POPE IN ARMENIA AS IT CELEBRATES 1700 YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY

VATICAN CITY, SEP 25, 2001 (VIS) - John Paul II arrived today in Yerevan, Armenia, at 1 p.m. local time. He was welcomed at the international airport by President Robert Kotcharian and by civil and religious authorities including His Holiness, Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians. Catholicos Karekin and nine archbishops and bishops of the Apostolic Armenian Church will accompany the Pope throughout his stay in Armenia.

The Pope noted that Armenia is celebrating the "1700th anniversary of the proclamation of Christianity as the official religion of this cherished land. ... I am deeply moved as I think of the glorious history of Christianity in this land, going back, according to tradition, to the preaching of the Apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew. Later, through the witness and work of St. Gregory the llluminator, Christianity for the first time became the faith of an entire nation."

The Holy Father observed that Armenia is marking another anniversary, the 10th anniversary of its independence. "Everyone, especially those responsible for public life, is called today to be genuinely committed to the common good, in justice and solidarity, putting the progress of the people ahead of any partial interests. This is also true of the urgent search for peace at the regional level. Peace will only be built on the solid foundations of mutual respect, justice in inter-community relations and magnanimity on the part of the strong."

Yerevan, the capital of Armenia and home to one and a quarter million people, was founded in 782 B.C. with the name of Erebuni. It is 1,000 meters above sea level and is dominated by Mount Ararat, an extinct volcanic mountain massif in neighboring eastern Turkey. Legend has it that its main peak, Great Ararat, is the site of paradise on earth and also the final resting place of Noah's Ark, after the flood.

Armenia, a federal republic which proclaimed independence in 1991, has a population of 3.8 million, of whom 150,000, almost four percent, are Catholics. Over 90 percent of Armenians belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church whose head is the Catholicos who resides in Holy Etchmiadzin, the spiritual seat of authority, near Yerevan.

The ordinariate of Eastern Europe for Armenian Catholics is immediately subject to the Holy See. The ordinary is Archbishop Nerses Der Nersessian, C.M.A. The Armenian family name which starts with "Der" indicates that the person is a descendant of a married priest. There is also the Apostolic Administration of the Caucasus of the Latins. The apostolic administrator is Bishop Giuseppe Pasotto.

Pope John Paul will be staying at the pontifical residence, just one part of the complex known as Holy Etchmiadzin which also includes the apostolic palace, the residence of the Catholicos, the cathedral, curial offices, the seminary and a guest house.

Etchmiadzin was founded in the beginning of the second century and became the administrative and religious center of Armenia when Christianity was proclaimed the state religion in 301. Tradition has it that the cathedral was built on the site indicated by Christ when He appeared in a dream to St. Gregory the Illuminator. In fact, Etchmiadzin means "place where the Only Begotten came down."

PV-ARMENIA;ARRIVAL; BACKGROUND;...;YEREVAN;VIS;20010925;Word: 540;