Catholic Archbishop Raphael Minassian hopes that the Pope’s visit to Georgia and Azerbaijan will promote peace in the region, he said in an interview with the Vatican Radio.

He says that the presence in Georgia, “of Armenians is over 200,000 and Armenian Catholics are over 150,000.”

The Archbishop says that the Armenian community in Georgia can act as a bridge for peaceful relations. “In the relationship between the Orthodox and the Catholic Churches, the friendship remains as a base of all kinds of relations.”

Although the Armenian community and the Georgian government are able to maintain a positive relationship, the Archbishop admits that they do experience problems. He says that “Both of them are working strongly for the propaganda of faith and the consolation that we have to encourage and accept it. Even if we are not working together we should work for the same case.” As to Pope’s appeal for peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, “if you take out all of the governments all of the people would live in peace”, he said.

The Archbishop hopes that more can be done towards peace: “There is work going on for peace, but I hope that also in the visit of his Holiness to Azerbaijan would encourage them also accept the realities because all of us in this world are passengers. No one owns anything in this Earth. So it is not useful to have these wars between people that can live peacefully and very happily.”