THE
P RTAL
July 2016
Page 19
Aid to the Church in Need
ACN helps lay ground for
Papal visit to Armenia
The Armenian Catholic church is expecting Pope Francis in
Armenia at the end of June – Oliver Maksan and Clare Creegan
tell us how Aid to the Church in Need is helping it to prepare
Pope Francis
is due to visit Armenia from 24th to 26th June following an invitation by the head
of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Karekin II, the nation’s civil authorities and the Catholic
Church in the country. The Pope will be the second pontiff to visit the republic, after St John Paul II’s visit to
the nation in 2001.
Speaking to Catholic charity Aid to the Church
in Need, Armenian Catholic Archbishop Raphael
Minassian said, “The Holy Father is coming to
strengthen us Armenians in our faith. We Armenians,
no matter whether Catholic or Orthodox, love him.
After all, he recognised the genocide of our people. We
will always remember him for that.”
Archbishop Minassian also said that the people
were grateful for the Holy Father’s recognition of the
massacre of 1.5 million Armenians as genocide. He
said, “In the past year, the Pope showed strong moral
leadership when he called the genocide committed
against our people one hundred years ago by its name
and recognised it as the first genocide of the 20th
century. This is extremely important to us Armenians.”
The vast majority of the Armenian population
belongs to the Armenian Apostolic Church. Officials
ACN has been supporting Christians in Armenia for
have received thousands of applications from people many years. Grants have been approved for pastoral
who want to attend the public Mass in Vardanants projects such as the training of seminarians and priests
Square in Gyumri that will be celebrated by the Pope. as well as summer classes for children and teenagers.
The pontifical charity is now also providing the local
Due to the high level of interest, the service will be church with support for the preparation of the papal
broadcast on a screen set up in a second square, which visit.
the Holy Father will visit after celebrating the Mass.
More than 300 volunteers will coordinate the event,
Archbishop Minassian thanked the benefactors
which is expected to attract about 50,000 people.
of ACN for helping the Church in Armenia prepare
for Pope Francis’ visit. He said: “The Armenians are
The Armenian Catholic Church emerged from a religious people. The people have faith. This is a
the Armenian Apostolic Church and entered into fixed part of life. And our church is alive, even though
communion with Rome in the eighteenth century. It there are not many of us. But for that we have many
has about 160,000 members. Archbishop Minassian charitable projects for the poor, old and disabled.
said that the ecumenical relations between Catholics However, we as a church only have limited funds.
and the Orthodox majority are excellent. He said, “I
have been bishop in Armenia for six years.
This makes us even more grateful to Aid to the
Church in Need and its benefactors for their generous
At no point during this time have I felt a divide support. I would like to thank them expressly for this.
between us Catholics and the Armenian Apostolic But now I would like to ask them specifically to pray
church. On the contrary, I have always been met that the papal visit will be a success.”
with cooperation and sympathy. When it became
definite that the Pope was coming, the head of the
Clare Creegan co-authored Aid to the
Armenian Orthodox church said to me that he would
Church in Need’s Persecuted and
give his best for the visit. The relationship between
Forgotten? A report on Christians
our churches would become even stronger. I am also
oppressed for their Faith 2013–2015
convinced of this.”
For more information visit www.acnuk.org