Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Pope Francis to Meet Descendants of Armenian Genocide Survivors in Yerevan

Pope Francis will meet with descendants of Armenians who fled persecution by the Ottoman Empire a century ago during his Armenia visit later this week, according to the Latin American Herald Tribune.

The meeting will take place at the Tsitsernakaberd monument in Yerevan which commemorates the approximately 1.5 million Armenian victims of the Armenian Genocide.

The encounter will be “a very moving” event and one of the most important activities during the pope’s trip next weekend to Armenia, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said.

Francis will lay a wreath at the monument and will greet a group of children who will show him pictures and artifacts from the “Medz Yeghern” (The Great Evil).

The pope will then enter the monument within a circle enclosed by 12 huge, slanted stone walls and will stand before the eternal flame that honors the victims.

Francis will then plant a tree memorializing his visit to Tsitsernakaberd.

Later, Pope Francis will meet a dozen descendants of the 400 Armenian orphans who were rescued in 1915 and lodged at the papal Castel Gandolfo residence near Rome.

Francis’s visit to Tsitsernakaberd is expected to be the highlight of his trip to Armenia, the 14th journey outside Italy during his papacy.

In April 2015, Pope Francis celebrated a Mass at the Vatican to commemorate the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, calling it “the first genocide of the 20th century.”
 [asbarez.com]
22/6/16
--
-
Related:

 ----

1 comment:

  1. Pope risks Turkey's ire with Armenia trip...

    Pope Francis heads to Armenia Friday for a three-day visit likely to inflame simmering tensions with Turkey over the Vatican's description of mass killings under the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

    Turkey reacted furiously last year when Francis, during a mass St Peter's basilica, said that the massacres were "widely considered the first genocide of the 20th Century."

    The same formulation had been employed by Pope John Paul II in 2001 in a written declaration.

    Turkey reacted furiously to Francis's comment. Ankara withdrew its ambassador from the Vatican in protest and relations remain deep frozen at a time when the Catholic church is preoccupied by the plight of Christians in the Middle East, an issue in which Turkey is a key player.

    The Turkish government maintains that as many Turks as Armenians died in the latter stages of World War I as a result of civil strife triggered in part by Armenians siding with invading Russian troops.

    Turkey has been further riled by Germany's decision, approved by parliament earlier this month, to recognize the killings as genocide, and fresh diplomatic uproar is anticipated if the pontiff utters the word during his time in Armenia.

    The Argentinian pope is due to visit Armenia's main genocide memorial, the Tsitsernakaberd, Saturday morning but is not scheduled to make a speech at the site, according to his official program.....AFP
    23/6/16

    ReplyDelete

Only News

Featured Post

US Democratic congresswoman : There is no difference between 'moderate' rebels and al-Qaeda or the ISIS

United States Congresswoman and Democratic Party member Tulsi Gabbard on Wednesday revealed that she held a meeting with Syrian Presiden...

Blog Widget by LinkWithin