Catholic News 2

(Vatican Radio) The 14th Apostolic journey abroad of Pope Francis is to Armenia, a landlocked mountainous nation which borders with to the west Turkey, to the East Azerbaijan, to the north Georgia and to the South Iran.

This visit, to the first country ever to adopt Christianity as a state religion begins in the nation’s capital Yerevan and sports a logo which highlights this historic factor along with the dates of the journey which are the 24th to the 26th of June.

It’s a circular logo divided in half by two colours: yellow for the Vatican and purple for the Armenian city of Etchmiadzin, seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church where Pope Francis will be staying. Within the design one can spy the outlines of two significant places in Armenia: snow capped Mount Ararat with its biblical connotations and the Monastery of Kor Virap located on its flanks, which Pope Francis will also visit. A significant monastery where Gregory the Illuminator credited for the conversion of this nation to Christianity in 301, so at the beginning of the fourth century, was once held prisoner at the bottom of a well.

As we know Pope Francis travels to Armenia in the footsteps of John Paul II who came here in 2001. But there’s an earlier pope connected in a special way to this nation, to be precise to its darkest chapter.

Listen to a programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick: 

He’s Benedict XV elected to the See of Peter in 1914, so Roman Pontiff at the time of the Great War. And as historian Professor John Pollard, in his book ‘Benedict XV and the Pursuit of Peace’ writes:

“The Vatican’s relations with the Ottoman Government in Istanbul, had not been good for a long time, but they deteriorated further during the course of the war, due to the Turk’s treatment of Christian populations in their empire and most particularly, the massacre of the Armenians, who were considered disloyal. In April and  May 1915 a campaign of what would now be called ‘ethnic cleansing’ was launched against the Christian, mainly Armenian, populations of Anatolia. In July the Apostolic delegate in Constantinople, Monsignor Dolci was instructed to protest against the massacres; the governments of Germany and Austria-Hungary were also asked to bring pressure to bear on their ally to stop the killings, and Benedict himself sent an autograph letter on the 10th of September to the Sultan who in his role as Caliph of Islam, was like the Pope a world- wide religious leader. By the end of the war it was estimated that over a million Armenians had died, either killed outright by the Turks or as a result of maltreatment by starvation”.

For the record on March 12, 1918 Pope Benedict XV sent a second letter to Sultan Muhammad V. But while his diplomatic endeavors may have fallen on deaf ears his humanitarian efforts in assisting Armenian refugees did not it seems. According to the Jesuit magazine ‘La Civiltà Cattolica’ at the time the Holy See: “mobilized a continual flow of financial aid and supplies in an era when there were no other international humanitarian organizations beyond the Red Cross and the Near East relief.” Significantly too, at the time Benedict XV opened the doors of his summer residence, the Apostolic Palace of Castelgandolfo, to young orphaned refugees from Armenia.

Proof of this is that on Saturday 25th of June when Pope Francis pays tribute to the fallen at the ‘Tzitzernakaberd’ Memorial complex dedicated to the fallen during the massacres of the Armenian population under the Ottoman Empire, which the people of this nation refer to as the 'Medz Yeghern' (Great Evil), he’ll be meeting with ten descendants of these same Armenian refugees. In the very place Armenians travel to in great numbers each year as Fr John Barker who heads the tiny Anglican community in Armenia tells Philippa Hitchen.

Full Article

Gyumri, Armenia, Jun 23, 2016 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis’ visit to Armenia is a chance to build on decades of productive ecumenical dialogue with the Armenian Apostolic Church, a local Catholic bishop has said.

“Now there is more friendship, more collaboration, a more open dialogue, and I am very optimistic about the future, from this point of view,” Archbishop Raphael Minassian, the Armenian Ordinary of Eastern Europe, told CNA.

The archbishop will be at the Pope’s side during his journey to Armenia, fifteen years after St. John Paul II visited in 2001.

Armenia’s national church is the Armenian Apostolic Church, an Oriental Orthodox Church to which 93 percent of the population belongs. Armenia prides itself on having been the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion, which it did in the year 301.

For Archbishop Minassian, the separation between the Catholic Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church is due to human factors, not theological ones. On theological matters, “there is no difference.”

“No difference in sacraments, nor in theology, nor in the profession of faith,” he said.

Unlike national churches still linked to the universal Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church’s nationalism has “taken a different direction,” the archbishop said.

As an Oriental Orthodox Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church separated from the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches over its rejection of the Christological definitions of the Council of Chalcedon, in 451. For the Armenians, the break was solidified when they held a local council in 554, in which they chose to become autocephalous.

Chalcedon defined that Jesus Christ has both a human and a divine nature. Because the Oriental Orthodox rejected this definition, both the Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox historically considered them to be monophysites – those who believe Christ has only one nature.

But since the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church have improved their relations.

Catholicos Vasken I, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, visited Blessed Paul VI at the Vatican in May 1970. There, the Pope gave Catholicos Vasken a relic of St. Bartholomew, who is considered to be one of the founders of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

During St. John Paul II’s pontificate, Catholicos Karekin I made two visits to the Pope, with whom he was a friend.

In December 1996 St. John Paul II and Karekin signed a joint declaration on Christology, recognizing that the Armenian Apostolic Church's Christological doctrine does not imply any confusion about Jesus Christ’s two natures in a single person – the belief held by the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox.

Pope Francis will visit Armenia June 24-26. Like St. John Paul II before him, Francis will stay at the Etchmiadzin Cathedral compound that is nicknamed “the Holy See of the Apostolic Church.”
 
This could give a new impetus to ecumenism, building on the good relations developed over recent decades.

Archbishop Minassian is a bishop of the Armenian Catholic Church – an Eastern Catholic Church that came into communion with the Bishop of Rome in 1742 – and is based in Gyumri, Armenia's second largest city.

He underscored that the possibility of a renewed ecumenism with the Armenian Apostolic Church will need the help of God:

“I believe in prayer. I believe in witness. I believe in the example given by these pontiffs. Then, God’s grace is called to work on the souls. We can only rely on Divine Providence,” he said.

At present, according to the archbishop, there had been no rapprochement between the two Churches because unity is seen as “the submission of the one to the other.”

“In fact, unity is rather a path toward a mutual aim, Christ,” he said. “Unfortunately, this separation is mostly given by a sort of immaturity.”

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Zambia's tax authorities have shut down a newspaper critical of the government, accusing it of failing to pay taxes, its managing editor said on Wednesday.

The Post's managing editor Joan Chirwa said Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) officials had ignored a court order preventing its closure over a disputed debt of 68 million kwachas ($6 million).

"We have been paying the taxes and this outstanding bill is from an old debt which is in dispute," Chirwa said. She said the newspaper had been closed because of its critical editorial policy. "It is not a secret that we are being targeted because of our stand," she said.

Tax agency officials were not available to comment. Lee Habasonda, president of Transparency International Zambia, said the action taken by ZRA was excessive.

"We are very concerned that such a thing is happening at this time of campaigns for the August 11 elections," he said.

In April, police briefly detained two Post journalists over a story quoting an opposition leader as saying President Edgar Lungu had used public funds to pay for a holiday.

Lungu has been in power for just over a year after winning a ballot triggered by the death of his predecessor, Michael Sata, in October 2014. He faces a strong challenge from opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema of the United Party for National Development at the polls.

(Reuter)

Full Article

South Sudan’s Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation (CEPO) is launching a nine-day campaign of activism to promote the spirit of patriotism among South Sudanese.

CEPO Director, Edmond Yakani says the initiative aims at encouraging citizens of South Sudan to share positive things about their country and to build peace, South Sudan’s Catholic Radio Bakhita reports.

Yakani says the campaign will give citizens a chance to interact and strengthen their knowledge on patriotism. The campaign starts next month.

(Catholic Radio Network)

Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va

Full Article