Pope León XIV received this September 16 in Castel Gandolfo the Catholicos of the Armenians, Karekin II, which has been the first audience between them and the fourth for Karekin with a Pontiff, after his meetings with Saint John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis. According to what Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, representative of the Armenian Apostolic Church to the Holy See, explained to Vatican News, the meeting took place in a «fraternal and cordial» atmosphere, with special attention to the situation of the Armenians in Artsakh.
Invitation to visit Armenia and call for peace
During the audience, Karekin II invited León XIV to visit Armenia and emphasized the need for a lasting peace «based on justice». The Pope and the patriarch agreed on the urgency of putting an end to the conflicts affecting the region and on the responsibility of the Churches to keep alive the hope of reconciliation.
Meetings with cardinals and prayer in Santa María Maggiore
After the audience, the Armenian delegation visited the Vatican, where Karekin II met with Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, and with Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education. Subsequently, he went to Santa María Maggiore, where he prayed before the tomb of Francisco and before the iconic image of the Salus Populi Romani.
Continuity of an ecumenical path
The 2025 meeting is inserted into a long journey of rapprochement. In November 2000, Karekin II signed with Saint John Paul II a Joint Declaration that reaffirmed the common faith in Christ and the commitment to work for full communion. That gesture was followed by the delivery of relics of Saint Gregory the Illuminator and, in 2001, by the historic trip of John Paul II to Armenia on the 1700th anniversary of its conversion to Christianity as the state religion.
In 2008, Benedict XVI invited Karekin II to Rome for an ecumenical celebration, and in 2015 Francis had him at his side during the Mass in St. Peter’s in memory of the Armenian martyrs of 1915, where he proclaimed Saint Gregory of Narek a Doctor of the Church. In 2016, Francis traveled to Armenia under the motto «The first Christian country», and in 2018 he inaugurated in the Vatican gardens a statue of Gregory of Narek, an event attended by the Catholicos. In 2020, Karekin II returned to Rome to expose the situation in Artsakh and thank the Pope’s calls for peace.