Armenian Catholic Archbishop Rafael Minasyan paid an official visit to our Department, met some of the Armenian students and blessed the Department of Armenian Studies at the Sophianum campus.

The Archbishop of the Armenian Catholic Ordinariate of Eastern Europe — who has been elected in recent days Armenian Catholic Patriarch in Rome following the International Eucharistic Congress — was welcomed by Rev. György Fodor, Dean of the Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, by Sándor Őze, Head of the Institute of History, and by Bálint Kovács, Head of the Department of Armenian Studies.

During the meeting, the Archbishop inquired about the Armenian Studies program, after having met the people working and studying at the Department. He was very pleased about the work of the Armenian Department, unique in Hungary, and conveyed his support to teaching and research on Armenian topics. Father Vartan Kazandjian also attended the meeting; he is working on his PhD thesis under the supervision of the Dean of the Faculty of Theology of Pázmány University as well as Father Mashtots Lazarian. Rafael Minasyan expressed his joy regarding the high number of Armenian students — almost 30 students have started their studies in the History BA or MA program of the Pázmány Péter Catholic University within the framework of the "Scholarship of Christian Young People." Budapest, therefore, may play an important role as an international hub in forming the next generation of Armenian intellectuals.