Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, was received in audience by Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday morning, the first meeting between the two.

Axar.az informs, citing Vatican news, Tuesday’s audience took place at Villa Barberini, the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo, where Pope Leo has been since Monday evening.

The meeting unfolded in “a fraternal and cordial atmosphere, during which various ecclesial issues were discussed, and the Armenian Patriarch emphasized the fate of the Armenians of Karabakh,” Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, representative of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Etchmiadzin to the Holy See, explained in a phone interview with Vatican News.

The Patriarch extended an invitation to the Pope to visit Armenia, Archbishop Barsamian continued, and both reaffirmed the necessity of peace—peace founded on justice, as Catholicos Karekin emphasized.