Pope Concerned for Lebanon and Middle East Christians
Pope Benedict XVI reiterated his concern for Christian communities in the Middle East during an audience Monday with the Lebanon-based head of the Armenian church, Catholicos Aram I.
The Pope expressed his "deep concern for the people of Lebanon and the Middle East."
He was "saddened by the escalation of violence and persecution against Christians in some parts of the Middle East and elsewhere."
He added: "Peace can only be built on solid foundations if the countries concerned can determine their own destiny and if the various ethnic and religious groups accept and respect each other fully."
The occasion marked the first visit to the Vatican by the spiritual leader of Lebanon”s Armenians, Catholicos Aram I.
Pope Benedict XVI also referred to the "unspeakable suffering" experienced by Armenians in the twentieth century.
Last May, the Pontiff recalled the "martyrdom" of the Armenian Apostolic Church during a visit by its leader Karekin II, avoiding the word "genocide" pronounced several times by his predecessor John Paul II.
On Monday Aram I said "Churches, religions and states should recognize all genocides, including the Armenian genocide and they should commit to preventing all genocides."
The Armenian Apostolic Church, one of the world”s oldest independent churches, numbers some seven million adherents, of whom two million live in present-day Armenia.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in orchestrated killings during the final years of the Ottoman Empire, with more than 20 countries officially recognizing genocide as the decades passed.