Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia called on the ministers of the Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC) to refrain from a temptation to interfere in the state affairs. This seems to have become necessary after the apparent aggravation of the relations between the state and the church regulated by a concordat - an agreement on non-interference in each other's affairs. However, in recent days, there have been signs of violation of the concordat, and as a result, the tension has arisen, which is especially unpleasant for the secular authorities.
For many years, according to the various polls, the GOC has been the most influential institution in Georgia, ahead of the government, parliament, as well as any other department and organization. And according to the same polls, Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II is the most influential person, far ahead of the president, the prime minister, the speaker of the parliament, and any other political or public figure, including pop-stars and movie-stars.
Given this situation, for many years, a catastrophically high crime rate was perceived as an unconditional paradox. After all, it seemed that one or two words of the clergy would be enough for the church parishioners to remember the commandments and begin to lead a proper way of life. The priests did their work. But it became safe in the country when Mikhail Saakashvili took over the solution of this problem. Nevertheless, such obviousness was not reflected in the positions of the GOC. The church remains the most influential institution.
An attempt by the secular authorities, and then it was the United National Movement (UNM), to change the way things were, was not of a great success but contributed to the emergence or strengthening of the ‘liberal wing’ in the GOC. On such actions of the authorities, the church responded by supporting the Georgian Dream (GM) in the parliamentary elections in 2012 and contributed a lot to the change of power. At the same time, there were no signs of an obvious or gross violation of the concordat. Though there was enough of the back-door action, as it is clear from various ‘memories’. Nevertheless, on the surface, the church seemed to be quite well-treated by the government, which, at least, did not object the increase of the church’s wealth by acquiring of the real estate, land allotments and luxury goods. All this took place under the sauce of restoration of the downtrodden church honor and justice during the communist period when the church's wealth was confiscated, priests were repressed, and temples were remodeled into storehouses and warehouses, or in the best case scenario into museums.
The contradictions between the ecclesiastical authorities and secular power in post-Soviet Georgia have become clear only recently when their unity seemed to be stronger than ever. The leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili, before coming to power, showed unprecedented generosity towards the clergy, building temples for them, including the new cathedral, which turned out to be one of the highest in Europe, and showered the servants of the cross with quite an earthly splendour, at the same time generously financing various kinds of expeditions, including foreign, associated with the Christian religion.
But the situation has changed. First, there was a troubled story with plans for poisoning or alleged poisoning of Ilia II or some of the closest to His Holiness persons, in which, apart from a whole group of opposing clergymen, the representatives of both the former and present secular authorities were involved. Eventually, what was concealed became revealed - there are two opposing wings in the church, and, probably, each of them has its own links with the secular authorities. At the same time, the church representatives commented on the inadmissibility of interference of the secular authorities in its affairs.
But a few months later, the church itself openly and directly interfered in the state affairs. The government's legislative initiative on the cultivation and export of marijuana for medical purposes - controversial and far from ambiguous - was opposed by the servants of the church who organized two large-scale rallies through Tbilisi streets and a conference in the Patriarchate, which resulted in an appeal or even a demand to the government to immediately refuse from this ploy capable of killing the whole generations in Georgia.
The GOC took an extremely tough position. The statement of Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze that the secular and ecclesiastical authorities would hold consultations to reach a consensus was immediately and radically disavowed by the influential clergymen: there would be no consultations as it was said to refuse the bill on cannabis and full stop. The church has already demonstrated its strength by arranging the rallies mentioned above. Yes, it can easily gather thousands of people at any time, disrupting some major events as it was with sexual minorities, for instance. It is not easy to ignore such a force. The government hoped to refill the budget by introducing the bill on cannabis, but it has hung in uncertainty.
Simultaneously, a number of the Georgian Orthodox Church representatives allowed themselves to interfere in purely political processes, more precisely, in the campaign for the presidential elections to be held in October this year. One of the most influential clergymen, to whom the rumors attribute friendly ties with the former authorities, struck a blow to the presidential candidate - Salome Zurabishvili who is officially supported by the ruling Georgian Dream. A whole ‘sermon’ was dedicated to her explaining why it is a crime to vote for a former foreign minister. The representative of the Georgian Orthodox Church, ‘armed’ with an ambiguous statement by Zurabishvili on the reasons for the 2008 Russian-Georgian war, declared her unworthy of the presidential post. It is a blow not only to her but to the ruling party that did not nominate its own candidate and decided to support a formally independent but ‘affiliated’ politician.
Explosive Zurabishvili responded with a sharp accusation of the church violating the concordat. The authorities, albeit unwillingly, supported her. And then Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II, understanding the shattering situation in the country and foreseeing the unreadable consequences of the discord between the state and the church, called upon the ministers of the church not to interfere in the temporal affairs.
However, according to some Tbilisi theologians, a consent between the state and the GOC is necessary. And the need for this grows as the denouement of the situation with the Ukrainian church trying to secede from the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) is approaching. The time will soon come when the GOC will have to speak on this issue and take a clear position. Each of the two options for the G0C is bad - one will complicate the relations with Kiev, the other - with Moscow. But it is necessary to choose. And the GOC will not be able to resolve such a zugzwang without the help of the native state and its political resources and capabilities.
