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The Vatican
APOSTOLIC VOYAGE IN ARMENIA
FAREWELL CEREMONY
ADDRESS OF JOHN PAUL II
Zvartnotz International Airport
Yerevan, 27 September 2001
Your Excellency President Kocharian,
Your Holiness,
Dear Armenian Friends,
1. The time has come to say farewell and to thank you, Mr President,
and the members of the Government for the wonderful hospitality I
have found in Armenia. I am grateful to everyone, authorities and
collaborators, civil and military, the men and women of the media, to
all who have given their time and skills to make this visit a success.
With deep emotion I express my thanks to you, Your Holiness, Supreme
Patriarch and Catholicos, and to the hierarchy and faithful of
the Armenian Apostolic Church for the spirit of brotherly love and
communion which we have shared in these days.
2. Farewell to you, dear Archbishop Nerses, Archbishop Vartan, Bishop
Giuseppe, and to the priests, men and women religious, and laity of
the Catholic Church. With intense joy we have celebrated together
the mystery of our faith, and I have experienced at first hand your
desire to work with all your fellow citizens for greater justice and
a better life for all Armenians. The Pope keeps you in his heart, and
God himself will give you strength to meet the challenges before you.
I express once more my esteem for the representatives of all the
Churches and Ecclesial Communities who have taken part in the events of
my visit. May all the followers of Christ grow in trust and ecumenical
friendship as we move into the Third Millennium and travel the path
of ever closer union and cooperation!
3. Thank you, people of Armenia, for the warmth of your friendship,
for the prayer we have shared, for your yearning for Christian
unity. Thank you most of all for the witness of your faith, a faith
you have not abandoned in dark times, a faith which remains deeply
rooted in your families and in your national life.
Throughout history, Mount Ararat has been a symbol of stability and
a source of confidence for the Armenian people. Yet time and again
that stability and confidence were sorely tested by violence and
persecution. 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,
the devastation of a disastrous earthquake: none of these has been
able to prevent the Armenian soul from regaining courage and recovering
its great dignity.
4. It is true, these are difficult years, and your heart is sometimes
weary and unsure. Many of your young people have left the land of their
birth; there is not enough work and poverty persists; it is hard to
keep striving for the common good. But, dear Armenian Friends, hold
on to hope! Remember that you have put your trust in Christ and said
yes to him for ever. Supported by your Armenian brothers and sisters
throughout the world you are committed to the task of rebuilding in
freedom your country and your society.
The time is ripe for your nation to gather its cultural resources
and spiritual energies in a great concerted effort to develop and
prosper on the basis of the fundamental truths of your Christian
heritage: the dignity of every human being, the centrality of the
person in every relationship and situation, the moral imperative
of equal justice for all, and solidarity with the weak and the less
fortunate. I pray to the Lord that the leaders of Armenia and of the
other peoples of the region will have the wisdom and perseverance
to move forward courageously on the path of peace, for without peace
there can be no genuine development and prosperity.
5. In saying farewell, I am filled with confidence, for I have seen
your resilience and the nobility of your aspirations. May Armenian
hearts ever repeat the words of your great poet Hovhannès Tumaniàn
about the homeland:
"But still you live, standing erect in spite of all your wounds
on the mysterious journey of time, past and present,
still standing, wise and pensive, and sad, with your God . . .
And the dawn of life's happiness will come,
its light at last in thousands upon thousands of souls;
and on the sacred slopes of your Mount Ararat
will shine forth at last the flame of the time to come.
Then, with the dawn, new songs and new poems
will be on the lips of the poets".
May Saint Gregory the Illuminator and the great host of Armenian
Martyrs and Saints watch over you now and in the future! And may the
Mother of Christ, Ark of the New Covenant, guide Armenia to the peace
which lies beyond the great flood, the peace of God who has set his
bow in the clouds as a sign of his everlasting love (cf. Gen 9:13).
Thank you, Mr President! Thank you, dear Brother Karekin! Thank
you all!
--Boundary_(ID_rj71TLnORnxiNEgbUQCOfQ)--
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
The Vatican
APOSTOLIC VOYAGE IN ARMENIA
FAREWELL CEREMONY
ADDRESS OF JOHN PAUL II
Zvartnotz International Airport
Yerevan, 27 September 2001
Your Excellency President Kocharian,
Your Holiness,
Dear Armenian Friends,
1. The time has come to say farewell and to thank you, Mr President,
and the members of the Government for the wonderful hospitality I
have found in Armenia. I am grateful to everyone, authorities and
collaborators, civil and military, the men and women of the media, to
all who have given their time and skills to make this visit a success.
With deep emotion I express my thanks to you, Your Holiness, Supreme
Patriarch and Catholicos, and to the hierarchy and faithful of
the Armenian Apostolic Church for the spirit of brotherly love and
communion which we have shared in these days.
2. Farewell to you, dear Archbishop Nerses, Archbishop Vartan, Bishop
Giuseppe, and to the priests, men and women religious, and laity of
the Catholic Church. With intense joy we have celebrated together
the mystery of our faith, and I have experienced at first hand your
desire to work with all your fellow citizens for greater justice and
a better life for all Armenians. The Pope keeps you in his heart, and
God himself will give you strength to meet the challenges before you.
I express once more my esteem for the representatives of all the
Churches and Ecclesial Communities who have taken part in the events of
my visit. May all the followers of Christ grow in trust and ecumenical
friendship as we move into the Third Millennium and travel the path
of ever closer union and cooperation!
3. Thank you, people of Armenia, for the warmth of your friendship,
for the prayer we have shared, for your yearning for Christian
unity. Thank you most of all for the witness of your faith, a faith
you have not abandoned in dark times, a faith which remains deeply
rooted in your families and in your national life.
Throughout history, Mount Ararat has been a symbol of stability and
a source of confidence for the Armenian people. Yet time and again
that stability and confidence were sorely tested by violence and
persecution. 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,
the devastation of a disastrous earthquake: none of these has been
able to prevent the Armenian soul from regaining courage and recovering
its great dignity.
4. It is true, these are difficult years, and your heart is sometimes
weary and unsure. Many of your young people have left the land of their
birth; there is not enough work and poverty persists; it is hard to
keep striving for the common good. But, dear Armenian Friends, hold
on to hope! Remember that you have put your trust in Christ and said
yes to him for ever. Supported by your Armenian brothers and sisters
throughout the world you are committed to the task of rebuilding in
freedom your country and your society.
The time is ripe for your nation to gather its cultural resources
and spiritual energies in a great concerted effort to develop and
prosper on the basis of the fundamental truths of your Christian
heritage: the dignity of every human being, the centrality of the
person in every relationship and situation, the moral imperative
of equal justice for all, and solidarity with the weak and the less
fortunate. I pray to the Lord that the leaders of Armenia and of the
other peoples of the region will have the wisdom and perseverance
to move forward courageously on the path of peace, for without peace
there can be no genuine development and prosperity.
5. In saying farewell, I am filled with confidence, for I have seen
your resilience and the nobility of your aspirations. May Armenian
hearts ever repeat the words of your great poet Hovhannès Tumaniàn
about the homeland:
"But still you live, standing erect in spite of all your wounds
on the mysterious journey of time, past and present,
still standing, wise and pensive, and sad, with your God . . .
And the dawn of life's happiness will come,
its light at last in thousands upon thousands of souls;
and on the sacred slopes of your Mount Ararat
will shine forth at last the flame of the time to come.
Then, with the dawn, new songs and new poems
will be on the lips of the poets".
May Saint Gregory the Illuminator and the great host of Armenian
Martyrs and Saints watch over you now and in the future! And may the
Mother of Christ, Ark of the New Covenant, guide Armenia to the peace
which lies beyond the great flood, the peace of God who has set his
bow in the clouds as a sign of his everlasting love (cf. Gen 9:13).
Thank you, Mr President! Thank you, dear Brother Karekin! Thank
you all!
--Boundary_(ID_rj71TLnORnxiNEgbUQCOfQ)--
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress