YEREVAN, JUNE 25, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan and First Lady Mrs. Rita Sargsyan visited the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial on June 25 with Pope Francis and Catholicos of All Armenians His Holiness Garegin II.

The Armenian President and the two Pontiffs paid homage to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims. Pope Francis laid a wreath at the Memorial and prayed. The Pope laid flowers with the President and Catholicos Garegin II at the Eternal Flame, where clergymen performed an intercessional ritual for the canonized martyrs.

Pope Francis visited the Memory Park of the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial, blessed the fir-tree planted under his name and afterwards signed the Honorary Guest Book of the Armenian Genocide Memorial-Institute.

“Here I pray with pain in my heart, so that never more will there be tragedies like this, so that humanity does not forget and knows how to overcome the evil with good. May God grant the beloved Armenian people and the entire world peace and consolation. May God protect the memory of the Armenian people. Memory should not be diluted or forgotten. Memory is source of peace and the future”, Pope Francis wrote.

A group of descendants of Armenian Genocide survivors approached Pope Francis in the Memorial. Sons and grandsons, whose ancestors – being orphans of the Genocide – found refuge at the Castel Gandolfo Papal Palace under the decision of Pope Pius XI.

Pope Francis and Catholicos Garegin II departed to Gyumri, where the Pope will deliver a Holy Mass in the Vardanants Square.