JUBILEE PILGRIMAGE OF ARMENIAN CATHOLICS

VATICAN CITY, SEP 14, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father today welcomed 350 participants in the Jubilee Year pilgrimage of Armenian Catholics, in particular His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX, patriarch of Cilicia of Catholic Armenians, and the bishops accompanying him.

Later today, feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, Armenian Catholics will continue their Jubilee celebrations with vespers in the Armenian rite in Rome's basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem. Following this they will process to the nearby basilica of St. John Lateran where vespers will be celebrated in the Antasdan rite, which includes blessing the four corners of the earth with the Cross.

In his speech to them in French, the Pope referred to the celebrations of the 17th centenary of the baptism of the Armenian people, and added: "This Jubilee of the Universal Church opens your Jubilee, in an admirable continuity of spirit and theological content: from the Cross, from the side of Christ sprang forth the water of your baptism."

"The Armenian people," he pointed out, "know the Cross well: they have carried it engraved in their hearts. It is the symbol of their identity, of the tragedies of their history and of the glory of their renewal after each adverse event. ... Entire generations of Armenians have not hesitated to offer their lives in order not to deny their faith which, as one of your historians said, belongs to them like color does to skin."

The Pope then made reference to their liturgical celebration this evening when, "with the Cross, you will bless the four corners of the earth, to remind us that this poor instrument of torment has become judgment on the world, a cosmic symbol of the blessing of God."

John Paul II told the pilgrims that he prays for their communities in Armenia, "where new and serious poverty tries your brothers and sisters, tempting them to a new exodus in order to go and seek other means of living and of assuring security for their families. Your people ask for bread and for justice, they ask politics .... to be an honest and disinterested service to the common good."

In closing, the Holy Father said that he "wishes to carry today with you the Cross of those who suffer." Promising prayers for them, he added: "In addition to Catholics, my thoughts and my greetings go to the children of the apostolic Armenian Church."

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