--3/17/00
ABP. BARSAMIAN HAS AUDIENCE WITH POPE JOHN PAUL II DURING TRIP TO VATICAN IN EARLY MARCH
Primate Traveled to Rome to Preside over Tribute to Former Teacher
Prof. Winkler, Leading Scholar of Armenian Church Liturgies
Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, paid a visit to the Vatican from March 9 through 12, 2000.
The Primate traveled to Rome at the invitation of the Pontifical Oriental Institute for an event honoring the great liturgical scholar Dr. Gabriele Winkler. One of the world’s leading authorities on Armenian Church liturgies, Dr. Winkler taught Archbishop Barsamian during his days as a graduate student and the Pontifical Oriental Institute asked the Primate to preside over a 60th birthday tribute to his former teacher.
Having previously made a formal request, the Primate had an audience with His Holiness Pope John Paul II, pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. The two had last met in the summer of 1999, in connection with the passing of His Holiness Karekin I Sarkissian. On the present occasion the Pope recalled his warm friendship with the late Catholicos of All Armenians, the great admiration he felt towards his brother in Christ, and his sorrow at the Catholicos’s passing on the eve of their historic ecumenical meeting in Armenia.
The Pope added that he looked forward to meeting His Holiness Karekin II Nersissian, the 132nd Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians. Archbishop Barsamian conveyed the warm greetings of Catholicos Karekin II to the Pope, adding the Catholicos’s message that he’s committed to continuing the relations between Holy Etchmiadzin and the Vatican, which began under his predecessor Vasken I and developed under Karekin I.
Responding with his own greetings and good wishes to Vehapar, Pope John Paul II expressed his hope that the near future will provide an occasion for the two pontiffs to meet.
Archbishop Barsamian also conveyed greetings from the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Archbishop Torkom Manoogian, along with the latter’s invitiation to visit the Armenian Patriarchate during the Pope’s trip to the Holy Land in mid-March.
During his conversation with Archbishop Barsamian, the Pope inquired about the situation in the Armenian American community and in the homeland. Pope John Paul II remarked that he prays for the Armenian Church, the Armenian people and Armenia itself.
Over the course of several days in Rome, the Primate had an opportunity to meet with a number of Roman Catholic dignitaries. Among these were Edward Idris Cardinal Cassidy, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity; Achille Cardinal Silvestrini, Prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern (Catholic) Churches; and Archbishop Giovanni Battista Re, the Vatican’s Substitute Secretary of State.
The Very Rev. Fr. Daniel Findikyan--like the Primate, a graduate of the Pontifical Oriental Institute--also attended the tribute event and contributed a paper to a festschrift in Dr. Winkler’s honor.
The Pontifical Oriental Institute (POI) is one of the three theological institu-tions in Rome operated by the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits); the other two are the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Gregorian University. Founded in 1917, the Institute is an international center for the study of the Christian East, i.e. the theology, history, liturgy, canon law, spirituality and patristics of the Greek, Syrian, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian, Georgian and other eastern churches.
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