CRISIS
BREAKS OUT IN
GEORGIAN CHURCH AHEAD OF POWER SHIFT
Church
is shaken by
accusations of "sodomy," a struggle for power, and a poison plot
by
Georgy Lomsadze
Evrasia.net,
8
November 2019
An
enraged archpriest
[referring to a metropolitan—ed.] in a tattered ecclesiastical
head-dress ran
out of the Holy See [referring to the building of the Synod—ed.]
of the
Georgian Orthodox Church and declared that the leader of the
church, Patriarch
Ilia II, is a "sodomite" and "pederast." After which
Metropolitan Petre Chkondidsky tore through the crowd of
journalists and left,
angry, causing an uproar around the country.
Shortly
priests came
out of a 31 October session of the Holy Synod, the executive
council of the
church, and described how they had to physically restrain Petre,
who tried to
attack the feeble 86-year-old patriarch.
"His
actions
were so shameful that we had to remove him from the meeting by
force,"
said one of the clergymen, Metropolitan of Akhalkalaki and
Kumurdo Nikoloz.
Both
journalists
arriving at the scene and their audience throughout Georgia
needed a lot of
time in order to "digest" what they had seen and heard.
The name
of Patriarch
Ilia II must not be "taken in vain" in the profoundly believing
Christian society, where the church has the right of a voice in
all spheres,
beginning from local problems and on to foreign policy. Even
political leaders
of high rank try to secure the blessing of the pontiff [meaning
the
patriarch—ed.] whom the majority of Georgians revere as a divine
personage.
Not a
single
clergyman has permitted himself to display open disrespect to
Ilia, to say
nothing of saying, as Petre has done, that the patriarch was
"subject to
the sin of sodomy." The Georgian church is known for its hostile
attitude
toward homosexuality and it regularly promotes homophobia.
Officials
who know
well the influence of the patriarch demonstrate by all means
their respect.
"The Georgian patriarch is a symbol, uniting the past, present,
and future
of Georgia," said Prime Minister Georgy Gakharia. "Such an
inconceivable attack on the patriarch, our spiritual symbol, is
equivalent to
an attack on our country and our sovereignty."
Petre's
emotional
declaration led to the outbreak of conflict in the church that
has been
festering, it seems, for a long time now. As a result, besides
other things,
there followed accusations of a governmental plot aiming to
remove the sick
patriarch and impelling one of the priests to poison his
assistant. Beka
Mindizshvili, an expert on the church, thinks that a power
struggle is
intensifying in Georgia among the clergy in expectation of
Ilia's departure.
"It all comes down to this," Mindiashvili told Eurasianet.org.
This
struggle may
have far-reaching consequences for Georgian politics, both
domestic and
foreign. "It is obvious that political forces have their own
preferred
candidates [for the patriarch's post]," said Kornely Kakachia,
the
director of the Georgian Institute of Policy, an analytic center
in Tbilisi.
"This is notable in the different ways television channels cover
this
story."
Broadcasting
news
media in Georgia are mainly divided into pro-government and
oppositional. The
former, like the government, judging by everything, support the
patriarch,
while the latter cover Petre more positively.
Patriarch
Ilia II, it
seems, has prepared a successor, the 48-year-old Metropolitan
Shio. However
other clergy of high rank also are aiming for his spot. These
include,
supposedly, Bishop Iakov Bodbiisky, who also is at the epicenter
of another
dramatic church scandal.
In a
recent interview
Iakov declared that highly placed officials have asked him to
help accelerate
the transfer of power to Shio from Ilia II.
Iakov
also was
present at the stormy session of the Synod at which he said that
he will ask
the patriarch's forgiveness for crude remarks that he made in
public speeches.
At the same time he insisted on the existence of a plot against
the patriarch,
adding that Gakharia and Metropolitan Shio support more friendly
relations with
Moscow, Georgia's chief enemy.
Based on
such
statements, some observers consider that the current "war of the
priests" is not simply an internal conflict. "Not only political
forces are interested in this but also geopolitical ones,"
Mindiashvili
said.
Despite
the
unresolved territorial conflict between the two countries
(Moscow actively
supports the two breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia),
many Georgian
priests see in Russia a natural ally, inasmuch as it, like
Georgia, adheres to
the Orthodox faith. They fear that western-style liberal
democracy will have a
negative impact on the church in Georgia and therefore they
oppose ever more
efforts of the government to integrate with the West.
"Whichever
side
were to win, the foreign policy orientation is not likely to
change, but if the
pro-Russian group takes over in the church, fawning before
Moscow will
intensify," Kakachia said.
To speak
truth and
only truth to power?
The
struggle within
the church has become ever more in the public domain after the
disclosure of
the poisoning plot two years ago. Petre has always insisted on
the innocence of
Archpriest Georgy Mamaladze, who is now serving a prison
sentence on his
conviction for trying to pour cyanide into the coffee of the
personal secretary
of the patriarch, whom many consider the actual leader of the
church, acting in
the name of the aged patriarch.
Because
of his open
support of the convicted priest, Petre found himself in a
confrontation with
the patriarch and his inner circle. The disgraced metropolitan
sought for the
Holy Synod to present a petition requesting mercy for Mamaladze.
In the end the
Synod issued the corresponding request on 31 October, but the
situation still got
out of hand.
According
to reports
of other highly placed priests who attended the meeting, Petre
lost his
self-control after Ilia II relieved him of his pastoral
responsibilities and
ordered him to go to a remote monastery for repentance. Many of
them dismissed
his accusation of homosexuality, attributing it to a burst of
anger because of
his dismissal, but some prelates took a more reserved position.
"I have
no
reason to believe or not to believe his statements,"
Metropolitan of Vana
and Baghdad Anton said.
"I
respect the
prelate, but he needs to present proof," Bishop of North America
Saba
said.
On news
websites and
social networks, stormy and unprecedentedly frank discussions
about
homosexuality and the struggle for power in the church
developed. Many members
of the clergy spoke out in defense of their leader, although
several prominent
clergymen also accused the patriarch openly.
"St.
John
Chrysostom also was dismissed because he spoke the truth,"
Father Andria
said in support of Petre, commenting on the television channel
Mtavari Arkhi.
Andria, the abbot of the monastery of Chkondida who is under the
diocesan
jurisdiction of Petre, added that many years of veneration on
the part of laity
and clerical agencies of authority have created a cult of
personality of the
patriarch, and as a result his actions are not influenced by
public opinion.
Several
Georgian
representatives of LGBTI consider that conversations about
homosexuality in the
notoriously homophobic Georgian church confirm their truth. But
organizations
defending the rights of LGBTI criticize the use of homosexuality
as a slander.
"Let's not forget that we live in a secular state, where
homosexuality is
not a crime, to say nothing of a sin," a statement of the rights
advocacy
organization "Movement for Equality" says.
For
ordinary
believers in Georgia it is painful to see all these "games of
thrones," and scandals and mud-slinging in the church. Many on
social
networks shared words of support and prayers for their beloved
patriarch. Ilia
II appeared at a sermon on 3 November. He thanked believers for
support and
departed to an ovation from the crowd assembled in the cathedral
church of the
Holy Trinity in Tbilisi,.
By a
fortunate
coincidence, at the moment of the patriarch's exit, two
airplanes, flying high
over Tbilisi, left in the sky a path of smoke in the form of a
cross. Georgian
believers, who are inclined to see omens and miracles, shared on
the internet
videos showing two crossing lines of smoke and interpreted the
heavenly cross as
yet another testimony to the divine nature of the patriarch.
(tr. by PDS,
posted 9 November 2019)
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