Cardinal Leonardo Sandri held a liturgy at the Pontifical Armenian College in Rome on the occasion of the 106th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

In his homily, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches called the Metz Yeghern a “stain on humanity’s history.”

Cardinal Sandri recalled the pain inflicted on the Armenian people, who suffered "inhuman violence". He also recalled that the Armenian people gave birth to saints such as Grigor Narekatsi, who enlightened humanity far beyond the borders of Armenia.

The cardinal compared the Armenian Genocide to the Holocaust. He said that such tragedies make us ask ourselves where God was. At such moments, he said, Divine Mercy comes to our aid through God's consolation. “The Gospel gives us the consolation in considering that the sons and daughters of the Armenian people who fell victim to the extermination of 106 years ago are ‘friends of God’, conformed to the selfsame existence of Christ.”