Armenian Apostolic Holy Church The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin

On January 23 of this year, a ceremony dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the International Commission for Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Inter-Church Dialogue was held in the Auditorium of the "Angelicum" University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, which was attended by Eastern Orthodox and Catholic theologians who contributed to the committee's work since 2003.

Reports summarizing the results of the official dialogue between the two churches were presented by the committee's co-chairmen, Cardinal Kurt Koch (head of the Promoting Christian Unity department); the honorary co-chairman of the committee, the famous German theologian Cardinal Walter Kasper, from the Coptic Church; the committee's co-chairman, Bishop Kyuregh (vicar-bishop of the Coptic Church in Los Angeles); from the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin attended committee member His Eminence Archbishop Khajag Parsamyan; and Father Frans Bouven, a former member of the Catholic Church.

During the solemn ceremony, Cardinal Kurt Koch, on behalf of His Holiness Pope Francis, presented the "Benemerenti Medal" to His Eminence Archbishop Khajag Parsamyan, Pontifical delegate of Western Europe and the representative of the Catholicos of All Armenians in the Vatican and Father Franz Bowen for their efforts to promote the official dialogue between the Catholic-Eastern Churches and the strengthening of the relations between the two church families.  

During the ceremony, with the blessing of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians; Proto-Archimandrite Shahe Ananyan, Dean of the Gevorkian Theological Seminary and Director of the Inter-Church Relations Department of the Mother See; Rev. Fr. Husik Smbatyan, Vice Dean of the Gevorkian Theological Seminary and secretary of the scientific council and Acting General Secretary of the Armenian Bible Society who was in Rome within the framework of exchange visits of young clerics between the Catholic and Eastern churches; Rev. Fr. Ararat Poghosyan, Director of the "Vatche and Tamar Manookian" Matenadaran and Publishing Department of the Mother See; and Rev. Fr. Markos Mangasaryan, Director of the Social Department of the Mother See also attended the ceremony.