Page 184 - THE ARMENIAN CHURCH_Neat

Ecumenical Engagement 185

With this change, bilateral relations be-
tween the Armenian and Catholic churches
entered a new phase. Representatives of the
two Catholicosates took part as observers at
the Vatican II Council. In the following
years, the Armenian catholicoi paid formal
visits to the Vatican and signed joint decla-
rations with the popes. The Vatican orga-
nized a number of important events, in
which the Armenian Church took part,
giving new impetus to their ecumenical
relations. The visits of Pope Jean-Paul II to
Armenia in 2001, on the occasion of 1700th
anniversary of the conversion of Armenia to
Christianity, and of Pope Francis in 2016,
and his declaration on the centenary of the
Armenian Genocide as the first genocide of
the 20th Century, spotlighted the impor-
tance of the long-standing relations between
the two churches.
Encouraged by the constructive atmos-
phere and the growing collaboration with
the Oriental Orthodox churches, the Catho-
lic Church initiated a formal theological dia-
logue in 2003, in which the two Catholi-
cosates of the Armenian Church participate.
There are a number of theological and
liturgical differences between the Armenian
Church and the Catholic Church. For exam-
ple, the Catholic Church recognizes 21 coun-
cils as ecumenical, the last being Vatican
II; the Armenian Church recognizes only