Posted on 06/24/2016 6:55:07 AM PDT by marshmallow
YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Pope Francis hailed Armenia's steadfast Christian heritage on Friday as he arrived in the former Soviet republic for a three-day visit to commemorate the centenary of the Ottoman-era slaughter of Armenians that the pope himself has called a "genocide."
In a largely Orthodox land where Catholics are a minority, Armenians seemed genuinely honored to welcome a pope who has long championed the Armenian cause from his time as an archbishop in Argentina and now as leader of the 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church.
Small groups of residents lined his motorcade route, and a gaggle of schoolchildren wearing white T-shirts and yellow neckerchiefs — the colors of the Vatican flag — greeted him at the airport with a big banner written in Italian: "Armenia Welcomes Pope Francis."
"I shook the pope's hand but didn't have the time to kiss it," 42-year-old Yerevan resident Nazik Sargsyan said. "I'm sure God's blessing has come down on me with that handshake."
In his initial remarks in the ornate Armenian Apostolic Church in Etchmiadzin, Francis didn't use the politically charged term "genocide" but instead spoke of the "holy sign of martyrdom" of Armenians who died at the hands of Ottoman Turks starting in 1915.
With the Apostolic patriarch Karekin II by his side, Francis praised Armenia for becoming the first nation to declare Christianity the state religion in 301 and for keeping alive the "light of faith" even in its darkest times. He urged all Christians to unite to prevent religion from being exploited and manipulated today, an apparent reference to the current-day Islamic extremist attacks on Christians in the Middle East.
"For Armenia, faith in Christ has not been like a garment to be donned or doffed as circumstances or convenience dictate, but an essential part of its..........
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
from the article:
Many historians consider the massacres of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians a genocide, a classification that carries legal and financial implications given Armenian claims for restitution. Turkey rejects the term, says the death figure is inflated and that people died on both sides as the Ottoman Empire collapsed amid World War I.
The Armenian ambassador to the Holy See, Mikayel Minasyan, said it almost doesn’t matter if Francis utters the word, given his April 2015 pronouncement.
‘genocide, a classification that carries legal and financial implications’
follow the money?
A million Armenians, another quarter million Assyrians, several hundred thousand Greek Christians slaughtered.
People can’t make up their minds if that is genocide or what. If you don’t like that word, here’s another: jihad.
Hey, what do the lives of a few million Christians make, when Turkey is our good NATO ally, right?
Attempt by the Pope to make Armenians as heathenistic as himself.
Is the Pope a shill for NATO now?
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