Fr. Lombardi briefs press corps on Pope's first day in Armenia

(Vatican Radio)  Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ, Director of the Holy See Press Office, held a press briefing on Friday following the first day of Pope Francis' Apostolic Journey to Armenia. 

Listen to the full press briefing:

In the briefing, Fr. Lombardi revisited the major events of Friday and looked ahead to the schedule for Saturday. 

"That Genocide"

He also specified the nature of Pope Francis' use of the word 'genocide' for the Metz Yeghern, or 'Great Evil', the massacre of some 1.5 million Armenian people in 1915.

In a speech Friday at the presidential palace to President Serzh Sargsyan, Armenian political and religious leaders and the diplomatic corps, Pope Francis strayed from his prepared text, adding the word “genocide:”

``Sadly that tragedy, that genocide, was the first of the deplorable series of catastrophes of the past century, made possible by twisted racial, ideological or religious aims that darkened the minds of the tormentors even to the point of planning the annihilation of entire peoples,'' he said. 

Fr. Lombardi said this was not the first time that the pontiff has used the term “genocide” to define the Armenian massacre and noted this is “already a clear description of what genocide is.”  The Vatican spokesman recalled that at a Mass in April 2015 at St. Peter’s Basilica marking the Centenary of the Armenian Massacres, Pope Francis had had “very strong words” for the slaughter which the pontiff said was widely considered  “the first genocide of the 20th century.''

“Bishops and priests, religious women and men, the elderly and even defenceless children and the infirm were murdered,” the pope said.

Modern day Turkey objects to the term “genocide” to describe the deaths of so many Armenians under Ottoman rule, describing them instead as victims of a civil war.

 In alluding to the “terrible tragedies of the past century” alongside the Armenian massacre, Fr. Lombardi said Pope Francis was referring to “Nazism and the Soviet regime” and to the fact that “the great international powers had not [lived up to] their responsibility.”