1 The fatherly love with which We regard the whole of the Lord's flock is so strong and deep that everything happening among the Christian body is felt by Us with constant and ready sympathy. Hence in proportion to the great and enduring sorrow with which Our soul was filled because certain members of the Armenian race held themselves aloof from fraternal communication with you, is the keen and long-desired joy which We feel now that the difference, by God's blessing, has been appeased. But while We congratulate you on the restoration of peace and unity, We cannot refrain from exhorting you earnestly to preserve with care, and even to increase, this evidence of God's goodness to you; but to obtain this grace, namely, to think and feel in unity on the doctrines of faith it is necessary that you should all preserve-as you now do - your obedience to the Apostolic See, and that you, beloved children, should well and truly strive to obey with all submission your Patriarch and the other Bishops who rightfully are placed over you. But since so many temptations arise to wean you from this religious unity - both from party strife connected with public life, and from distractions among your domestic circles - you will find your great defence from these evils in that loyal reverence and subjection of spirit, which is so conspicuous among you, towards the head of the Ottoman Empire, whose fairness of feeling, desire for peace, and good-will, evidenced on so many occasions towards Us, have been matters of universal observation. Dissension and party strife will cease among you if you preserve constantly the remembrance of what Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, wrote on perfect charity, which "is patient, is kind; envieth not, dealeth not perversely; is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil."(1) But this admirable unanimity of feeling, if accomplished among you, will be fraught with yet another good, so that you may, as we have said, reap even richer harvests from the restoration of peace and unity; it will turn to you the minds and hearts of others who, although they boast to belong to the same race as yourselves, still stand aloof from Us, and do not form part of the sacred sheepfolds of the flock over which We are set. Thus, looking upon the examples which you display of peace and brotherly love, they will be led easily to understand that the spirit of Christ is ruling you, since He only is powerful enough to join His followers in one mind and make them one body. May they recognise this and resolve to return to that unity from which their ancestors fell away! Hence, there will be in store for them untold gladness when they find themselves joined in faith to Us and to you, yea, and to all the faithful who call themselves Catholic, throughout the whole world; and they will know by experience what it means to dwell in the halls of the mystical Zion, to which it has been granted by the divine word to widen its dwelling and stretch the skin of its tents over the face of the whole earth.
Source: Paterna Caritas (Vatican.va)