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Archbishop Raphael Minassian with Gia Chacón, organizer of Operation Christmas for Armenia. Photos courtesy of For the Martyrs.
CNA Staff, Jan 7, 2021 / 04:00 am (CNA).- Archbishop Raphael Minassian is a man of action who has little time for the formalities of ecclesiastical life.
Speaking to CNA from the Armenian capital, Yerevan, on Jan. 5, he said that he felt uncomfortable being addressed as “Your Excellency.”
“I leave everything to divine providence because I’m a very simple clergy working for the Church,” he explained. “‘Excellency,’ etc., are for other people, not for me. I am Fr. Raphael.”
Fr. Raphael has served as the bishop of Armenian Catholics in Eastern Europe since 2011. He is responsible for an estimated 160,000 Armenian Rite Catholics in countries such as Ukraine, Georgia, Russia, and, of course, Armenia itself.