Approximately 90,000 refugees who fled to Armenia from the war-torn region of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) in 2020 continue struggle with housing, employment, and other basic needs. Since 2011, His Beatitude has served as the president of Caritas Armenia, a Catholic humanitarian organization which is a part of Caritas International. In his capacity as president, His Beatitude has worked to build up the organization’s capacity help disadvantaged groups in Armenia. According to their 2020-21 annual report, Caritas Armenia provided rapid response humanitarian aid to 4,276 households, 18,956 individuals, and 7,564 children. There are more than 160,000 Armenian Catholics in Armenia.
Since 2019, Lebanon has endured a severe economic crisis. Inflation is in triple digits and the nation’s GDP has plummeted from $55 billion dollars to $25 billion dollars according to the World Bank in Lebanon. In April, 2022, Lebanon reported an inflation rate of 206.24%. As of January, 2022, Lebanon’s unemployment rate is 29.6%, with approximately one third of the country’s residents unemployed. This is an 11.6% increase since 2018-19. The poverty rate has doubled from 42% in 2019 to 82% in 2021. Approximately 100,000 to 150,000 Armenian Catholics reside in Lebanon.
A Church sui juris (autonomous) is a group of Christian faithful united by a hierarchy according to a norm of law which the supreme authority of Church expressly or tacitly recognizes as sui juris. A rite is the liturgical, theological, spiritual, and disciplinary patrimony of a distinct people, by which its own manner of living the faith is manifested in each Church sui juris. These rites include the Alexandrian, Antiochene, Armenian, Chaldean, and Constantinopolitan traditions. The rites of the Eastern Churches, as the patrimony of the entire Church of Christ, in which there is clearly evident the tradition which has come from the Apostles through the Fathers and which affirm divine unity in diversity of the Catholic faith, are to be religiously preserved and fostered. Due to the apostolicity of the institutions, liturgies, and spirituality, the Eastern Churches are held in high esteem and accorded equal dignity between themselves.
Following the Great Schism of 1054, two ecumenical councils attempted to reunify the Latin and Byzantine Churches. Unfortunately, both councils, the Second Council of Lyons in 1204 and the Council of Ferrara-Florence in 1431-1445, failed to accomplish this goal. However, the Councils did lay the groundwork for future engagement. Additionally, developments in Church doctrine led to the understanding that groups of Eastern Christians could retain their unique traditions and disciplines under the broader auspices of the Catholic Church. Over time, due in part to Catholic missionary activity, groups of Orthodox faithful from each of the Eastern Churches sought reunification with Rome. As such, hierarchies were established which allowed the preservation of Eastern liturgies, devotions, and disciplines. Currently, there are twenty-three Eastern Catholic Churches (e.g., Armenian Catholic, Ukrainian Catholic, Coptic Catholic, etc.) and approximately 17,000,000 Eastern Rite Catholics worldwide.
The Eastern Catholic Churches fall under the jurisdiction of the Pope through the Congregation of Oriental Churches, established in 1862. The Congregation exists for encouraging the development of the Eastern Catholic Churches as protecting their rights. Further, the Congregation ensures that the Eastern Churches retain their liturgical, spiritual, and disciplinary patrimony as part of the Catholic Church. Currently, the prefect for the Congregation of Oriental Churches is Archbishop Leonardo Sandri. His Excellency has been serving the Church in this capacity since 2007.
Under the millet system of the Ottoman Empire, Armenian Catholics were placed under the jurisdiction of the Armenian Apostolic Patriarch in Constantinople. Since this caused serious tensions, Armenian Catholics were eventually given their own millet to be governed by their own archbishop in 1829.
Due to the Armenian Genocide, where approximately100,000 Armenian Catholics were murdered, including one hundred priests and forty-seven nuns, an Armenian Catholic synod of bishops voted to move the Patriarchate back to Lebanon.
A number of Armenian Catholics lived in territory controlled by Russia. In the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution, the Armenian Catholic Church was entirely suppressed by the Soviet Union. Once the Soviet Union fell, the Holy See established an Armenian Catholic Ordinariate in Gyumri, Armenia in 1991. There are approximately 800,000 Armenian Catholics worldwide.