Los Angeles Prayer Service Commemorates Armenian Genocide

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti Delivers Keynote Address

LOS ANGELES — A historic ecumenical gathering was held at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Tuesday, April 14, 2015. The service was hosted by the Most Reverend José H. Gomez, the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

The evening’s keynote message was delivered by LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, who courageously reaffirmed the importance of recognizing the Armenian Genocide. “Today, in solidarity with the people of Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora, we speak of a Genocide” said Mayor Garcetti. “We heard what Pope Francis said and the courage that he had. But it shouldn’t take courage to speak the truth,” he continued.

“In Los Angeles we can speak the truth that a genocide occurred…that 1.5 million souls were erased from this earth…that we have a responsibility to make sure that everybody on this earth recognizes it. As Mayor of the Great City of Los Angeles, I will always stand with the Armenian people and I will always stand for truth. It is a genocide and in Los Angeles, we accept that and we move forward with the responsibility to make sure that every lie is answered with the truth.”

In his speech, Mayor Garcetti reflected on the impact of the Armenian Genocide on the international level. “A hundred years ago, while slaughter happened in Anatolia, where we lost soul after soul, after soul, it did not go unnoticed. The New York Times ran 145 stories on the race extermination of the Armenians. The coverage was so prolific that it led Herbert Hoover to state probably Armenia was known to the American school child only a little less than England.”

More than 150 religious leaders joined civic officials and over three thousand faithful in honoring the memory of the 1.5 million Armenian martyrs who perished during the Armenian Genocide of 1915.