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CR: Honoring His Holiness Karekin II

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  • CR: Honoring His Holiness Karekin II

    Congressional Record
    June 14, 2005 (Extensions)]

    HONORING HIS HOLINESS
    KAREKIN II

    HON. GEORGE RADANOVICH

    of california

    in the house of representatives

    Tuesday, June 14, 2005

    Mr. RADANOVICH. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor His Holiness Karekin II,
    the Supreme Patriarch-Catholicos of All Armenians and universal head of
    the Armenian Apostolic (Orthodox) Church, upon his visit to the San
    Joaquin Valley. An event to celebrate his pastoral visit will occur on
    June 12, 2005 in Fresno, CA.
    His Holiness Karekin II, baptized Ktrij Nersissian, was born in 1951
    in the village of Voskehat in the former Soviet Republic of Armenia. In
    1965, he entered the Theological Seminary of the Mother See of Holy
    Etchmiadzin and graduated with honors in 1971. Upon graduation from the
    seminary, he was ordained a celibate priest, taking the religious name
    Karekin.
    Father Karekin then graduated from Bonn University in Germany while
    serving as pastor to the local Armenian community. He earned a
    postgraduate degree from the Russian Orthodox Academy in Zagorsk,
    Russia in 1979.
    In 1980 he was assigned to the Araratian Pontifical Diocese, the
    Armenian Church's most populous diocese, which includes Yerevan, the
    capital of Armenia. In 1983, he was appointed primate of the Araratian
    Pontifical Diocese, and was elevated to the rank of Bishop and
    subsequently to Archbishop.
    His Holiness was elected as the 132nd Supreme Patriarch and
    Catholicos of All Armenians on October 27, 1999 by delegates from
    Armenian Churches worldwide at a National Ecclesiastical Assembly, in
    the Republic of Armenia.
    Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme
    Patriarch-Catholicos of All Armenians and universal head of the
    Armenian Apostolic (Orthodox) Church, upon his pastoral visit to the
    San Joaquin Valley. I invite my colleagues to join me in thanking the
    religious patriarch for his dedication to the service of all Armenians.
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