Religion: Pius' Patriarch (original) (raw)

TIME

March 25, 1946 12:00 AM GMT-5

A good chess player makes the smallest move count. Last week Pope Pius XII chose the seventh anniversary of his coronation to throw a well-timed spotlight on an important new red hat. The hat belongs to soft-voiced, fierce-bearded Gregory Peter XV Agagianian (pronounced ah-gah-jahn-yan), Patriarch-Catholicos of Cilicia of the Armenians, who stayed over in Rome at the Pope’s request to celebrate Solemn Pontifical Mass in the Sistine Chapel.

Not since St. Polycarp of Smyrna came to see Pope Anicetus in the 2nd Century had Rome seen such a Mass. But more significant than the frequent bell-tinkling and strange, high, polyphonic chanting of the Armenian Rite were the Holy Father’s words in a public speech next day: “In designating the eminent Patriarch of the Armenians to celebrate yesterday’s Pontifical, we have desired to stress the solicitude and love which the occupants of Peter’s chair have throughout the centuries shown Armenia and her people. . . . Be firm in your faith; do not allow yourselves to be shaken or seduced by the currents which end in superficial rationalism, earthly materialistic morals, atheism.”

Of the 3,000,000 Armenians in the Middle East, Cardinal Agagianian’s Catholic nock numbers a mere 100,000. But they are a strategic handful, for they are scattered like seeds of the Roman faith flung in the teeth of Soviet influence.

Last summer the spiritual head of the non-Roman-Catholic Armenians, Archbishop Kevork Cheorekjian, received a high decoration and a new automobile from Marshal Stalin. Now it was the Pope’s turn. Though he might not have so many pieces in this corner of the chessboard as his opponent, Pius was playing them well. Vatican gossip already mentioned 50-year-old Agagianian as a possible successor to the present Pope.

Jolly, mild-mannered Patriarch Agagianian was unruffled by his new limelight. Referring to his patriarchal title of “Beatitude” instead of “Eminence,” Agagianian said: “It’s better to be blessed than eminent.”

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