Pope Francis (Source: National Review)
YEREVAN (ArmRadio)— Pope Francis will meet with descendants of Armenians who fled persecution by the Ottoman Empire a century ago during his Armenia visit later this week, according to the Latin American Herald Tribune.
The meeting will take place at the Tsitsernakaberd monument in Yerevan which commemorates the approximately 1.5 million Armenian victims of the Armenian Genocide.
The encounter will be “a very moving” event and one of the most important activities during the pope’s trip next weekend to Armenia, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said.
Francis will lay a wreath at the monument and will greet a group of children who will show him pictures and artifacts from the “Medz Yeghern” (The Great Evil).
The pope will then enter the monument within a circle enclosed by 12 huge, slanted stone walls and will stand before the eternal flame that honors the victims.
Francis will then plant a tree memorializing his visit to Tsitsernakaberd.
Later, Pope Francis will meet a dozen descendants of the 400 Armenian orphans who were rescued in 1915 and lodged at the papal Castel Gandolfo residence near Rome.
Francis’s visit to Tsitsernakaberd is expected to be the highlight of his trip to Armenia, the 14th journey outside Italy during his papacy.
In April 2015, Pope Francis celebrated a Mass at the Vatican to commemorate the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, calling it “the first genocide of the 20th century.”
Source: Asbarez
Link: Pope Francis to Meet Descendants of Armenian Genocide Survivors in Yerevan