PRAYER FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE

VATICAN CITY, SEP 26, 2001 (VIS) - John Paul II celebrated Mass in private this morning in the chapel of the Apostolic Palace of Etchmiadzin, and then travelled to the Presidential Palace of Yerevan for a courtesy visit to the President of the Republic of Armenia, Robert Kotcharian.

At 11:00 a.m. local time the Pope visited the Dzidzernagapert Memorial. Situated on a small hill, it is an architectural complex built in 1967 in memory of the approximately 1.5 million Armenians who perished under the Ottoman Empire during the First World War.

The Pope and His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians, placed flowers in homage and prayed together for all of the victims, for their salvation, and for peace in the world.

After a song, and a brief prayer by the Catholicos, the Pope read a prayer in English:

"Look upon the people of this land," he said, "who put their trust in You so long ago, who have passed through the great tribulation and never failed in their faithfulness to You. Wipe away every tear from their eyes and grant that their agony in the twentieth century will yield a harvest of life that endures forever.

"We are appalled by the terrible violence done to the Armenian people, and dismayed that the world still knows such inhumanity. But renewing our hope in Your promise, we implore, O Lord, rest for the dead in the peace which knows no end, and the healing of still open wounds through the power of Your love. Our soul is longing for You, Lord, more than the watchman for daybreak, as we wait for the fullness of redemption won on the Cross, for the light of Easter which is the dawn of invincible life, for the glory of the new Jerusalem where death shall be no more. O Judge of the living and the dead, have mercy on us all!"

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the Holy Father returned to the Apostolic See of Etchmiadzin for an official lunch with His Holiness Karekin II, the archbishops and bishops of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and the members of the papal entourage.

PV-ARMENIA;MEMORIAL VICTIMS;...;YEREVAN;VIS;20010926;Word: 370;