Example of fidelity” “

“To the Armenian people I want especially to express my gratitude for their long history of fidelity to Christ, for which they have suffered persecution and martyrdom. If today the West may freely profess its own faith, that is due to those who sacrificed themselves, turning their bodies into a bulwark of the Christian world”. So said John Paul II in 2001, on the occasion of the 1700th anniversary of the baptism of the Armenian nation. These words were recalled in recent days by the Patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenians, NERSES BEDROS XIX . Speaking in Bologna (Italy) on “The Armenian Catholic Church, example of fidelity”, the Patriarch recalled that Armenia was “the first Christian nation in the world: its conversion to Christianity dates to 301, though some modern historians shift that date to 314, i.e. after the Edict of Constantine”. The Catholic Armenian Church now comprises 119 members of the clergy, 88 women religious and some 450,000 faithful (though precise statistics are lacking), mainly resident in the countries of Eastern Europe. There are 7 seminaries (3 major and 4 minor), 1 male religious congregation and 1 patriarchal institute. The Catholic Armenian Church also has eparchies (i.e. dioceses), ordinariates and exarchates in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jerusalem, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Greece, France, North America, Latin America and Eastern Europe. There are also mission centres, without any senior member of the Catholic Armenian hierarchy, in Italy, Poland, Austria, Romania, Hungary, Sweden and Australia. THE HISTORY OF THE ARMENIAN CHURCH. Nerses Bedros then reviewed the main stages in the history of the Armenian Church and people. In the 6th century, after the Council of Chalcedon, the Armenians suffered a schism at the hands “of a Syrian monk by the name of Abdisció, who was a monophysite, i.e. someone who professed a single nature in Christ”. He deceived the clergy and led them to the “official separation of the Armenian Church from that of Byzantium and of Rome”. But “a very important current of bishops, priests and people remained faithful to the Chalcedonian doctrine, especially in Armenia minor” and, from the 12th century on, “great efforts were made and real steps taken to seal their official union with the Church of Rome”. All these attempts at reunification failed, however, until – Bedros recalled – “some members of the Catholic clergy and faithful took up the idea of re-establishing an independent hierarchy for their community, by instituting a ‘Catholicos Calcedonese'”. This reorganization took place in 1742. The first Patriarch was the bishop of Aleppo, Abraham Arzivian, but the Ottoman Empire “recognized solely the dissident Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople and not Arzivian, who was forced to flee to Lebanon, where he founded the convent of Bzommar in 1749; it later became the patriarchal seat”. Catholics in Turkey were subjected to persecution: in particular, in 1827, “many Catholic Armenian bishops, priests and faithful were sent to prison where almost all perished”. THE CATHOLIC ARMENIAN COMMUNITY was recognized in 1830, under the pressure of the European nations, after “the army of the Ottoman Empire was defeated in Crimea”. There followed years of peace and “on the eve of the First World War – recalled the Patriarch – the Catholic Armenian Church comprised in the various Turkish provinces 18 dioceses with 150 churches and chapels, 110 mission stations, 148 schools for girls and boys, 32 convents and 6 seminaries”. Moreover, “for pastoral and educational service there were 30 secular priests, 120 regular priests and 150 women religious”, as well as the apostolic administration of Russia and the Caucasus, the archbishopric in Lvov in Poland, the missions in Transylvania and Bucovina in Ukraine and Romania. But the 20th century reserved a new calvary for the Armenian Church, beginning with the genocide in 1915: this was “perpetrated by the Young Turks then in power against all worshippers of the Cross. Out of a population of 2,600,000 Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, almost 1.5 million were atrociously massacred”. As for the Catholics, martyrdom was suffered by “8 bishops, 111 priests, 53 religious and some 80,000 faithful”, but the same fate was suffered by Protestant Armenians and “to a far greater degree” by the Apostolic Armenians. Then, after the war, “the communities of the countries under Communist regimes were destroyed and dispersed”: the administration of Russia and the Caucasus was abolished in 1920, the archbishoprics of Lvov, Transylvania and Bucovina in 1946. A CHURCH REBORN. Today “the Armenian Church has 119 members of the clergy, 88 women religious and some 450,000 faithful, but the low number of priests and religious is not enough for this huge apostolate”, that sees almost a thousand baptisms each year. “Hundreds of thousands of Catholic Armenians, who have remained faithful to their faith – concluded the Patriarch – await pastors who may preach the Gospel of Christ and administer the sacraments to them”.