Author:
Publication: ZENIT.org
Date: September 26, 2001
Father Findikyan Is Dean of a New
York Seminary
Father Daniel Findikyan hopes the
world never forgets that Armenians were the victims of the first genocide
of the 20th century.
Father Findikyan, dean of New York's
Armenian Seminary, acknowledges that the genocide is, in fact, often overlooked.
But he hopes that will change, so that history doesn't repeat itself.
According to Father Findikyan, the
1915 genocide of Armenians by Turks is no longer regarded as a tragedy
in the collective memory, but as the "martyrdom of a people," the "people
of the Cross," he said.
Father Findikyan, 39, a professor
of liturgy, was born and educated in the United States. Although he cannot
speak his parents' language, he does not forget what the Armenian nation
has endured.
Speaking at a congress in Italy
on Armenia's religious history, shortly before the papal visit, Father
Findikyan explained the mystery of the fidelity of the Armenian Church
to the Gospel during 1,700 years of occupations, resistance, massacres
and forced migrations.
To be an Armenian is to "belong
to a history, a culture, a faith: the writings of the Armenian Fathers,
our liturgy, spirituality, theology, memory of persecutions," the priest
said.
"In our history, in our sufferings,
we see the love of God incarnated in our people," he added. "As a people,
we live the mystery of the Cross, of suffering, of resurrection, of a God
who does not abandon us."
The Armenian people did not even
see defeat in the holocaust. "We believe that, after death, there is resurrection,"
Father Findikyan emphasized. "The martyr is a victim, but not someone who
is conquered: He is a hero of the people and the Church.
"In our sufferings, we discover
that life is only in Christ, and that God never leaves us and suffers with
us. In this mystery, difficult to understand intellectually, but which
theological reflection studies increasingly, history is transfigured and
calls us to commemorate."
The faithful Armenian is not moved
to "call for vengeance" but to "pray, so that what happened will never
happen again, either to our own or other peoples," the priest concluded.
"When we forget, history repeats itself."
