Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Yerevan (Agenzia Fides) - Nearly a hundred years after the Armenian genocide - which falls in 2015 - the Synod of Bishops of the Armenian Apostolic Church has put at the center of common reflection the proposal of canonization for all the victims of the "Great Evil" perpetrated in the territories of Turkey in 1915.
As reported to Fides, the Synod, held from September 24 to 27 at the Patriarchal See of Echmiadzin (situated 20 kilometers from the Armenian capital Yerevan) brought together for the first time after 6 centuries all the Apostolic Armenian Bishops, as well as those belonging to the Catholicate of Echmiadzin (governed by Patriarch Karekin II, the highest authority of the Armenian apostolic Christianity) and those related to Catholicate of the great House of Cilicia (governed by the Catholicate Aram I, based in Lebanon).
"The possible canonization of the victims of the Armenian genocide is being studied, but it certainly was one of the most interesting points addressed during the recent Synod" confirms Father Georges Dankaye to Fides Agency, rector of the Armenian College in Rome and the Procurator of the Armenian Catholic Church to the Holy See. "Take into account" adds Fr. Dankaye "that in the Armenian Apostolic Church the last saints were proclaimed in the VI century". In this regard, among the issues to be explored there is also that of a precise definition of the procedures for the canonization concerning persons who have suffered martyrdom. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 3/10/213)
