POPE FRANCIS CALLS SUFFERINGS OF ARMENIAN PEOPLE MARTYRDOM

by Ashot Safaryan

Friday, April 10, 11:28

The Armenian genocide of 1915 "places before us the darkness of the
mysterium iniquitatis," Pope Francis said as he met on April 9 with
a group of bishops of the Armenian Catholic Church, according to
Catholic news.

The Armenian bishops were in Rome for the April 11 ceremony in
which the Pontiff will proclaim St. Gregory of Narek as a doctor
of the Church. The Pope prayed that this ceremony, taking place on
the feast of Divine Mercy, might "heal every wound and to expedite
concrete gestures of reconciliation and peace between the nations
that still have not managed to reach a reasonable consensus on the
interpretation of these sad events."

The Pope paid tribute to the Armenian people, whose conversion
to Christianity in 301 marked the beginning of a long and proud
history that gives today's Christians "an admirable patrimony
of spirituality and culture." But he remarked that today some of
the Armenian Christians living in the diaspora are once again in
danger, citing particularly those in places like Aleppo, Syria,
"that a hundred years ago were a safe haven for the few survivors"
of the genocide perpetrated by Turkish rulers.

Pope Francis expressed a keen interest in ecumenical talks between
the Catholic Armenian Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church,
"aware of the fact that the 'ecumenism of blood' has already been
achieved through the martyrdom and persecution that took place one
hundred years ago."

http://www.arminfo.am/index.cfm?objectid=3A95E860-DF53-11E4-A8B50EB7C0D21663

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/the-ecumenism-of-martyrdom-pope-francis-way/