armenians all hope that “the visit will bring a message of peace and stability” across the region. There is currently a fragile ceasefire between the two countries following a flare-up of open combat in April this year, where dozens of soldiers from both sides died.   

Bishop Hovakim Manukyan, based at St Sarkis, the Armenian Church in London, says that Pope Francis’ visit demonstrates the historically strong relationship between the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Vatican. The overwhelmingly dominant Christian tradition in Armenia is the Armenian Apostolic Church, which represents 92.5 per cent of the three million population, while the Catholic minority stands at around 0.45 per cent.
Last year, during the 12 April liturgy for Armenians in Rome, St Gregory of Narek, a tenth-­century Armenian saint and poet, was proclaimed the 36th Doctor of the Universal Church by Pope Francis. Bishop Manukyan says this demonstrates the close links between the “sister” Churches.

Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, has met Francis many times. He was present at his inauguration, and in 2014, while on an official visit to the Vatican, he personally invited the Pope to Armenia.

Relations between Pope Francis and Armenia go back even further. “When the Holy Father was a cardinal in Buenos Aires, he was a good friend of Armenians. During the 90th anniversary of the genocide, we presented him with a khachkar [a traditional Armenian cross] which he had erected in his cathedral in Buenos Aires,” Bishop Manukyan said.

Pope John Paul II visited Armenia in 2001, but this time  Pope Francis will visit Gyumri, where most Catholics live. The 2011 census counted 13,843 Catholics in Armenia, but the arrival of Syrian Christian refugees could have tripled the numbers. Archbishop Raphael Minassian, head of Armenian Catholics in Armenia, Georgia and Eastern Europe, says that Francis “personally” asked to visit Gyumri. The new Cathedral of the Holy Martyrs, named for the genocide victims, was consecrated there in September last year.