This paper examines the recent history and current situation of the Armenian Catholic Church from the vantage point of its in-betweenness. The Armenian Catholics' liminal position in-between the particularity and exclusiveness of the Armenian Christianity and the inclusiveness and expansionism of the Roman Catholicism have created diverse, often contradictory, politics of identity construction and representation; of cultural absorption and resistance; and of belonging and alienation. The paper takes a closer look at these politics at work in formulating, negotiating, and challenging a distinct character of this strand of Christianity in post-Soviet Armenia and Georgia, where a large portion of Armenian Catholics live and where the Armenian Catholic Church came back to existence after it was banned for over six decades in the Soviet Union.
Keywords: Armenian Catholic Church, religious identity, national identity, in-betweenness, Armenia, Georgia.
This article is based on the results of the research project "Armenian Catholics in Armenia and Georgia: History, Memory and Identity", funded by the National Research Center of the Republic of Poland (grant N. 2012/07 / hs3 c / 00864) and implemented in 2013-2015. This research was further developed during my internship at the Center for Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies at the University of Texas, with financial support from the Kosciuszkowska Foundation.
Sekerski K. "Intermediate Church": Armenian Catholics in Armenia and Georgia in the post-Soviet period // State, religion, and Church in Russia and abroad. 2016. N2. pp. 310-330.
Siekierski, Konrad (2016) 'The Church In-Between: Armenian Catholics in Post-Soviet Armenia and Georgia", Gosudarstvo. religiia, tserkou' v Rossii i za rubezhom 34(2): 310-330.
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In THIS paper, I examine the recent history and present situation of the Armenian Catholic Church in post-Soviet Armenia and Georgia from the point of view of the concept of "in-betweenness". In this approach, I follow Homi Bhabha; the latter focuses on "those moments or processes that arise in the articulation of cultural differences [and] create a space for the development of strategies of the self, individual or collective-strategies that initiate new signs of identity, new platforms for cooperation and debate."1. Such "intermediate spaces," as Bhabha refers to them, have recently been the focus of much research. Their themes range from Copts in 13th-century Egypt, 2 to Native American leaders in colonial Mexico, 3 to contemporary Muslim and Christian minorities in Western Europe and the Middle East, 4 and finally to Greek Catholics in post-Socialist countries.5 Last job - Churches In-between: Greek Catholic Churches in Postsocialist Europe - contains groundbreaking ethnographic research on Greek Catholicism, which has many similarities with Armenian Catholicism not only in terms of its immanent, essential intermediateness, but also in terms of its difficult fate under the communist regime, as well as its controversial revival in the post-Soviet era. In this article, I share most of my research interests with the authors of the above collection. These include, first of all, an interest in the restoration of Eastern Catholic church structures in countries dominated by local national churches; an interest in the interdependence and interaction of religious and national identities; and an interest in the (re)construction of religious "memory chains"6 and the restoration of symbolic community boundaries 7.
1. Bhabha, H. (1994) The Location of Culture, p. 2. London, New York: Routledge.
2. Werthmuller, K. (2010) Coptic Identity and Ayyubid Politics in Egypt, 1218-1250. Cairo, New York: The American University in Cairo Press.
3. Yannakakis, Y. (2008) The Art of Being In-between: Native Intermediaries, Indian Identity, and Local Rule in Colonial Oaxaca. Durham: Duke University Press.
4. Timmerman, Ch., Leman, J., Roos, H., Segaert, B. (eds) (2009) In-Between Spaces: Christian and Muslim Minorities in Transition in Europe and the Middle East. Bruxelles, Bern, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang.
5. Mahieu, S., Naumescu, V. (eds) (2009) Churches In-between: Greek Catholic Churches in Postsocialist Europe, Berlin: LIT Verlag.
6. Hervieu-Leger, D. (2000) Religion as a Chain of Memory. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
7. Cohen, A.P. (2007) The Symbolic Construction of Community, pp. 12-15. London, New York: Routledge.
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However, before starting to discuss these problems in modern Armenia and Georgia, where there is a large and poorly studied community of Armenian Catholics, I will outline a few general points regarding the cultural environment in which Armenian Catholicism originated and existed, as well as the characteristic features of the history of this trend in Christianity.
From the history of Armenian Catholicism
In his original study of Armenian identity, Lev Abrahamyan notes:: "It seems that Armenians have always existed on a certain border between East and West. Such an existence on the edge is a historical constant: so much so that one is tempted to call it "the fate of the Armenians".8. Levon Zekiyan presents the situation in the same spirit, according to which "a common theme that runs through Armenian history from its beginning to the present... It could be described as Armenia being "between East and West ""9. If Armenians are an" intermediate people " par excellence, then Armenian Catholics represent an extreme case, since they occupy a special position not only between East and West, but also between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Christianity, 10 as well as between religious Christianity. and national. The latter is of paramount importance in connection with the long-standing idea that Armenians belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church, an idea actively promoted by this church, but refuted by the very existence of a separate Armenian Catholic community and a corresponding church organization.
The volume of this article does not allow us to present the entire complex history of Armenian Catholicism, which was formed at the intersection of different cultures and conflicting political interests of Catholic popes and missionaries, Persian shahs, Turkish sultans, Russian tsars, and Communist commissars,
8. Abrahamian, L. (2006) Armenian Identity in a Changing World, p. 345. Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers.
9. Zekiyan, L.B. (2005) "Christianity to Modernity", in E. Herzig, M. Kurchikyan (eds) The Armenians. Past and Present in the Making of National Identity, p. 47. London, New York: Routledge Curzon.
10. The Armenian Apostolic Church is one of the ancient Eastern churches that did not accept the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon in 451.
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Armenian Catholicoses and many other actors of the European and Middle Eastern scene 11. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that when intensive contacts between the Armenian and Roman Catholic Churches began in the 12th century, during the existence of the Armenian principality (since 1198 - kingdom) of Cilicia, both church institutions considered themselves to be in a mutual communion of faith (communiofidei)12. It was not until the middle of the thirteenth century that the Armenian Church gradually came to be regarded as schismatic by the Catholic Church, and from that time on, Catholics began to make efforts to conclude local ecclesiastical unions.-
11. Separate parts of this history are presented in the following works: Ambartsumov I. The Armenian-Catholic question in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the XX century. 2012. N4; Atamian, A.P. (1984) The Archdiocese of Naxjevan in the Seventeenth Century. Columbia University (unpublished PhD dissertation); Chmielecki, T.T. (1998) Gruzinski katolicyzm w XIX i na poczatku XX wieku w swietle archiwow watykanskich [Georgian Catholicism in XIX and early XX century in the light of Vatican's archives]. Torun: Wydawnictwo UMK; Flannery, J.M. (2013) The Mission of the Portuguese Augustinians to Persia and Beyond (1602-1747). Leiden, Boston: Brill; Frazee, Ch.A. (1983) Catholics and Sultans. The Church and the Ottoman Empire 1453-1923. London, New York: Cambridge University Press; Janik, M. (2014) Swiat lacinski i Krolestwo Armenii cylicyjskiej w latach 1199-1375- Zarys problemu [Latin world and Kingdom of Cilician Armenia in the years 1199-1375. Outline of the problem]. Krakow: Ksiegarnia Akademicka; Stopka, K. (2002) Armenia Christiana. Unionistyczna polityka Konstantynopola i Rzymu a tozsamosc chrzescijanstwa ormianskiego (IV-XV w.) [Armenia Christiana. Unionist politics of Constantinople and Rome and the identity of the Armenian Christianity (IV-XV)]. Krakow: Wydawnictwo PAU; Stopka, K., Osiecki, J., Siekierski, K., (2016) Ormianie katolicy w Armenii i Gruzji. Historia, pamiec, tozsamosc [Armenian Catholics in Armenia and Georgia: History, Memory, and Identity]. Krakow: Ksiegarnia Akademicka (forthcoming); Whooley, J. (2004) "The Armenian Catholic Church: A Study in History and Ecclesiology", The Heythrop Journal XLV.
12. Stopka, K. Armenia Christiana. Unionistyczna polityka Konstantynopola i Rzymu a tozsamosc chrzescijanstwa ormianskiego (IV-XV w.) pp. 124-136.
13. At that time, a part of the Armenian church hierarchy and the Latinized Armenian secular elites of Cilicia adopted and implemented liturgical reforms as required by Rome. This act can be considered as the creation of an Armenian Catholic rite. Later, some local agreements were concluded, including in the 17th century in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and in Transylvania. The last attempt to sign a generally recognized pact took place during the Council of Florence in 1439, but it had an impact on Armenian Catholics only in the Genoese-controlled Cafes (Crimea) and Pera (part of Constantinople) (Stopka, K. Armenia Christiana. Unionistyczna polityka Konstantynopola i Rzymu a tozsamosc chrzescijanstwa ormianskiego (IV-XV w.) pp. 281-285).
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of Catholic missions to the Armenians, 14 and ultimately to the establishment of the Armenian Catholic Church15.
The position of the Armenian Apostolic Church in relation to Catholicism for centuries has been internally heterogeneous and subject to change. On the one hand, as Zekian shows," the 'Messianic' hope of salvation on the part of [ ... ] 'Christian Europe' "16 has deeply penetrated the imagination of Armenians during the long centuries when they were under the Muslim yoke, and the Papacy was the main recipient of this hope. Some hierarchs of the Armenian Apostolic Church were ready to accept the Chalcedonian symbol and recognize the superiority of Rome not only in terms of religious beliefs, but also in the expectation of European protection. Looking for military support from the Crusaders, the Armenians were ready to literally move mountains when they defended-quite successfully, but without arousing interest from the European armies - the idea that the biblical Mount Ararat is located in the heart of their lands.17
14. A number of Catholic orders are active in Armenian Cilicia. In turn, the first Catholic missionaries - Dominicans and Franciscans-arrived in Armenia in the early 14th century. Among the long-term results of their work was the creation of the Archdiocese of Nakhichevan, established by the Dominican Order of Fratres Unitores (see below); the Diocese of St. Thaddeus, under the patronage of the Franciscan Order; and the Armenian Catholic Principality of Artaz (Maku). Later, the missions of the Jesuits, Capuchins, and other orders in the Ottoman Empire were successful enough to make Armenians the core of the empire's Catholic population.
15. Since the middle of the 17th century, the most important structure in the Armenian Catholic Church is the Patriarchate of Bzommar (Lebanon), headed by the Patriarch-Catholicos. In addition to the Patriarchate, the Armenian Catholic Church currently includes the following territorial and administrative divisions: the dioceses of Beirut (Lebanon), Baghdad (Iraq), Isfahan (Iran), Alexandria (Egypt), Aleppo (Syria), Al-Kashmili (Syria), Istanbul (Turkey), and Sainte Croix de Paris (France), Our Lady of Nareg (USA and Canada) and Saint Gregory of Narek in Buenos Aires (Argentina); exarchates of Damascus (Syria), Amman and Jerusalem (Israel), and Latin America and Mexico, as well as ordinariates of Greece, Romania and Eastern Europe ("The Armenian Catholic Church (Patriarchate)" (2013), The Eastern Catholic Churches 2013 [http://www.cnewa.org/source-images/Roberson-eastcath-statistics/eastcatholic-stat13.pd f, accessed on 1.03.2016]).
16. Zekiyan, L.B. (1997) The Armenian Way to Modernity. Armenian Identity between Tradition and Innovation, Specificity and Universality, pp. 88-89. Venice: Supernova; Zekiyan, L.B. "Christianity to Modernity", p. 62.
17. For more information on the variable localization of Mount Ararat and its significance in Armenian culture, see: Petrosyan, A. (2006) "Two Ararats: Mount Kordueni and Masis", in R. Buttner, J. Peltz (eds) Mythical Landscapes Then and Now: The Mystification of Landscapes in Search for National Identity. Yerevan: Antares; Petrosyan, H. (2001)
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In addition, the high standards of Catholic education and organization of monastic life often attracted Armenian clergy. This was the case, for example, in the fourteenth century, when the Armenian Catholic monastery of Kern was founded, 18 which became famous both for its efforts to reform Armenian Christianity and for its impressive work in translating Catholic authors into Armenian.19 This later led to the creation of the Mkhitarist Congregation in Venice in the early 18th century, which played an exceptional role in the preservation and development of Armenian culture.
On the other hand, defenders of the national trend in Christianity often treated Armenian converts to Catholicism with extreme hostility. For example, the same brotherhood in Kern, initially revered for its high theological and educational standards, was later directly attacked by some of the Armenian clergy. Armenian Catholics were persecuted in the Ottoman Empire, where until 1831 they were subordinated to the Armenian millet, headed by the Armenian Apostolic Patriarch of Constantinople. Armenian Catholics did not fit into the social categories created by the administration of the empire, and this "intermediateness" directly affected their fate. For example, the events of 1707, when nine clergymen suspected of belonging to Catholicism were brought before the Armenian Millet court on charges of violating the national peace and treasonous actions against the Sultan, are very significant... A representative of the group of those arrested claimed that they had indeed become
"The Sacred Mountain", in L. Abrahamian, N. Sweezy (eds) Armenian Folk Arts, Culture, and Identity. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
18. Today - on the territory of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (part of the Republic of Azerbaijan). Members of this congregation, an offshoot of the Dominican Order, adopted the name Fratres Unitores ("Uniate Brothers") and they established a number of monasteries in the diocese of Nakhichevan, which was under their administration until the XVIII century.
19. Even the head of the Armenian Church initially supported the idea of creating a federation of Armenian monasteries in Greater Armenia to spread the union under the Dominican leadership. He wrote: "We have received news that some people have died... come to join the sinless, chaste, pure... Mothers of all learning, whose doctrine is pure and bright, to the Ocean of Rome "(Stopka, K., Osiecki, J., Siekierski, K. Ormianie katolicy w Armenii i Gruzji. Historia, pamiec, tozsamosc).
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Catholics, but not Franks 20. Catholicism means religion, not nationality. His logic did not convince the court 21.
Today, the situation of Armenian Catholics is also ambiguous, although it causes less emotion, and the methods of resolving emerging conflicts are devoid of the same cruelty. Further, we will look at this situation using the example of the problems associated with the restoration of the Armenian Catholic Church in post-Soviet Armenia and Georgia, after it was destroyed by the Communists and did not exist for more than six decades.22
Armenian Catholics in post-Soviet Armenia and Georgia
According to some authors, ecumenism, which has been promoted by the Roman Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council, has put the Eastern Catholic churches, including the Armenian Catholic Church, in a difficult position.23 If earlier Rome saw them as an outpost of the "true faith" among heretics, now they have tried to see them as a kind of bridge between Roman Catholicism and the Orthodox (including Oriental) churches from which they once came. But to think so would be wishful thinking, for many Orthodox Churches see Eastern Catholics as apostates. As a result, the Eastern Catholic churches have proved to be an obstacle to reconciliation, a kind of historical burden for which Rome may one day have to pay.
20. "Frank" is a term used in the Ottoman Empire to refer to Europeans (as in the case described in this quote), but over time, however, it became both an exonym and an endonym for Armenian Catholics. In this sense, it is still used today in Armenia and Georgia.
21. Frazee, Ch. A. Catholics and Sultans. The Church and the Ottoman Empire 1453-1923, p. 181.
22. The Armenian Catholic Church was persecuted in the USSR in the 1920s and 1930s and was finally liquidated in 1937-1938. Most of the priests were killed, and some fled the country (one of them was Grigor Aghajanyan, the future Patriarch of the Armenian Catholic Church and a cardinal). Armenian Catholic churches were either destroyed or turned into clubs, cinemas or warehouses. Only a few communities in Georgia managed to defend their churches, where, despite the anti-religious policy of the state and the lack of clergy, people still gathered for prayer.
23. Hann, Ch. (2009) "Preface", in S. Mahieu, V. Naumescu (eds) Churches In-between: Greek Catholic Churches in Postsocialist Europe, p. xi. Berlin: LIT Verlag; Whooley, J. "The Armenian Catholic Church: A Study in History and Ecclesiology", pp. 423-424, 427.
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to apologize, as I had to apologize for the Inquisition or the Fourth Crusade. Armenian Catholics themselves also feel the complexity of their situation. As my interlocutor, a cleric from north-western Armenia, said:
We suffer the most from Rome, because Rome is now in love with the Eastern churches and only thinks about how to put up with them, although they do not think about it at all. If we ask for a temple here, no one will give it to us. If they ask in Rome-please! At our expense, Rome does everything to live well with them.
Despite this shift in the Vatican's global policy, Armenian Catholics were not completely left without support when their spiritual care became possible again in the late Soviet and post-Soviet times. Already in the late 1980s, the first Catholic priests were sent to the Samtskhe-Javakheti region, where most of the Armenian Catholics of Georgia live. 24 In 1991, the Ordinariate of Eastern Europe was approved, with its main representative office located in Gyumri, in northwestern Armenia.
The ordinariate's jurisdiction extends to most of the former USSR, where, according to Catholic Church statistics from 2013, about 75% of the world's existing Armenian Catholics live, or 420,000 people (by the way, according to the same source, the ordinariate noted an incredible increase in the number of believers-eight years ago it had 220,000 members)25. Church statistics do not indicate the number of members of the Armenian Catholic Church residing in Armenia or Georgia. Nevertheless, it can be assumed that, despite the mass emigration, it is the representatives of these two countries who make up the majority of Catholic Armenians under the jurisdiction of the ordinary. In Russia, where the majority of emigrants arrive, the number of Armenian Catholics is estimated at 60,000-100,000 people.-
24. It should be noted that these were non-Armenian priests of the Latin rite: Fr.Josef Kornaszewski (a Pole from Latvia), Fr. Andrey Janicki (a Pole from Ukraine) and Fr. Anatoly Ivanyuk (a Ukrainian). The latter two, having learned the Armenian language and the Armenian-Catholic rite, still serve in Samtskhe-Javakheti, in the villages of Turskh and Tskaltbila.
25. "The Armenian Catholic Church (Patriarchate)".
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lovek 26. These data clearly contradict the results of the population censuses in Armenia and Georgia. The last census in Armenia, conducted in 2011, counted only 13,247 Catholic Armenians. In Georgia, the 2002 Census does not provide separate statistics for members of the Armenian Catholic Church, classifying them as "Catholics", which includes Armenian, Latin and Chalcedonian rites. Census data showed that 34,727 people consider themselves adherents of the Catholic faith. Even if the majority were members of the Armenian Catholic Church, the total number of Armenian Catholics in Armenia and Georgia, according to state data, is several times smaller than the Vatican figures. On the one hand, this discrepancy can easily be interpreted as an attempt by the Armenian Catholic Church to emphasize the need for its presence in this territory by manipulating numbers. On the other hand, both countries are characterized by a pronounced tendency - supported by their dominant churches - towards social homogeneity, which, in turn, may lead to caution in people's statements about their belonging to a religious minority.
The creation of the ordinariate was not without conflicts caused by the letter of the Armenian Catholic Patriarch Hovhannes Bedros XVIII of 1991, in which we read::
In Armenia... our roots go back centuries, reaching the Holy Faith of St. Gregory the Illuminator... The Armenian Church was formed as an integral part of the universal Church of Christ... But the Chalcedonian troubles divided the Armenian Church... As doctrinal persecution intensified, Armenian Catholics dispersed and remained a minority for several centuries, but they always maintained their presence in their native land. The historical provinces of Gugark and Dashirk are two of the permanent places of their presence... Today in Dashirka and Gugark are Armenian Catholics who inherited the Chalcedonian teaching of ancient times, who resisted the worst and most ferocious persecutor - the monster of communism - and remained faithful to the universal Church.
26. Fateev M. Russian Armenian Catholics: who are they? // gaudete.ru. 2015 [http://gaudete.ru/armenian-catholics/, accessed from 1.03.2016]; Simavoryan A. The Armenian Catholic Community of Russia / / Noravank Foundation. 2010 [http://www.noravank.am/rus/articles/detail.php?ELEMENT_ID=5265, доступ от 1.03.2016].
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the religions of their ancestors sincerely appeal to us to return to our homeland and take on the spiritual service of our people.27
In this letter, the Patriarch presented the Armenian-Catholic "chain of memory", consisting not only of such historical events as the agreements signed between Rome and the Armenian Church during the existence of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, or the establishment of the Armenian Catholic Patriarchate and the Armenian Catholic Millet in the XVIII and XIX centuries, respectively. The head of the Armenian Catholic Church went much further, claiming that in fact it is the Armenian Catholics who are the legitimate successors of St. Gregory the Illuminator and other progenitors of Armenian Christianity.29
By presenting a historical interpretation of this kind, the Catholicos-Patriarch invaded the field of ethno-religious history, carefully preserved by the Armenian Apostolic Church, and questioned its basic legitimacy. This fact, along with the demand for direct subordination of Catholic Armenians in Armenia and Georgia to the Bzommar Patriarchate, formulated in the same epistle, provoked a strong reaction from the Armenian Apostolic Church. Catholicos Vazgen I, who had previously personally invited the Mkhitarists to Armenia, sent a telegram to the Vatican: "In view of the unexpected content of the encyclical, everything is clear.-
27. Hovhannes Bedros XVIII (1993) "Circular Letter", in The Mother Church and Roman Catholic Missionary Activity in a Reborn Armenia. Documents Pertaining to the Armenian Uniate Patriarchate's Design to Proselyte in Armenia, pp. 21-22, New York.
28. Hervieu-Leger, D. (2000) Religion as a Chain of Memory.
29. This position was previously voiced by Bishop Garabed Amadouni, who stated that " The Armenian Catholic Church today, as the successor of the Church established by Saint Gregory the Illuminator and protected by Saint Sahak [i] Mesrob, cannot be attributed to a number of Catholic churches that emerged in the XVI-XVII centuries in the East and were called Orthodox churches. "Uniate"" (Amadouni, G. (1978) L'Eglise Armenienne et la Catholicite. Venise: TLA; cit. по: "Abraham Ardzivian and the Historical Background of the Armenian Catholic Church", Armenian Catholic Church [http://www.armeniancatholic.org/inside.php?lang=en&page_id=23, accessed on 1.03.2016]).
30. The Mkhitarist Order is considered the most nationalistic wing of the Armenian Catholic Church and the closest to the Armenian Apostolic Church. In 1990, Vazgen I wrote a letter addressed to the head of the Order in Venice: "It is our sincere wish that the Armenian Catholic community of Armenia will forever become a legitimate part of the Brotherhood of St. Lazarus, and that priests will be chosen from among the Brotherhood" ("An Unfortunate' Circular Letter '" (1993), in The Mother Church and Roman Catholic Missionary Activity in a Reborn Armenia. Documents Pertaining to the Armenian Uniate Patriarchate's Design to Proselyte in Armenia, p. 36.
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ленского патриарха мы теперь приходим к пониманию того, что присутствие Армянской католической церкви в Армении недопустимо и будет оспорено"31.
Несмотря на то что присутствие Армянской католической церкви в Армении не прекратилось, притязания Армянского католического патриархата тоже не были удовлетворены32, и отношения между обеими церквами оставляют желать лучшего33. По словам одного из священнослужителей ординариата,
The Armenian Catholic Church is not considered a partner in negotiations with the Apostolic Church... When the archbishop [head of the Ordinariate] speaks with the Catholicos... The Catholicos states: "It is our policy to discuss these issues directly with the Vatican.".. This prevents us from engaging in any kind of dialogue with them, even though we share common roots and traditions.34
The refusal of the Armenian Apostolic Church to recognize the Armenian Catholic Church is complemented in Armenia by the latter's efforts to extend its influence to Catholic Armenians. Such a policy, which is carried out under the slogan "One nation, one faith, one church"35, is most clearly manifested in the following areas:-
31. Vasken I (1993) "Telegram to the Vatican from His Holiness Vasken I", in The Mother Church and Roman Catholic Missionary Activity in a Reborn Armenia. Documents Pertaining to the Armenian Uniate Patriarchate's Design to Proselyte in Armenia, p. 33.
32. The Ordinariate reports directly to the Vatican, so the Armenian Catholic Patriarchate has no real authority over it. It is also significant that the Vatican decided to create this new structure in the form of an ordinariate instead of a diocese, the establishment of which could cause tension in relations with the Armenian Apostolic Church. At the same time, the head of the Ordinariate of Eastern Europe becomes titular bishop of one of the Armenian-Catholic dioceses in the former Ottoman Empire, which ceased to exist after the Armenian Genocide in 1915. The first head of the ordinariate, Nerses Ter-Nersesian, was appointed Bishop of Sebastia in 1992; his successor, Nshan Karakehyan, was appointed Archbishop of Adana, and the current Bishop, Raphael Minasyan, was appointed Archbishop of Caesarea Cappadocia.
33. The state of these relations reflects well the fact that "in 2004... heads of Eastern Orthodox churches in the Middle East... issued a communique seeking the Armenian Catholic Patriarch's renunciation of the title of" Catholicos " (Nichols, A. (2010) Rome and the Eastern Churches, p. 123. San Francisco: Ignatius Press).
34. Kard. Bertone (2008) "Kard. Bertone w Armenii: nadzieje katolikow - wywiad z ks. Petrosem Yesayanem" [Card. Bertone in Armenia: Catholics hopes - Interview with Fr. Petros Yesayan], Misja Kamilianska w Gruzji [http://www.kamilianie-gruzja.com/?id=armenia2008, accessed on 1.03.2016].
35. I discuss this topic in more detail in: Siekierski, K. (2014) 'One Nation, One Faith, One Church': The Armenian Apostolic Church and the Ethno-Religion in Post-Soviet
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It is located near the city of Tashir (Lori region), where churches of the Apostolic Church were built in several villages (Lernakhovit, Metsavan, Sarchapet), traditionally considered Catholic, in recent years. An example of such efforts can also be found in the words of the head of the Shirak Diocese, 36 who said in a conversation with me that in Soviet times, when Armenian Catholic structures were banned, the Apostolic Church extended a helping hand to Catholics. According to the bishop, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, newly arrived Armenian Catholic priests began to " win people over to their side." This, in his opinion, is inappropriate and groundless, since:
These are only nominal Catholics; these people have a Catholic background, but nothing of the Catholic faith remains in them, except for their confessional affiliation. They have their own churches, their own priests, but they prefer to baptize their children and marry here. They invite our priests to their funerals... Let me give you an example of such a Catholic: his father was baptized and married in our church, he himself was baptized and married in our church, his son was also baptized and married here, and then we baptize his grandson - and he continues to claim to be a Catholic!.. It is like an ethnic, hereditary identity. There is nothing left to support her, nothing left of her but the words, " I am a Catholic."
The same bishop, during an official visit to the Catholic village of Metz Sepasar, said in his sermon that he did not come as a guest and feels as responsible for the Catholic Armenians as for his flock. He further emphasized the absence of significant dogmatic differences between the members of both churches, as well as the similarity of their customs and traditions. As an Armenian Catholic priest commented on the position of the representative of the Apostolic Church: "We have two churches here: the Catholic Church and the' What's the difference? ' church."
It should be added to this remark that especially in Armenia, there are many people who are supported by the Armenian Catholic Church.-
Armenia", in A. Agadjanian (ed.) Armenian Christianity Today: Identity Politics, Popular Practices and Social Functions, Farnham: Ashgate.
36. This diocese includes Gyumri, where the ordinariate center is located, as well as more than a dozen Armenian-Catholic settlements.
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They tend to relate to their parishioners, but in reality they tend to lean towards the "What's the difference?" church. Their knowledge of inter-confessional differences is very limited, due to the aforementioned activities of the Apostolic Church and the consequences of the anti-religious policies of the communist period. So, when the minister of the Catholic village of Arpeni announced after mass that the Patriarch-Catholicos - head of the Armenian Catholic Church will visit Gyumri, one of the women present asked: "Our man from Etchmiadzin?"37, thus demonstrating his inability to distinguish between the heads of both churches. Another priest told me the following story:
One day, three "elders" of our village came to me and asked me to explain the difference between our Church and the Apostolic Church. I began to explain to them about the Pope, church councils, and dogmas. They listened to me and then said, " Okay, but what's the difference?". I started again; they listened, nodded, and asked the same question... Another time I tried to talk about it in church, but I saw that people didn't understand anything. If you ask them what the difference is, they will not be able to give an answer, at best they will name the rosary...
Indeed, the theme of the rosary (vardaran) as a distinctive feature of Armenian Catholics, it has often come up in my conversations. Many interviewees also spoke about the ban on interfaith marriages, which was strictly adhered to until about the middle of the 20th century. (today, mixed marriages are performed and no longer viewed in a negative light.) But the most common explanation of the differences between members of both churches, which can be heard in Armenia, is the following: "People say that 38 francs won't believe anything until they see it. When Christ was resurrected, they didn't believe it until they saw the empty grave. The Apostolic Armenians believed immediately. That's what our fathers told us." Although it remains unclear why this particular story is so deeply etched in the memory of the Armenian kato.-
37. Etchmiadzin is the spiritual and administrative center of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
38. See footnote 20.
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39. This short story undoubtedly characterizes the current state of knowledge about inter-confessional differences. Without reference to historical or dogmatic facts, this story asserts a mythological order, where" at the beginning of time " (the death and resurrection of Christ) archetypal heroes determine by their actions the future collective character of the communities of their descendants.
Today, Armenian Catholics still hear statements like "Yes Frank em" ("I am frank") or"Yes makur Frank em"("I am pure frank"). However, such speeches have incomparably less weight than they did seventy or a hundred years ago, and Catholics ' belonging to the Armenian people is recognized equally by themselves and non-Catholics. The need for such statements is particularly evident in the context of assimilation of Armenians living outside Armenia, including Georgia. The report of an employee of the Armenian research center "Noravank", who himself was born into a Catholic family, but then moved to the Apostolic Church, is significant:
Why do we want to see this community [of Armenian Catholics] consolidated and united today? Undoubtedly, they too must play a decisive role in the organization of the Armenian people, and their isolation from the common national ideas of the Armenians can have sad consequences. Unfortunately, there are examples in Armenian history when the Catholic Armenians of Poland, Romania and Hungary were assimilated by the local population. In order to prevent what happened to the first Armenians who converted to Catholicism, we must first stop considering the members of the Apostolic Church as Armenians [meaning exclusively them] and realize that over the course of many centuries, regardless of our will, Armenian Protestant and Catholic communities have emerged.40
39. According to a similar story about the Apostolic Armenians, which is much less popular today, one of the nails of the Cross of Christ was stolen by a Gypsy, the other by an Armenian (i.e., a member of the Armenian Apostolic Church) (Petrosyan Ararat (n.d.) Franks: a historical and ethnographic study, [http://forum.hayastan.com / index. php?showtopic=7855, accessed on 1.03.2016]).
40. Simavoryan, A. (2009) "Problems of Armenian Catholic Communities in Akhalkalak and Ninotsminda", Noravank Foundation, [http://www.noravank.am/eng/articles/ security/detail.php?ELEMENT_ID=3698, accessed on 1.03.2016].
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Whether the Armenian Apostolic Church agrees with this opinion or not, in Georgia it is not able to pursue the same policy towards Armenian Catholics as in Armenia.
As the rector of the Armenian Catholic parish in the village of Turtskh (Akhalkalaki district, Samtskhe-Javakheti)aptly noted: "The Apostolic Church does not interfere in our affairs. Everyone knows his flock and deals with it. " 41 In Georgia, the position of the Armenian Catholic Church is determined primarily by its relations with Roman Catholicism.
For example, in the vicinity of Akhaltsikhe (Samtskhe-Javakheti region), local Armenian Catholics usually consider their Roman Catholic Georgian neighbors to be descendants of Roman Catholic Armenians who adopted the Latin rite and lost their Armenian ethnic identity. 42 The issue, which in these areas is rather a subject of historical reflection, is acute in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, where the religious affiliation of local Catholics is very important. this is an unsolved problem. For many years the Latin Church of Sts. St. Peter and Paul was the only functioning Catholic church in Tbilisi (and indeed in all of Soviet Georgia). Therefore, the church was visited and is still visited by numerous Armenian Catholics. Although the Armenian Catholic rite services have been held in the church for several years, they are held at a less convenient time and are not as popular as the Latin Rite Masses.43 Low attendance is also observed at services held in the chapel in the building of the Armenian Catholic parish. Meanwhile, Catholic canon law recommends that the faithful receive the sacraments from clergy belonging to their national rites. During our conversation, the Armenian priest of the city complained that the Polish clergy were not allowed to go to church. -
41. Polodian, A. (n.d.) "Samtskhe-Djavakhki katolik davanankin patkanogh hajery" [Samtskhe-Javakheti Armenians belong to the Catholic faith], Religions in Armenia [www.religions.am/arm/religions/ on 1.03.2016].
42. Georgian localities near Akhaltsikhe, which, according to Armenian sources, have an Armenian-Catholic past, include Arali, Ivlita, Ude and Vale. Similar cases are also described around Kutaisi, Gori and Telavi (Polodjan A. (n. d.)"Samtskhe-Djavakhki katolik davanankin patkanogh hajery"). On the other hand, there is an opinion that the Armenian-Catholic rite served as a tool for the Armenization of Georgian Catholics (Chmielecki, T. T. Gruzinski katolicyzm w XIX i na poczqtku XX wieku w swietle archiwow watykanskich, pp. 259-332).
43. Another church in Tbilisi that attracts many Armenians is the Roman Catholic Assumption Cathedral, where no Mass is held according to the Armenian Catholic rite.
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residents of the church of sts. Peter and Paul do not pay attention to these recommendations and do not believe that they should "return" Armenian Catholics to the bosom of their church. The complex relationship between the clergy of both rites is compounded by the actions of the Neocatechuminata movement community in the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul. The Armenian-majority community is viewed negatively by the Armenian-Catholic clergy, who accuse its leadership of weakening the national identity of the Armenians.44 The situation in Tbilisi resembles the" antagonistic tolerance " observed by Robert Hayden between confessional communities in common holy places.45 In our case, however, two parallel hierarchies (Armenian and Roman) of the same Catholic Church were unable to divide not only the place of prayer, but also the flock.
The last issue I would like to address here concerns the internal heterogeneity of the Armenian-Catholic clergy in Armenia and Georgia and their relations with the followers of the Church. Among the priests there are both local Armenians and Armenians from the Diaspora, as well as representatives of other nationalities; married priests and representatives of several monastic orders: Mkhitarists, Salesians, members of the congregation of the Patriarchate of Bzommar 46. One of the consequences of this diversity is the constant clash of opposing views regarding the nature and priorities of the Armenian Catholic Church. As in the past, the main issue remains the relationship between Armenian exclusivity and the universality of the Catholic Church. The urgency of this problem is clearly illustrated by a conversation between two priests that I witnessed at the ordinariate's residence in Gyumri. When one of the sobe-
44.These accusations appear to have some basis in fact. When I asked the representatives of the newly converted youth standing near the entrance to the Church of St. John the Baptist. When asked by Peter and Paul whether they were Armenians, they said that their national identity did not matter to them.
45. Hayden, R.M. (2002) "Antagonistic Tolerance: Competitive Sharing of Religious Sites in South Asia and the Balkans", Current Anthropology 43.
46. In 2014, in addition to the head of the ordinary, six Armenian Catholic priests served in Armenia and Georgia (four celibate and two married) and five priests in Georgia (three celibate and two married). In both countries, there are monasteries belonging to the Congregation of the Armenian Catholic Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (in Gyumri and Tashir in Armenia, as well as in Eshtia in Georgia) and Roman Catholic sororities-the Salesian Sisters (Turkh) and the Missionary Sisters of Love (Yerevan and Spitak). There is a school in Yerevan run by the Mkhitarist Order.
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Sednikov began to emphasize the importance of the spiritual education he had received at the seminary and monastery in Poland, as well as the help given to him by the Salesian fathers in Georgia, and another priest interrupted him and said: "In our church there is only room for two communities - the Mkhitarist and the Patriarchal."
The problem of the" Armenian nature " of the clergy is sometimes raised by members of the church when they come into conflict with their priests. Such a case took place several years ago in the village of Skhvilisi (arm. Sukhlis), where parishioners protested against the recall of their mkhitarist priest and his replacement by a Salesian from Ukraine serving in a nearby Armenian Catholic village. The latter is known for its negative attitude towards certain folk traditions and beliefs (for example, those associated with visiting unofficial "sacred sites"), as well as its commitment to the Roman Catholic parish management model, focused on the figure of the priest. As a result, the new priest was soon accused of "anti-Armenian tendencies, including insulting local residents for their unwavering commitment to the Armenian identity,"47 and the residents of Sukhlis were left without a superior.48
This case, as well as the case of a nearby s. Naohrebi (Armenian: Mokhreb), two villages whose inhabitants saved their churches during the Communist era, is similar to the situation among Greek Catholics in the Ukrainian Transcarpathia, which Agnieszka Halemba investigated.49 There, too, some villages that were left without priests under the Soviet regime took on the responsibilities of maintaining churches and performing certain rituals. After the fall of the Soviet Union, it was these communities that proved to be the most difficult for the recovering church, as their residents did not perceive the priests assigned to them well, regardless of their spiritual authority and administrative rights. Analyzing such cases, Halemba offers a new interpretation of the classical concept of "domestication" or "domestication" of religion, which she introduced into scientific use.
47. Aghalaryan, K. (2010) "Armenian Catholic Parish without a priest," Hetq.am, [http://hetq.am/eng/news/48998/armenian-catholic-parish-without-a-priest.html, accessed on 1.03.2016].
48. During my research, a priest from the village of Eshtia, located 100 km from Sukhlis, visited the village about once a month to celebrate the liturgy.
49. Halemba, A. (2015) Negotiating Marian Apparitions: The Politics of Religion in Transcarpathian Ukraine, pp. 150-151. New York, Budapest: Central European University Press.
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Tamara Dragadze 50. It is usually understood literally - as the withdrawal of religion from the public sphere and its reduction to personal, domestic practices. This was indeed the case in most of the Armenian-Catholic villages of Armenia and Georgia. However, as the examples of some Greek Catholic and Armenian Catholic villages show, such "domestication" can also mean that the faithful take on a number of activities that are reserved for priests, and feel "at home"in the church.
Conclusion
The initial position of Armenian Catholics between national exclusivism of Armenian Christianity and involvement in Roman Catholic expansionism led to different, sometimes contradictory identity strategies-from cultural absorption to resistance and alienation. In this article, I tried to look at the current state of these processes. In Armenia, over the past decades, Armenian Catholics have lost most of the cultural features that distinguished them from the dominant Armenian Apostolic church environment. In Georgia, these differences are also no longer of the same significance, but here the more important issue is the simultaneous Romanization and Georgization of a part of the Armenian-Catholic population. The actions of the Armenian Catholic Church in both countries in the post-Soviet era - the construction of churches, the organization of life-cycle rituals and parish life, charitable and educational activities-are aimed at restoring the blurred boundaries of the community; 51 boundaries that could delineate the "space for developing strategies of the self"52 for this ethno-religious community. However, the legacy of the Soviet anti-religious policy, the current activities of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and disagreements within the Armenian Catholic community itself do not contribute to these aspirations.
Translated from English by Maria Khramova
50. Dragadze, T. (1993) "The Domestication of Religion under Soviet Communism", in Ch. Hann (ed.) Socialism: Ideals, Ideologies, and Local Practice. London, New York: Routledge.
51. Cohen, A. P. The Symbolic Construction of Community, pp. 12-15.
52. Bhabha, H. The Location of Culture, p. 2.
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