罗马天主教宗方济各主持弥撒，纪念大批亚美尼亚人被屠杀100周年。教宗方济各在星期天的特别祈祷中使用了“种族灭绝屠杀”的措辞。这很可能严重影响梵蒂冈和土耳其之间的关系。
教宗方济各在圣彼得教堂的弥撒中说，在第一次世界大战期间，奥斯曼土耳其人杀死150万亚美尼亚人的行为是20世纪第一次“种族灭绝屠杀”。
他对参加弥撒的信众说，掩盖或否认恶行如同任由伤口流血，不予包扎。
土耳其坚决否认有种族灭绝屠杀发生，并说死亡人数被大大夸大，死者都是由于内战和骚乱而丧生。
前罗马天主教宗约翰保罗二世和亚美尼亚主教曾经在2000年发表联合声明，把亚美尼亚人的被杀称为种族灭绝屠杀，但是这个措辞是第一次在圣彼得大教堂的弥撒中使用。
Pope Francis marked the 100th anniversary of the mass killing of Armenians, using the word "genocide" during a special ceremony on Sunday. The term is likely to severely strain diplomatic ties with Turkey.
Francis said during a Mass at Saint Peter's Basilica that the killing of around 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks about the time of World War One was "the first genocide of the 20th century."
He told the congregation that "concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it."
Turkey angrily denies that the massacre constituted genocide, saying that the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.
Pope John Paul the Second and the Armenian patriarch issued a joint statement in 2000 calling the massacre "genocide," but Sunday was the first time the word had been used during a Mass in Saint Peter's Basilica.
