Alwaght-Pope Francis on Sunday referred
to mass killings of Armenians a century ago under the Ottoman Empire by using
the word "genocide". Pope
called it “the first genocide of the 20th century.” His comments have angered
Turkey, which has recalled its Vatican envoy.
"In the past century, our
human family has lived through three massive and unprecedented tragedies,"
the Pope said at a Mass at St. Peter's Basilica to commemorate the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian massacres.
The Pope said it was his duty to
honor the memory of the innocent men, women, children, priests and bishops who
were "senselessly slaughtered" by Ottoman Turks in 1915.
"It is necessary, and indeed a duty, to honor their memory,
for whenever memory fades, it means that evil allows wounds to fester.
Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without
bandaging it," he said at the start of a Sunday Mass in St. Peter's
Basilica honoring the centenary.
Turkey summoned its ambassador to
the Vatican for "consultations" just hours after Francis' comments.
Estimate made by historians that up to 1.5 million Armenians
were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely
viewed by scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century.
Turkey, however, refuses to call it genocide and has insisted
that the toll has been inflated; Turkey's embassy to the Holy See cancelled a
planned news conference later today.
