In Armenia, the Pope will visit a very special convent
Thursday, June 23, 2016
By: Joop Koopman
"We are very grateful to ACN, because you have helped us for many years."
By M.Z. de la Morena
GYUMRĺ, Armenia—Sister Arousiag proudly points out the
dormitory of the convent of Our Lady of Armenia here: it is where Pope Francis
will rest for a few hours on the second day of his June 24-26, 2016 visit to
Armenia.
“It is the best room we have,” she assures a visitor from the international
Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), which has been supporting the
convent for a number of years.
In the background group of children is singing in Armenian; they are
rehearsing for when the Pope arrives. The children in question are some of the
37 little ones living in the orphanage run by the Sisters—and whose whose
singing the Pope has in fact already heard, in April 2015, during the Mass
celebrated in at St Peter’s in observance of the 100thanniversary of the
Armenian genocide.
ACN has supported the work of the Sisters her ever since 1997. Their
commitments also include running of a daycare center for the elderly and a
summer camp for orphaned and deprived children. Last year no fewer than 890
young people took part in this summer camp, among them 40 Syrian refugee
children.
Upstairs in the convent, where the teenagers live, Anahir, 16, holds a
young child in her arms. Her father passed away many years ago and her mom was
unable to care for her. She says that the young residents of the convent are “very
happy about the Pope’s visit and that they spend a lot of time waiting for this
moment.”
The congregation of the Immaculate Conception in Armenia consists of
seven Sisters working in various different centers throughout the country. Pope
Francis will come to this convent after celebrating Holy Mass in the central
square of Gyumrí, which is the second largest city in Armenia, one still
bearing the marks of the terrible devastation caused by the earthquake of 1988,
in which more than 25,000 people died.
“A visit to the first-ever Christian country”—such is the theme of the
papal visit. It was in the year 301 that King Tiridate III first proclaimed
Christianity as the religion of the Armenian state, thus making it the first
nation in the world to formally adopt Christianity—12 years before the Emperor
Constantine made it legal in the Roman Empire.
“We are very grateful to ACN,
because you have helped us for many years,” said SisterArousiag, who added: “We
depend on the support of various different organizations, and ACN is one of the
best benefactors we have.”
A few yards from her, watching attentively, stands
Rosa, a woman of 72, who ceaselessly touches the cross around her neck. “I’m
very grateful for everything the sisters do for us,” she said; “None of my
three sons can take care of me because they live a long way away, and so the Sisters
are all I have.” Sisters provide the elderly three meals daily and also offer
them the chance of a hot bath—because most houses in the area do not have hot
water.
Thanks to the generosity of ACN’s benefactors, the Sisters of the
Immaculate Conception have also been able to offer catechism classes at the
children’s summer camps; renovate the daycare center for the elderly; and to
purchase the land on which the convent sits.
Sister Arougia; ACN photo
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