Authorities bar Armenian Church from prison ministry

The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. Photo: Armenian Apostolic Church press service

On April 17, 2026, it emerged that the head of the Penitentiary Service of Armenia’s Ministry of Justice had barred clergy delegated by the Armenian Church from entering prisons and correctional facilities, the Armenian Apostolic Church’s press service reported.

Officials ignored existing legal norms and began signing individual employment contracts with certain priests without coordinating with the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.

In an official statement, the Church called the move “yet another manifestation of the authorities’ deliberate anti-Church policy,” aimed at restricting the pastoral mission in public life guaranteed by law. The Church noted that the state had previously taken similar steps in Armenia’s armed forces and in the field of education.

Representatives of the Armenian Apostolic Church reminded officials that Article 10 of the Law “On the Relations Between the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church” explicitly enshrines the Church’s mission of providing spiritual care in prisons. In addition, Article 17 of the Law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations” recognizes prison ministry as the exclusive right of the National Church and obliges the state not to obstruct that work.

Etchmiadzin called it unacceptable that the head of the Penitentiary Service had unilaterally taken it upon himself to decide how spiritual care for inmates should be organized. Under both the law and the agreement between the Ministry of Justice and the Armenian Church, the subject of prison ministry is the Armenian Church itself, not individual clerics entering into private employment relationships with state bodies.

The statement also described the practice of hiring priests while bypassing the hierarchy as gross interference in the Church’s internal life. “The ruling political force has elevated anti-Church sentiment to the level of state policy, which is destructive in nature and deserves the strongest possible condemnation,” the statement said.

The Armenian Apostolic Church called on the Ministry of Justice to comply with the law, respect the established canonical order, and restore the normal exercise of prison ministry for the sake of the inmates’ moral transformation.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that the Armenian Church had condemned Pashinyan’s remarks about “agents of influence” within the Church.

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