VATICAN CITY, FEB 18, 2001 (VIS) - "I now anxiously await the day in which I will finally be able to kiss, God willing, your beloved land soaked with the blood of many martyrs," John Paul II said this morning during the Divine Liturgy in the Armenian Rite, celebrated in St. Peter's Basilica on the occasion of the 1700th anniversary of the Baptism of the Armenian People. The Holy Father had been about to make this visit in June 1999 to greet the then gravely ill Catholicos Karekin I, but Karekin died just before the anticipated visit.
John Paul II delivered the homily during the Divine Liturgy, celebrated by His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX, patriarch of Cilicia of Catholic Armenians.
Speaking of the faith of the Armenian people, the Holy Father emphasized that, "looking at the Armenians ... we cannot but observe that the Christian faith has marked the most intimate fibers of their common feelings." He added that in the modern world, in which the influence of secularization is becoming ever stronger, "it is at times difficult to continue to maintain steadfast this spiritual patrimony which has made yours a 'Christian' nation. Faith is at times considered uniquely as a gift and a personal search, and not also as the shared possession of a people. How does one assure that the social conquests of modernity do not cause a loss of the richness of the continuity of a people and their faith? This is the commitment that today's celebration encourages us to deepen."
The Pope recalled having entrusted to His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, a few months ago in the same basilica, the relics of St. Gregory the Illuminator, "the great saint who made the Armenians a Christian people. ... I will carry out today," he said, "the same gesture with Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX. ... The relics of this saint, are the symbol of a firm unity of faith and from them comes a strong motivation to the unity of Christ."
HML;DIVINE LITURGY ARMENIA;...;NERSES BEDROS;VIS;20010219;Word: 350;
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