Pope Opens His Final Day in Armenia
YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) - Pope John Paul II opened his final day in Armenia on Thursday with a call to Armenia's small Catholic community to help rebuild the economically suffering country.
The pope presided at an outdoor Mass at Echmiadzin, 15 miles west of the capital Yerevan, the seat of the dominant Armenian Apostolic Church.
``At this time, Armenia needs from all her sons and daughters fresh efforts and new sacrifices,'' John Paul said in a homily delivered by another priest in Armenian. ``I am certain that in this momentous task, our brothers and sisters of the Armenian Apostolic Church look upon the members of the Catholic community as children of the same mother.''
About 5 percent of Armenia's 3.6 million people are Catholics or adherents of a uniate church that follows an Orthodox liturgy but accepts the supremacy of the pope.
The Armenian Apostolic and Catholic churches separated in connection with a fifth-century theological dispute, but have established friendly relations.
The pope's three-day trip to Armenia was connected with commemorations of the 1,700th anniversary proclamation of Armenia as a Christian state, the first country to make such a declaration.
He arrived after four days in Kazakstan on a trip that has put the 81-year-old pontiff's frail health to the test.
On arrival in Echmiadzin, he appeared notably pale and walked with more difficulty than usual, assisted by two aides. He spoke slowly and slurringly for about five minutes in English, before turning over the rest of the homily to the Armenian priest.
On Wednesday, he visited a memorial to Armenians who perished under the Ottomans.
``We are appalled by the terrible violence done to the Armenian people and dismayed that the world still knows such inhumanity,'' the pope said in his prayer at the Tsitsernagaberd memorial complex on a hill overlooking Yerevan.
The complex commemorates the estimated 1.5 million people that Armenia says were victims of genocide in a 1915-23 campaign to force them out of eastern Turkey. Turkey says the death count is inflated and that Armenians were killed or displaced along with others as the Ottoman Empire tried to quell civil unrest.
Turkey has protested some countries' recognition of the deaths as genocide and John Paul walked a careful line to ensure Wednesday's visit was without political implications.
The pope previously has termed the deaths genocide, but has not declared any party responsible. On Wednesday, he delicately skirted the issue in delivering his prayer in English.
``Listen, O Lord, to the lament that rises from this place, to the call of the dead from the depths of the Metz Yeghern,'' he said, using the Armenian-language phrase for the deaths. ``Yeghern'' means both ``genocide'' and ``crime'' in Armenian.
Later that day, the pontiff visited a site symbolizing Armenians' hopes for recovery from the economic suffering of their first decade of post-Soviet independence - the new St. Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral in downtown Yerevan.
Nearly half of Armenia's people are estimated to live below the official poverty line and per-capita gross domestic product is about $3,000 a year - a tenth of that in the United States.
The $10 million cathedral was funded mostly by contributions from Armenians living overseas.
Originally published September 27, 2001.
