In an article, the Zeale periodical of a Catholic organization of America has touched upon the upcoming visit of US Vice President JD Vance to Armenia and Azerbaijan and the issue of the release of Christian Armenian prisoners held in Baku.
The periodical considered it noteworthy that JD Vance’s upcoming visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan comes at a time when a group of spiritual leaders of the Catholic and Armenian Apostolic Churches have urged Pope Leo XIV to take measures for the release of Christian Armenian detainees held in Azerbaijan.
The author quotes an excerpt from the letter of these spiritual leaders, which states that, “Communication with their families, already limited, has worsened since Azerbaijan expelled the Red Cross from the country last year. Their Christian faith — and their dignity as human persons — are being crushed.”
“The upcoming diplomatic engagement has renewed focus on a December letter in which Catholic and Armenian Apostolic leaders urged Pope Leo to intervene on behalf of at least 23 prisoners detained after Azerbaijan’s 2023 military seizure of Nagorno-Karabakh. (…) the signatories said the men, prisoners of war, remain imprisoned in Azerbaijan under deteriorating conditions. The leaders warned that the prisoners’ continued detention — alongside the reported destruction of Christian heritage sites — poses a serious humanitarian threat,” the article notes.
The periodical recalls that the letter, sent to Pope Leo ahead of Christmas, was signed by more than a dozen high-ranking spiritual leaders.
The respective list is led by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York, and Archbishop Anoushavan Tanielian of the Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America.
