President Serzh Sargsyan with Pope Francis and Catholicos of All Armenians visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial

President Serzh Sargsyan and Mrs. Rita Sargsyan together with His Holiness Pope Francis and His Holiness Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II visited today Tsitsernakaberd – the Armenian Genocide Memorial. The President of Armenia and two Patriarchs paid tribute to the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide. His Holiness Pope Francis laid a wreath at the Memorial and preyed. Later His Holiness Pope Francis with President Serzh Sargsyan and His Holiness Catholicos of All Armenians laid flowers at the Eternal Fire where the clergy performed the intercessory prayer, asking for the mediation of the holy martyrs.

Pope Francis visited the Memorial Park of the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial where he blessed the fur tree planted on his behalf. Later, he made an inscription in the Book of Honorary Guests of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute. “Here I pray with sorrow in my heart so that a tragedy like this never again occurs, so that humanity will never forget and will know how to defeat evil with good. May God endow peace and consolation to the beloved Armenian people and to the whole world. May God protect the memory of the Armenian people. Memory should never be diluted or forgotten. Memory is the source of peace and the future.” His Holiness Pope Francis wrote.

At the Memorial, Pope Francis was approached by a group of the descendents of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide - children and grandchildren whose ancestors, who were orphans, by the decision of Pope Pius XI had been given a refugee at the Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo.

Pope Francis and Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II in Tsitsernakaberd bid farewell to the President of Armenia and Mrs. Rita Sargsyan and from here left for Gyumri where at the Saint Vartan Square the Supreme Patriarch Catholicos of All Armenians will lead a traditional Latin mass.