Encouraged by the meaning of the Jubilee Year of Hope, proclaimed by Pope Francis, H.E. Kevork Archbishop Noradounguian imparted a fatherly invocation to all the priests serving on the territory of the Ordinariate and all of the faithful, entrusted to his pastoral care, to organize religious events with the aim of promotion of the experience of the Christian virtue of Hope. Each of the parishes has elaborated its own plan of events, by which various prayerful and contemplative events are have been held in the parishes. In the Lenten days the parish priests have organized retreat days or opportunities for spiritual contemplation on the theme of Hope, after the devotion of the Way of the Cross (in Yerevan, Gyumri, communities of Ashotsk, Lanjik, Panik, Venyov in Russia and other places). Passages from the papal bull called “Spes non confundit” were read and discussed, with comments from the priests.

I would like to remind, that with that bull Pope Francis proclaimed the Jubilee Year of Hope. In that bull the Pope calls all the Catholic faithful throughout the world, to pay special attention to the contemplation on Hope this year and to organize religious events everywhere for the purpose of deepening of the understanding of Hope and for leaving it anew, especially in the places, where wars, poverty and violations of human rights have caused discouragement, indifference towards each other’s needs, absence of dreams amongst young people, decline of positivity and confidence towards present and future. The Pope calls everyone to re-establish themselves in Hope, because, as St. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans: “Hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us”, Rom. 5:5.

Fr. Hovsep Galstyan

Secretariat of the Ordinariate of Armenian Catholics

9^th of April, 2025.