As part of his official visit to Italy, accompanied by his spouse Anna Hakobyan, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited St. Nicholas Armenian Catholic church and Levonian College in Rome.

The Prime Minister and his spouse were welcomed by Archbishop Raphael Minassian, Primate of the Armenian Catholics of Armenia, Georgia, Russia and Eastern Europe, and Levonian College Director, Reverend Father Narek Namoyan. Nikol Pashinyan toured the church to get acquainted with its activities and met with students from Levonian College and members of the Order of the Armenian Catholic Sisters of the Immaculate Conception.

On behalf of the Armenian Catholic Church, Archbishop Raphael Minassian and Reverend Father Narek Namoyan expressed support for the efforts exerted by the Armenian Prime Minister to strengthen the Armenian statehood and provide wellbeing to the people of Armenia.

“We have been closely following your meetings in Diaspora communities and are delighted with your visits to Armenian identity preservation centers, such as the Mekhitarist Congregation on the island of San Lazzaro in Venice and the Armenian Catholic Church of St. Nicholas in Rome, which in addition to being centers of education and culture, are acting as academies for preservation of the Armenian spiritual identity and clerical education,” they said.

Thankful for their kind remarks, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated:
“Your Eminence,
Spiritual fathers,
Dear representatives of the Government of the Republic of Armenia,
Dear guests,

I was thinking about our visit to Italy, and the impression is that this visit to Italy aims to find out more about Italian-Armenian relations and future prospects. But in reality, almost all visits have a very important feature that is even more visible now.

The fact is that by visiting different countries, by organizing different meetings, we get to know these countries, we get to know ourselves, our history, our identity, and these official visits are also a good opportunity to know more about our country, our people, our history.

In general, when we talk about building our future, preserving and developing our identity, there is a very important formula for that: we, as people, we should get to know ourselves, our history and our cultural heritage better and not be afraid of anything in pursuit of our objectives.

An important step on the way to building the future is the process of recognizing and reconciling with our past. My foreign visits have a well-pronounced Armenian context: We began with a visit to the Mekhitarist Congregation, which is a valuable asset for the preservation and development of our identity. Today we are visiting the Levonian College.

We also had a meeting at the Armenian Apostolic church in Milan. And frankly, these visits reinforce our understanding of our potential, our infinite respect for our history, our heritage and our confidence in our future. An important port of call in Singapore is the Armenian Church. When we visit Russia, France, the European countries, the United States, a key objective is to get a better understanding of our identity

I want to say that we really appreciate the role played by the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Armenian Catholic Church and the Armenian Evangelical Church in preserving and developing our identity. I would also like to thank you for being so close to the Armenian identity, not only for the preservation, but also for the development of this identity. It turned out that our meeting in Milan was in the context of the parable of Ten Minas by Luke.

I think this parable is very topical for us today, because the question is not what account we will demand of ourselves, but to know what account we are going to give to our generations, because the inheritance that we have in the Republic of Armenia, in the world, must not only be preserved, but also developed. This legacy should strengthen our identity, our people, our state and our positions, build confidence in our voices and our responsibility, as well as our responsibility to our destiny, but also our responsibility to the world. , Christianity and humanity.

Do we have this responsibility at all and can we have the responsibility and talk about it? We can not get the answer to this question unless we know each other better. And as we know each other so well, we realize that a people with such a legacy cannot just be a passer-by in mankind’s history. Such nations have a role to play, and the most important task in accomplishing this mission is to know oneself, because it is impossible to achieve an objective without appreciating one’s own strength, without recognizing one’s own past, without appreciating one’s own heritage. The legacy we have is above all spiritual: material assets have no value unless they rest on a solid and unshakable spiritual foundation.

Our heritage is above all spiritual no matter we are talking about the Armenian Apostolic Church or the Armenian Catholic Church. I was pleased to see that the main tabernacles in the Armenian church of San Lazzaro were dedicated to Mesrop Mashtots, Sahak Partev and Gregory the Illuminator. We all are bound by spiritual affinities. I want to believe that this new era of our history comes to witness that we should get to know ourselves better, find out the reasons behind our failures, freely express our goals and not be afraid of anything in pursuit of our objectives.

I am happy to have this opportunity today, thank you for your warm welcome. I appreciate everything that brings us together.”

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The Church of St. Nicholas in Rome was built in 1606 by Latin Augustine Fathers. In 1883, during the reign of Leo XIII, the church and monastery handed over to Cardinal Andon Bedros Hassun as the center of the Armenian Catholic Church and a seminary for training Armenian Catholic priests. One of the altars of the church is dedicated to St. Gregory the Illuminator. The Church has been considered to be the center of the Armenian Catholic community ever since 1883.

There are nearly 1000 Armenians living in Rome. The Levonian seminary was founded in 1883 by decree of Pope Leo XIII for administering spiritual education to Armenian youths. This is where the name “Levonian” comes from. The seminary continues its activities to this day; 6 young men are currently studying there.