11.10.2000, MEDIAMAX, YEREVAN. During the November 8-9 visit of the Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II to Rome Pope John Paul II will solemnly hand over to the Armenian Catholicos the relics of St. Gregory the Illuminator, who brought the Gospel to Armenia early in the 4th century. The official statement by Vatican reads that these relics, which have been resting in the cathedral in Naples, will be placed in a new cathedral of the Armenian Apostolic Church in the city of Yerevan, which is being dedicated to St. Gregory, in celebration of the 1700th anniversary of the founding of Christianity in Armenia.
“Garegin II shows a clear desire to continue the dialogue with the Catholic Church, along the same lines as his predecessor,” a Vatican statement said.
It is expected that Pope John Paul II will visit Armenia in June 2001, a Church official has reported. Pope would accept an invitation that will be formally delivered early in November, when Catholicos Garegin II, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC), visits Rome. The Catholicos earlier informed that he is going to discuss questions of inter-church relations and to sign a joint declaration with John Paul II in Vatican.
His Holiness John Paul II was to visit Armenia in summer 1999 but the visit was put off because of deadly illness of the Catholicos of All Armenian Garegin the First, whose attempts to normalize the relations with the catholic church caused a split among the hierarchs of the Armenian Church.
In 1996 Garegin I and John Paul II signed a joint declaration and admitted that the very fact of it is a considerable progress in the religious relations and will serve to start a dialogue to smoothen the century-long contradictions. But several authoritative theologists spoke at once in Armenia with publications asserting points included in the joint declaration, which are a rather serious deviation from the Armenian Christian traditions. -0-
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