PROTEST DEMONSTRATION AGAINST ROMAN
POPE'S VISIT HELD
IN TBILISI
RIA
Novosti, 30 September 2016
Several dozen representatives of
religious persons of
Georgia and their supporters are conducting a demonstration near
the Tbilisi
international airport, protesting against the visit by Roman
Pope Francis, who
flew into Tbilisi on Friday, Georgian news media report.
During the two-day visit, the pontiff
will hold a
meeting with Georgian President Georgy Margvelashvili,
Catholicos-Patriarch of
all-Georgia Ilia II, representatives of local Assyrian-Chaldean
and Catholic
parishes, and personnel of Catholic charity organizations. On
Saturday, 1
October, the head of the Roman Catholic Church will serve mass
in the Mikhail
Meskhi Stadium in the capital and later will visit one of the
chief religious
centers of Georgia, the patriarchal cathedral church of
Svetitskhoveli in
Mtskheta.
"We are making a protest since the
Roman pope has
come with the goal of luring Orthodox believers to himself. He
was to conduct a
mass in the stadium and visit the church of Svetitskhoveli. His
actions are
nothing other than proselytism," one of the participants in the
demonstration told journalists.
Representatives of the public
organization Union of
Orthodox Parents, among whom there were priests, conducted a
demonstration
earlier in September at the building of the Vatican embassy in
Tbilisi against
the pope's visit to Georgia.
Earlier the Georgian Orthodox Church, in a special declaration, urged society to treat the Roman pope's visit to Georgia calmly. The Georgian church notes that the pope is making the visit at the invitation of Georgian Patriarch Ilia II and President Georgy Margvelashvili, and that according to church law Orthodox believers may not participate in Catholic services and therefore the mass in the stadium will be conducted for Catholics. (tr. by PDS, posted 30 September 2016)
ORTHODOX OF GEORGIA HOUND ROMAN POPE UNTIL HE "RENOUNCES HERESY"
Alive Faith Media, 30 September 2016
Roman Pope Francis arrived for a two-day visit to Georgia, where he was met at the Tbilisi international airport by Georgian President Georgy Margvelashvili, Catholicos-Patriarch of all-Georgia Ilia II, and Catholics who live in the republic or came from various countries, Interfax reports. The ceremony of meeting was broadcast on-line on the Vatican website.
Several dozen representatives of the public organization Union of Orthodox Parents and priests of the Georgian Orthodox Church expressed a protest against the pope's visit to the republic along the road from the airport.
During the pope's motorcade, participants in the demonstration raised posters with inscriptions "Vatican is a religious aggressor." The Union of Orthodox Parents explained to journalists that the pope's message is inappropriate and they promised to conduct the protest demonstration everywhere the pope may appear in Georgia.
The demonstration occurred under the supervision of police and had been announced previously. Kavkazskii Uzel quoted one of the protesters, a representative of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Father Archil, who declared: "We are against this visit because he (the Roman pope) is apostolic. He is coming to enlighten us, to teach us something, and this is the whole problem. If he would simply come for a visit with Catholics, then we would not have any complaints. This visit is very bad for Georgia and for Orthodoxy. The Orthodox faith and the holy fathers teach that only the Orthodox faith is true, and all the rest is heresy. The Roman pope is the hierarch of heresy. Let him repent and renounce heresy and Orthodox will receive him, and we will again be brothers."
He said that among priests of the Georgian Orthodox Church there are "many who oppose this visit," and they intend to raise this question in the patriarchate. At the same time the priest did not want to comment on the upcoming visit of the catholicos-patriarch with Francis. "I hope until the end that this meeting will not occur," he declared.
As part of the visit, the head of the Roman Catholic Church will conduct on Saturday, 1 October, a meeting with Margvelashvili and Ilia II and then meet in the presidential palace with representatives of the Georgian government and the diplomatic corps, and on the same day he will conduct mass in the Mikhail Meskhi Locomotive Stadium in Tbilisi.
The pontiff's trip is being conducted under the slogan "Peace to you." As the ordinary of the Apostolic Administration of the Caucasus, Roman Catholic Bishop Giuseppi Pazotto, stated, at the meetings in the republic and during the festival mass, "the pontiff will devote most attention to questions of peace," the portal Georgia Online writes. This also was said in the pope's account on Twitter: "Today I will leave for Georgia and Azerbaijan. Please accompany me with your prayers so that we will be able to sow peace, unity, and reconciliation with one another." (tr. by PDS, posted 30 September 2016)
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