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OPINION: An audience with Aram I

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  • OPINION: An audience with Aram I

    Glendale News-Press (California)
    Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
    October 23, 2011 Sunday

    OPINION: An audience with Aram I

    by Dan Evans, Glendale News-Press, Calif.


    Oct. 23--I truly love my job. It has provided me with numerous
    experiences that would have been laughably improbable, were it not for
    my position. This week marked another one of those occasions: I had a
    personal audience with a spiritual leader of the Armenian church, His
    Holiness Catholicos Aram I.

    The pontiff, who resides in Lebanon, arrived in the United States on
    Oct. 6 and is staying through early next week. Though not an elderly
    man -- he's in his mid 60s -- Aram I's energy belies his white hair
    and beard. I met with him on Wednesday in La Crescenta, a few days
    before the end of his trip. I half-expected him to be exhausted, or at
    least tired. Nope.

    "I'm used to this sort of thing," he said in the Western Prelacy
    building on Honolulu Avenue, noting this is his fourth pontifical
    visit. "But the traffic is terrible, just terrible. Makes you
    nervous."

    Aram I said his goal during his visit was to both talk and listen.
    That is, to talk about his vision of the church, but also to learn and
    better understand the concerns of his community.

    "In America, we are Americans, but we have a hyphenated experience,"
    he said. "On one hand, we want to preserve our identity, but also to
    open ourselves to the communities in which we live."

    Bigotry is a reality in our community. It seems to me that education,
    within our schools and within individual families, is our most
    important weapon against intolerance and hatred. If we know and better
    understand each other, we're no longer the other.

    Though I did not ask Aram I about this directly, I feel he would
    agree. He pointed to the importance of young people and technology in
    the uprisings around the Arab world, saying that the church needs to
    pay particular attention to its youth.

    One thing I know we agree upon is the importance of the U.S.
    officially recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

    "When I was a student in the U.S., Jimmy Carter was campaigning for
    president," he said. "One of the things he said was this: The identity
    of the United States of America lies in its commitment to human
    rights."

    Recognition of the genocide is a matter of justice, said Aram I, and
    justice itself is given by God.

    "Any stamp against justice is a sin against God," he said, taking a
    sip of tea from a blue cup with a blue-patterned saucer. "Our firm
    expectation is that the United States [will] articulate its stand
    against the Armenian Genocide."

    In my research for our meeting, I hit upon what I thought was an
    unusual fact: The Armenian Apostolic Church has two pontiffs, or
    Catholicoi. One is Aram I, who leads the Catholicostate of the Great
    House of Cilicia. The other is His Holiness Karekin II, whose full
    title is Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians.

    Aram I acknowledged the dual leadership is a bit strange, but one
    rooted in the history of Armenia, and partially due to the diaspora
    following the 1915 genocide.

    "We are called to serve our people," he said. "Therefore collaboration
    between the two Catholicoi is important, especially after the
    independence of Armenia."

    Then, as quickly as it began, our time was up. Aram I needed to get to
    his next appointment. I needed to put out a paper and write this
    column. The time was well spent, and perhaps his visit will serve to
    remind us of how interconnected we all are.

    DAN EVANS is the editor.

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