"Father Nerses has been for everyone a welcoming father and a spiritual master", "a true example for all Christianity". With these words, card. Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State of the Holy See, remembered today mgr. Nerses Der Nersessian, before his grave in the village of Panik, during his official visit to Armenia (4-6 March). When John Paul II visited the country, said card. Bertone, "he spoke of this village and said: ‘When evil-hearted men shot at the cross of the belfry of Panik, they were trying to offend that God in whom they did not believe’". Archbishop Nerses, who died last year, was bonded to John Paul II "by a deep friendship": "With his culture and his holy life went on card. Bertone -, with his ecumenical spirit and his long-sightedness, he enabled the Catholic Armenian Church to recover, in full harmony with the Apostolic Armenian Church. A true example for all Christianity. In him shone the specific qualities of the Mekhitarist Armenian Congregation, a true ecumenical bridge since the origins. This Congregation has remained firmly rooted in the Catholic identity and obedience and equally committed to defending the Orthodoxy of the Armenian tradition and promoting its culture, at very difficult times". Card. Bertone wished "such attitude may last in its integrity".
