[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 78 (Tuesday, June 14, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1222]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HONORING HIS HOLINESS 
                               KAREKIN II

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. GEORGE RADANOVICH

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 14, 2005

  Mr. RADANOVICH. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor His Holiness Karekin II, 
the Supreme Patriarch-Catholicos of All Armenians and universal head of 
the Armenian Apostolic (Orthodox) Church, upon his visit to the San 
Joaquin Valley. An event to celebrate his pastoral visit will occur on 
June 12, 2005 in Fresno, CA.
  His Holiness Karekin II, baptized Ktrij Nersissian, was born in 1951 
in the village of Voskehat in the former Soviet Republic of Armenia. In 
1965, he entered the Theological Seminary of the Mother See of Holy 
Etchmiadzin and graduated with honors in 1971. Upon graduation from the 
seminary, he was ordained a celibate priest, taking the religious name 
Karekin.
  Father Karekin then graduated from Bonn University in Germany while 
serving as pastor to the local Armenian community. He earned a 
postgraduate degree from the Russian Orthodox Academy in Zagorsk, 
Russia in 1979.
  In 1980 he was assigned to the Araratian Pontifical Diocese, the 
Armenian Church's most populous diocese, which includes Yerevan, the 
capital of Armenia. In 1983, he was appointed primate of the Araratian 
Pontifical Diocese, and was elevated to the rank of Bishop and 
subsequently to Archbishop.
  His Holiness was elected as the 132nd Supreme Patriarch and 
Catholicos of All Armenians on October 27, 1999 by delegates from 
Armenian Churches worldwide at a National Ecclesiastical Assembly, in 
the Republic of Armenia.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme 
Patriarch-Catholicos of All Armenians and universal head of the 
Armenian Apostolic (Orthodox) Church, upon his pastoral visit to the 
San Joaquin Valley. I invite my colleagues to join me in thanking the 
religious patriarch for his dedication to the service of all Armenians.

                          ____________________