After the Sunday liturgy in memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide served in St. Peter’s Cathedral and St. Gregory of Narek was proclaimed as Doctor of the Church it was very muchh expected that part of our Armenian feedback would be approximately as follows: “The Catholic Church is not that influential in the world, Pope Francis is not a very good person; in a certain year a certain newspaper was writing a certain thing about him.”
Or “Is there anything special in the liturgy, but if the Pope could come to Armenia on April 24 it would be a victory for our nation.” Of course, it would be better if the Pope had said, “Give the Armenians the lands due to them by Sevres Treaty” and the Turks had answered, “Well, if Francis is saying then we should give.” (Although, frankly speaking I cannot imagine what we were going to do with that land as we haven’t even decide what we are doing with the 29 thousand kilometres that we already “got”). But the liturgy did not contribute to the implementation of Sevres Treaty, so everything is in vain. In short, the culture of grouse is extremely developed in Armenia; it is not a national feature; it is just due to the fact that during the last quarter-century the elite, the media (of course, including myself among the others) are usually not able to give positive emotions to people, it is difficult.
Whereas complaining about everything, seeing nothing good anywhere is easy; it is like swimming downstream tranquilly. While the events that took place in Rome on Sunday is important, firstly, in my opinion, due to the aspect that our country, our culture and history are put into a global context. The Vatican is not only a state, it is the spiritual centre of 1 billion 300 million Catholics having influence, however, outside the boundaries of the Catholic world. At least since 2001 the reaffirmation of the Armenian Genocide has not been only a political decision, but also the tradition, which will influence the spiritual life of the whole world during the coming decades. The same approach should be in relation to the fact of proclaiming St. Gregory of Narek as Doctor of the Church. This enlists our theologian, philosopher and poet among Blessed Augustine, John Chrysostom, Thomas Aquinas whose creations make the foundation of European and, therefore, of the world civilization. Both we and our friends as well as our ill-wishers should know what is the real role and value of us the Armenians in the world. I have vague hopes that all of these events will cause our grousers to read the “Book of Lamentations.”
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ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
