Tweet
JERUSALEM PATRIARCH VS. CATHOLICOS
[ Part 2.2: "Attached Text" ]
http://asbarez.com/112508/jerusalem-patriarch-vs-catholicos/
Tuesday, August 6th, 2013
[patriarchcatholicos.jpg]
Jerusalem Patriarch Archbishop Nourhan Manougian (left) and His
Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians (right)
Jerusalem Patriarch Urges Catholicos Karekin II to Reinforce the
Church's "Spiritual Foundations", Rejects Attending Etchmiadzin Meeting
JERUSALEM-In an unprecedented and tersely-worded letter Jerusalem
Patriarch Archbishop Nourhan Manougian criticizes His Holiness
Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, urging him to reinforce the
Armenian Church's "spiritual foundations," which the Patriarch says
have been waning.
The letter comes as a protest of recent events in the France Diocese,
which prompted the resignation early last month of the popular
Primate of France Archbishop Norvan Zakarian, which has prompted
across-the-board and collective outrage from the French-Armenian
community.
In the letter Manougian tells the Catholicos that the protest was
prompted by the Supreme Spiritual Council's decision to accept
Zakarian's resignation, despite his years of service to the church,
adherence to the gospel and overall service to the community.
Zakarian resigned his post as French Primate, after alleging that
the Catholicos had demanded that he re-instate the parish priest of
the Armenian Church in Nice, Father Vatche Ghazanchyan, who was under
criminal investigation by the French authorities and was ordered to
serve a two-year suspended sentence for allegedly beating a man.
Ghazanchyan's alleged business dealings in France have long been an
issue of concern for the French-Armenian community, especially the
community in Nice.
Zakarian said his resignation was prompted by an incident on June
29 at the VIP lounge of Charles De Gaul Airport in Paris, where the
Catholicos, in the presence of the Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian,
Parliament Speaker Hovik Abrahamian, Armenia's Ambassador to France
Vigen Tchitetchian and other religious and secular leaders of France,
threatened the archbishop by saying: "If by July 1 you don't reinstate
him [Father Vatche Ghazanchyan] to his position, then you have no
business with the Mother See."
Zakarian's resignation has prompted anger in the French Armenian
community, and statements of protest have been issued by a number
of organizations including the Armenian Revolutionary Federation's
France Central Committee and the Coordinating Council of Armenian
Organizations in France-the ANC of France.
"I would like to say in brotherly terms, that a threat is not becoming
of a clergyman, especially a high-ranking one-the 'Supreme Patriarch
of all Armenians,' from whom it is expected, as the genuine FATHER
and forgiving SUPERIOR, to relate with love and forgiving spirit with
his children or with his subordinates," said Arch. Marnougian in his
protest letter.
The Jerusalem Patriarch argued that Zakarian's term was to have ended
in November and suggested that the Supreme Spiritual Council should
have waited until then to "accept" his resignation.
"Do you truly want to eradicate your reputation as the
'Constructive Catholicos' by extending the number of clerics you have
defrocked?" asked Arch. Manougian. "What has occurred was unacceptable
and a great injustice coming from Holy Etchmiadzin, from the Armenian
people's Holiness of the Holy."
"Your Holiness, if you recall, a few years back, when with great
pride - and justly so - you were showing me the beautiful buildings
You had erected within the campus of the Mother See? I said to You,
that equal to and more important than physical buildings is reinforcing
the spiritual foundation; and You reassured me that this would also
happen," said Manougian.
"Nevertheless, the time has come to establish that it is the
superficial and the financial elements that are important and
interesting to You," added the Patriarch.
Arch. Manougian went on to recall an incident when the Catholicos
was attempting to pressure the late Patriarch Torkom Manoogian to
appoint Archbishop Aris Shirvanian as his "successor." When the late
Patriarch refused and Arch. Shirvanian informed the Catholicos that
such a provision did not exist in the by-laws of the Church and the
Patriarchate, the Catholicos Karekin II, according to the Patriarch,
said: "I will strip all of you of your ranks."
Citing the current climate within the Armenian Church and the issues
he has set forth in the letter, Patriarch Manougian informed the
Catholicos that he would not attend a meeting of Diocesan clerics in
Etchmiadzin, scheduled to take place in September.
[ Part 2.2: "Attached Text" ]
http://asbarez.com/112508/jerusalem-patriarch-vs-catholicos/
Tuesday, August 6th, 2013
[patriarchcatholicos.jpg]
Jerusalem Patriarch Archbishop Nourhan Manougian (left) and His
Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians (right)
Jerusalem Patriarch Urges Catholicos Karekin II to Reinforce the
Church's "Spiritual Foundations", Rejects Attending Etchmiadzin Meeting
JERUSALEM-In an unprecedented and tersely-worded letter Jerusalem
Patriarch Archbishop Nourhan Manougian criticizes His Holiness
Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, urging him to reinforce the
Armenian Church's "spiritual foundations," which the Patriarch says
have been waning.
The letter comes as a protest of recent events in the France Diocese,
which prompted the resignation early last month of the popular
Primate of France Archbishop Norvan Zakarian, which has prompted
across-the-board and collective outrage from the French-Armenian
community.
In the letter Manougian tells the Catholicos that the protest was
prompted by the Supreme Spiritual Council's decision to accept
Zakarian's resignation, despite his years of service to the church,
adherence to the gospel and overall service to the community.
Zakarian resigned his post as French Primate, after alleging that
the Catholicos had demanded that he re-instate the parish priest of
the Armenian Church in Nice, Father Vatche Ghazanchyan, who was under
criminal investigation by the French authorities and was ordered to
serve a two-year suspended sentence for allegedly beating a man.
Ghazanchyan's alleged business dealings in France have long been an
issue of concern for the French-Armenian community, especially the
community in Nice.
Zakarian said his resignation was prompted by an incident on June
29 at the VIP lounge of Charles De Gaul Airport in Paris, where the
Catholicos, in the presence of the Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian,
Parliament Speaker Hovik Abrahamian, Armenia's Ambassador to France
Vigen Tchitetchian and other religious and secular leaders of France,
threatened the archbishop by saying: "If by July 1 you don't reinstate
him [Father Vatche Ghazanchyan] to his position, then you have no
business with the Mother See."
Zakarian's resignation has prompted anger in the French Armenian
community, and statements of protest have been issued by a number
of organizations including the Armenian Revolutionary Federation's
France Central Committee and the Coordinating Council of Armenian
Organizations in France-the ANC of France.
"I would like to say in brotherly terms, that a threat is not becoming
of a clergyman, especially a high-ranking one-the 'Supreme Patriarch
of all Armenians,' from whom it is expected, as the genuine FATHER
and forgiving SUPERIOR, to relate with love and forgiving spirit with
his children or with his subordinates," said Arch. Marnougian in his
protest letter.
The Jerusalem Patriarch argued that Zakarian's term was to have ended
in November and suggested that the Supreme Spiritual Council should
have waited until then to "accept" his resignation.
"Do you truly want to eradicate your reputation as the
'Constructive Catholicos' by extending the number of clerics you have
defrocked?" asked Arch. Manougian. "What has occurred was unacceptable
and a great injustice coming from Holy Etchmiadzin, from the Armenian
people's Holiness of the Holy."
"Your Holiness, if you recall, a few years back, when with great
pride - and justly so - you were showing me the beautiful buildings
You had erected within the campus of the Mother See? I said to You,
that equal to and more important than physical buildings is reinforcing
the spiritual foundation; and You reassured me that this would also
happen," said Manougian.
"Nevertheless, the time has come to establish that it is the
superficial and the financial elements that are important and
interesting to You," added the Patriarch.
Arch. Manougian went on to recall an incident when the Catholicos
was attempting to pressure the late Patriarch Torkom Manoogian to
appoint Archbishop Aris Shirvanian as his "successor." When the late
Patriarch refused and Arch. Shirvanian informed the Catholicos that
such a provision did not exist in the by-laws of the Church and the
Patriarchate, the Catholicos Karekin II, according to the Patriarch,
said: "I will strip all of you of your ranks."
Citing the current climate within the Armenian Church and the issues
he has set forth in the letter, Patriarch Manougian informed the
Catholicos that he would not attend a meeting of Diocesan clerics in
Etchmiadzin, scheduled to take place in September.