Sant’Egidio shares the sorrow of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Turkey for the loss of Patriarch Mesrob II. Dear friend of the Community, he died after a very long and painful disease. Just a few days ago, he received the visit from some of his fellows at the Armenian hospital, in Istanbul. He spend a full year in Rome studying, as priest first, then as Bishop. When in Rome, together with Sant’Egidio, he promoted the visit and the provision of humanitarian aid to the population of Yerevan, affected by the earthquake in 1988.
As young priest and then as Bishop, he spent a year of study in Rome and organized together with the Community of Sant'Egidio the visit and relief to the population of Yerevan hit by the earthquake in 1988. He took part in numerous editions of the Prayer for Peace in the Spirit of Assisi and intensively worked and prayed for the unity of Christians. We shall remember his enthusiasm for the Liturgy and the preaching, his passion for tradition and the spiritual of which he was a son, his hope in the younger generations and the openness to the encounter with the other. Moreover, we shall recall his meetings in Rome with John Paul II and in Istanbul with Benedict XVI. He has helped to love the history, the wounds and the hopes of a great Church, and in the debt of this friendship, the promise of future closeness is renewed. He has always sustained the love for the Armenian Church, with its wounds and hopes. In the name of his friendship, comes the promise of a renewed future closeness.
