Pope Francis greeted the many Armenians having travelled to Rome with their Bishops

ROME, 9 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. Ahead of the Holy Mass to be served at the Vatican on the occasion of the Armenian Genocide Centennial,Pope Francismet on April 9 with members of the Patriarchal Synod of the Armenian Catholic Church, as RadioVaticana reports, according to “Armenpress”. In his prepared remarks, the Pope prayed that the Divine Mercy“might help us all, in love for truth and justice, to heal every wound and to hasten concrete gestures of reconciliation and peace among the Nations that have not yet reached a consensus on the reading of such sorrowful events.”

Pope Francis greeted not only the many Armenians who travelled to Rome with their Bishops, but also the many Armenians of the Diaspora throughout the world. He especially recalled Armenians in those places that, during the Medz Yeghern were places of safety for Armenian Christians, but are now places where Christianity itself is threatened.

The Holy Father noted the long history of Christianity in Armenia, and its rich spiritual and cultural heritage going back to 301, when Armenia became the first Christian nation.

Concluding his remarks, Pope Francis also paid tribute to those who worked to relieve the suffering of the Armenian people during the“Great Crime”, notably Pope Benedict XV, the Pope at the time, who intervened with the Ottoman rulers to try to halt the massacres.