The courage of Pope Francis, who acknowledged the Armenian Genocide, has changed the attitude of the entire world, Armenian Catholic Archbishop Raphael François Minassian of Eastern Europe said in an interview in Rome.  

The Archbishop has praised the Pope's recognition of the scale of the massacre carried out against Armenians by Ottoman forces during the First World War, Independent Catholic News reports. "We were certain that the Pope would remember the genocide, and his courage has changed the attitude of the entire world," Minassian said.

Touching on the Pope's statement during the Armenian Mass at St Peter's, the archbishop stressed that Francis had urged to pursue reconciliation, “an act of the highest educational, spiritual and human value, which helps us also to recover what we have lost."

Armenian Catholic Archbishop also described how even Armenians who did not directly witness the massacre of 1915 nevertheless still suffer the consequences.