The Relations of the Catholic Church with Georgian Christianity in Modern History

John Flannery

The Origins of Christianity in Georgia

The historical origins of Christianity in Georgia are ancient. Tradition has St. Andrew and St. Matthias the Canaanite both preaching the Gospel in Western Georgia, while other sources posit the presence in Eastern Georgia of Bartholomew and Thaddeus, also claimed as the evangelisers of neigh- bouring Armenia. The prevalence of Christianity in eastern Georgia is difficult to quantify before the fourth century, with the conversion of Mirian III (r. 284-361) and his family, following which Christianity came under state protection. His conversion by Saint Nino is generally dated to around 337,1 and the event is recorded in the Latin text of Rufinus’ Ecclesiastical History (c. 402), while the oldest existing record in Georgian dates from the 7th c. Conversion of Kartli, and a much more elaborate version appears in the 9th or 10th c. Life of Nino. The conversion of the west Georgian kingdom was more gradual, with Christianity being officially embraced in 523.2 Early Christianity in the cosmopolitan pre-modern Caucasus, situated at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, was characterised by tremendous diversity, inclusiveness and a degree of syncretism. Under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Apostolic See of Antioch from the second decade of the

1 The conversion of the West Georgian kingdom was more gradual, with Christianity being officially embraced in 523. 2 For the basic hagiography of Saint Nino, see M. Wardrop, Life of Saint Nino, Analecta Georgiana, 3 (Piscataway NJ, Gorgias, 2006); a facsimile edition of the original published in Studia Biblica et Ecclesiastica (Oxford, Clarendon Press, s.d. [1903]), vol. 5, pp. 15-88; D. M. Lang (ed. and tr.), Lives and Legends of the Georgian Saints (London, George Allen & Unwin, 1956; London, Mowbrays, 1976²). For somewhat alternative perspectives: E. M. Synek, ‘The Life of St Nino: Georgia’s Conversion to its Female Apostle’, in Chris- tianizing Peoples and converting Individuals, eds. G. Armstrong and I. N. Wood, Interna- tional Medieval Research, 7, (Turnhout, Brepols, 2000), pp. 3-13; F. Thelamon, ‘Histoire et structure mythique: la conversion des Ibères’, Revue Historique, 247 (1972), pp. 5-28.

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4th century, although the Caucasus region was often beyond the reach of Antioch, the constant tradition of the Georgian Church is that it achieved autocephaly in 466 when the Patriarch of Antioch elevated the Archbishop of Mtskheta3 to the rank of Catholicos of Kartli.4 In fact, while this change may indicate increased autonomy, it is probably more accurate to date full autocephaly to the beginning of the Arab invasions in the seventh century, and perhaps even to the eighth century.5 A Catholicosate was also established in Western Georgia by the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In 1010, during the creation of a united monarchy in Georgia, the Catholicos of Kartli was elevated to the rank of Patriarch, and from this time the leader of the Georgian Church has borne the title of Catholicos Patriarch of All Georgia. Georgian Christianity, which adopted a Byzantine Orthodox liturgy in Georgian, flourished during the 6th – 9th centuries, with the development of a strong monastic tradition. Churches and monasteries were constructed not only within Georgia but also in Palestine,6 Syria, Cyprus, Greece, and Bul- garia. Most significant among these were the Monastery of the Holy Cross and the Monastery of St. James in Jerusalem, the Iveron Monastery on Mount Athos7 and the Petritsoni Monastery in Bulgaria. A number of Georgian

3 Tradition claims that both the tunic of Elias and the seamless robe of Christ were buried at Mtskheta, having been brought there by Jews. The seamless robe or chiton features on the Georgian royal coat of arms. See the detailed account of the presence of the chiton in Georgia in M. Tamarati, L’Église Géorgienne: des origines jusqu’à nos jours (Rome, Société typographique-Editrice Romana 3, 1910), pp. 95-119. 4 It must be admitted that the nature of the early relationship between Antioch and the Georgian Church are unclear. While the First (canon 6), and Second (canon 2) Ecumenical Councils had placed the entire East under the jurisdiction of Antioch, the extent to which such rights were actually exercised in Georgia remains questionable. See M. Tarchnisvili (tr. P. Viscuso), ‘The Origin and Development of the Ecclesiastical Autocephaly of Georgia’, Greek Orthodox Theological Review, 46/1-2 (2001), pp. 89-111; B. Dupuy ‘L’Autocéphalie de l’Église de Géorgie’, Istina, 35 (1990), pp. 277-287. It is clear that Antioch long retained an interest in Georgian affairs. For an account of the relationship in a later era between the Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and the Georgian Church, see C. M. Walbiner ‘Die Bezie- hungen Zwischen dem Griechisch-Orthodoxen Patriarchat von Antiochia und der Kirche von Georgien von 14. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert’, Le Muséon, 114/3-4 (2001), 437-455. 5 The view of Dupuy, ‘L’Autocephalie’, p. 282. 6 G. Peradze, ‘An Account of the Georgian Monks and Monasteries in Palestine as Revealed in the Writings of Non-Georgian Pilgrims’, Georgica , 4-5 (1937), pp. 181-246. 7 See T. Grdzelidze (ed. and tr.), Georgian Monks on Mount Athos: Two Eleventh-Century Lives of the Hegoumenoi of Iviron (London, Bennett and Bloom, 2009). The hagiographical

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thinkers made significant contributions to Christian scholarship, and included Peter the Iberian (c. 411-491),8 Ephraim the Lesser (11th c.), Euthymius (c. 955-1024), and George of Athos (1009-1065). The period from the 11th – 13th centuries was a golden age for Georgian literature9 and culture, ending with the devastating invasions of Genghis Khan in the thirteenth century10 and that of Tamerlane in the fifteenth.

Relations with the Church of Rome

Georgia had a long history of contacts with the European states, and especially the papacy.11 Documents indicate relations with the Holy See from the seventh century, largely of a theological or liturgical character.12 By the thirteenth century, contacts with Rome also included a political element. Georgian soldiers joined Cilicians and Armenians to fight along- side Latin Crusaders for the freedom of the Holy Land, although the political situation in Georgia prevented Queen Rusudan from responding to the request in 1224 of Pope Honorius III, via his legate in Damietta,

texts in question demonstrate the high theological culture of Georgian monasticism in the period. 8 Identified by some scholars with pseudo-Dionysus the Areopagite. See E. Honigmann, Pierre l’iberien et les écrits du Pseudo-Denys l’Areopagite (Brussels, 1952). 9 In this respect, see the study on the Georgian chronicle ‘The Histories and Eulogies of the Sovereigns’ (13th c.): A. Tvaradze, ‘Geschichte und Lobpreisungen der Kronenträger. Christliche Kriegsideologie, Toleranz und Weltherrschaftsgedanken in einer georgischen Chronik des 13. Jahrhunderts’, Le Muséon, 121/1-2 (2008), pp. 183-212. 10 It would seem that it was in this period that the Catholicosate of Abkhazeti in Western Georgia was established (or possibly re-established). 11 In addition to the extensive documentation provided in Tamarati, L’Église, see N. Gabasvili and L. Branca (editor and translator), La Georgia e Roma: duemila anni di dialogo (Vatican City, Libreria editrice vaticana, 2003): on pp. 119-122, the author devotes a short chapter to the life of Tamarati, while a useful chronological summary of the history of Georgia and its relations with the Holy See is given on pp. 173-181; I. M. Tabagua, I rapporti tra la Georgia cristiana e la Santa Sede (Tbilisi, Mezniereba, 1996); K. Bagrationi and I. M. Tabagua, ‘Une ambassade géorgienne en Europe (Nicéfore Irbakhi – XVIIe s.)’, Bedi Kartlisa, 39 (1981), pp. 139-152; B. Lomagistro and G. Shurgaia, ‘Una pagina della storia delle relazioni diplomatiche tra la Santa sede ed il regno di Georgia’, Orientalia Christiana Periodica, 64 (1998), pp. 359-381; J. M. Floristan Imízcoz, ‘Cartas del papa Clemente VIII al rey Simon I de Kartli y al ‘Católico’ Demetrio de Mtskheta’, Orientalia Christiana Periodica, 66 (2000), pp. 373-393. 12 M. Tarchnisvili, art. ‘Georgia’, in Enciclopedia cattolica, 6, 1951, pp. 68-69.

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for further help in the Crusades.13 The same Queen in 1240 would ask his successor, Gregory IX for help against the Mongol invaders, in exchange for promoting unity between the Churches. It is difficult to assess when a definite division between the Roman Church and that of Georgia came about. In their letters, the popes Honorius III in 1224,14 Gregory IX in 1240, and even Paul II, as late as 1545,15 witnessed to the perseverance of the Georgian people in the true faith. The Georgian Church does not appear to have been greatly affected by the schism initiated by Photius in 858 and consummated in 1054 by Michael Caerularius.16 In Tamarati’s view, the separation between the two Churches, which depended not on doctrinal issues but on the impossibility of maintaining close links with the Roman Church, can be dated to the middle of the 13th century, and the refusal of Georgian delegates to the Council of Ferrara-Florence (1438-1445) to sign an act of union with Rome certainly underlined their separation. In the Middle Ages, Antioch and the surrounding area had become a popular meeting point for Georgians and in a letter of 1239 Gregory had strongly criticised those Georgians who, although in the area of jurisdiction of ‘Our venerable brother... Patriarch of Antioch’ were refus- ing to submit to his authority since their Church had long been independent of the See of Antioch.17 It is interesting to see here the Bishop of Rome coming to the support of an Eastern Patriarch struggling to exercise his authority over members of another Eastern Church. In his letter of 1224, the pope grants Rusudan not only his apostolic blessing, but also his apostolic indulgence to all who support the struggle for the Holy Land, something normally reserved to the Catholic faithful. The Bull of Gregory IX to the ruler of Georgia in 1233 grants the forgiveness of sins and makes no reference to any separation of the Georgian and Latin Churches, although this does arise in the remarkably solicitous and pastoral reply of the same

13 Tamarati, L’Église, p. 416, with the queen’s response. 14 In his letter to Queen Rusudan of 1224, Honorius accords her not only his apostolic benediction but also an apostolic indulgence, something which the Roman Church was normally in the habit of giving only to those united to her. 15 L’Église, p. 141. 16 While the Greeks rapidly erased the name of the popes from their diptychs, the Geor- gians continued to name the pope in their enumeration or invocation of the five patriarchs until the end of the 12th century. 17 Tamarati, L’Église, p. 316.

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pope to Rusudan’s request for assistance against the Mongols.18 The letter of John XXII to Giorgi V ‘the Brilliant’ and his barons in 1321 urges their return to the bosom of the Roman Church and even offers to convene a general council if that is thought necessary in order to re-establish union.19 The Catholic historian of the Georgian Church, Tamarati, stresses the orthodoxy and purity of the faith of the Georgian Church,20 which, he claims, has always adhered to the teachings of the first seven ecumenical councils. In fact, the teachings of the Council of Chalcedon (451) were controversial among both Georgians and their Armenian neighbours, but while the Arme- nian Church definitively rejected Chalcedonian Christology at the Third Council of Dvin in 607, the Georgian Church was moving to accept it. The Georgian Church does not appear to have been greatly affected by the Greek schism initiated by Photius in 858 and consummated in 1054 by Michael Caerularius.21 In Tamarati’s view, the separation between the two Churches can be dated to the middle of the 13th century, largely due to the physical isolation of Georgia, reinforced by the refusal of Georgian delegates to the Council of Ferrara-Florence (1438-1445) to sign an act of union. The Catholic Church was present on the ground, as it were, from around the middle of the 13th century, and Queen Rusudan’s request for Latin clergy to be sent to Georgia may be a consequence of her policy of coun- terbalancing Byzantine influence with that of the papacy. The resulting presence of Franciscans and Dominicans in Georgia represents the first period of Catholic missions to the country. In fact, Catholic presence in Georgia can be divided into four periods:

–– 13-16th centuries – Franciscans and Dominicans –– 17-18th centuries – Theatines –– 2nd half of the 18th century to the 2nd half of the 19th century – Capuchins –– 2nd half of the 19th century until the present – largely international clergy

18 This separation does not however prevent Paul II in 1545 (see Tamarati, L’Église, p. 141) from praising the attachment to Christianity of the baptised rulers of Georgia. 19 Tamarati, L’Église, pp. 438-440. 20 Ibid., p. 134-145. 21 While the Greeks rapidly erased the name of the popes from their diptychs, the Geor- gians continued to name the pope in their enumeration or invocation of the five patriarchs until the end of the 12th century.

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Both Franciscans and Dominicans are mentioned in the papal letters to Rusudan cited above, and in 1240 the Dominicans established a monastery at Tiflis (Tbilisi). The missionaries had some success in ‘converting’ Geor- gians to Roman obedience, and at their request, with the Bull Rex Regum altissimus of 1328, John XXII, then in Avignon, suppressed the bishopric of Smyrna by the Bull Rex regum altissimus and transferred it to Tiflis, which he declared a city and erected as an episcopal see, appointing one of the Dominican missionaries already in Georgia, John of Florence, as its first bishop.22 The last of fourteen bishops of Tiflis,23 John Schneider of Dort- mund, was appointed on 29 April 1505. Apart from the details of their nominations, and a brief note from a Theatine missionary praising the efforts of the indefatigable John of Florence in his efforts to convert pagans and ‘reduce schismatics’,24 nothing is known of their actions in support of Catholics in Georgia. As a result of the almost continual political turmoil in the period, the see became a titular one, and later an archbishopric, with the Latin bishops unable to reside in Tiflis.25 It is unclear what episcopal oversight of Georgia there was subsequently, until it was placed under the jurisdiction of the Latin bishop of Isfahan by the Propaganda in 1633. By the last decade of the fifteenth century, a united Georgia had disinte- grated into a number of petty kingdoms and principalities, which would struggle for survival against the might of its two powerful Islamic neighbours, Ottoman Turkey and Safavid Iran. These political and religious rivals often played out their rivalry in the arena of the Caucasus,26 paralleling

22 For the Bull of erection and the appointment of the first bishop, see Tamarati, L’Église, pp. 440-443. The pope also wrote a letter urging the clergy and faithful of Tiflis to accord a warm welcome to the new bishop (Reg. Vat. 94, n. 938). 23 More precisely thirteen bishops and fourteen episcopal appointments. The conse- quences of the Great Western Schism (1378-1449) reached as far as remote Georgia. Bertand Colletti would be appointed by Urban VI from Rome, deposed by Clement VII in favour of the Franciscan Henry Ratz, and later re-appointed to the see. 24 Text given in Tamarati, L’Église, p. 445. 25 It is claimed that in the fourteenth century, addition to Tiflis, there were also bishoprics in Sokhumi, Achtamar and Ganja: I. Javakshishvili, ‘Towards the Clarification of the Identity and Sphere of Activities of Missionaries who Visited the Orient and Georgia in the 14th Century’, Bulletin of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences, 3/3 (2009), pp. 185-189. 26 See C. Toumanoff, ‘Christian Caucasia between Byzantium and Iran’, Traditio, 10 (1954), pp. 109-189.

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earlier conflicts in the region between Rome and Byzantium and Iran and Islam. The Georgian elite attempted to play off the rival powers against each other, but their Christian affiliation hindered their efforts in dealing with the two Islamic powers. The churches of Tbilisi were desecrated during the occupation of Isma‘il I Safavi, who ordered the building of a mosque there, and the same city suffered under the Ottomans in 1578, with two churches converted to mosques. During the early part of the seventeenth century, ‘Abbas I and his generals killed or deported tens of thousands of Georgians. Islam made considerable inroads among the prisoners, and in the west Georgian principality of Samtzkhe, successive rulers had embraced Islam. A formal profession of the Muslim religion would become a commonplace among Georgian rulers, thereby assuring their powerful neighbours and suzerains of their loyalty. While such profession was likely often little more than lip-service or ‘taqi- yya’, and some rulers would even practice both Christianity and Islam, it would be only in the middle of the 18th century that the rulers of East Georgia could openly profess their Christian faith. For a considerable period in the sixteenth century, Georgia was effectively closed to Latin missionaries, although the Armenian Dominican Fratres Uni- tores27 were still for a while able to move freely and exercise a ministry among the Catholics of Georgia. Only in the seventeenth century did a second period of western Catholic missionary presence in Georgia begin. Political considerations would frus- trate opportunities in 1604 and 1613 for the Augustinian missionaries in

27 Since the 14th century Members of the Order of Fratres Unitores had worked for religious union with Rome in the eastern Armenian region of Syunik, and particularly in Nakhitchevan and its surrounding villages, inhabited as a consequence by significant numbers of Armenian Catholics. On the formative years of the ‘Unitors’, see C. Longo, ‘I domenicani nell’impero persiano: Frati armeni e missionari Italiani’, Studi sull’Oriente Cristiano, 11/1 (2007), pp. 35-77. G. Petrowicz, I Fratres Unitores nella Chiesa Armenia (Rome, 1969), extract from Euntes Docete, 22 (1969), pp. 309-347; F. Tournebize ‘Les Frères Unitaires ou Dominicains Arméniens (1300-1794) Revue de l’Orient Chrétien, 22 (1920-1921), pp. 145-161 and 249-279; R. J. Loenertz, Les Missions dominicaines en Orient au quatorzième siècle et la Société des frères pérégrinants pour le Christ. 3 pt. (Rome, 1932-1934); id., La Société des frères pérégrinants. Étude sur l’Orient dominicain (Rome, 1937); M. A. van den Oudenrijn, Linguae haicanae scriptores (Bern, 1960). The Fratres Unitores followed a version of the Rule of Saint Augustine.

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Isfahan to create a mission in Georgia, It would, in fact, be only in 1628, that this became a reality,28 after the Augustinians had taken the relics of Queen Ketevan of Georgia, martyred by order of Shah Abbas in 1624 in Shiraz, to her son Teimuraz 1 in Georgia.29 By a curious coincidence, the Theatine missionaries sent to Georgia by the newly founded Roman Congregation de Propaganda Fide, also established their mission in Gori in 1628.30 Members of the two Orders supported each other under extremely difficult circumstances, but the death from the plague of all but one of the Augustinians in Gori effectively sounded the death-knell of their mission, entirely abandoned by 1639. The Theatine mission survived, although still in difficult and ever-changing circumstances, and further missions were established in the regions of Mingrelia and Guria in 1633 and 1634 and then in Imereti. The opening of a new mission field for the Order in India led to a severe shortage of personnel for the missions in Georgia, forcing them to concentrate once more on a single area, and the Theatine presence in Georgia was over by the end of the 17th century.31

28 C. Alonso, ‘Misiones de la Orden de San Augustin en Georgia (1628-1639)’, Analecta Augustiniana, 28 (1965), pp. 219-280. 29 The martyrdom of Ketevan and her confessor are described in Tamarati, L’Église, pp. 482-487. For a hagiographical account of the life of Ketevan see I. E. Lambertsen, ‘The Suffering of the Glorious Greatmartyr Queen Ketevan of Kakheti, Whose Memory the Holy Church Celebrates on the 13th of September’ Living Orthodoxy, 16/5 (1994), pp. 3-12, (English translation of the Russian text given in M. Savinin, The Complete Lives of the Saints of the Church of Georgia, the Portion of the Mother of God (Saint Petersburg, A. Transheli Press, 1872), II, pp. 1-23. A scholarly analysis of the contemporary Augustin- ian accounts in R. Gulbenkian, ‘Relation véritable du Glorieux Maryre de la Reine Kété- van de Géorgie’, in Bedi Kartlisa, 40 (1982), pp. 31-97, reprinted in id., Estudos Históricos, 3 vols (Lisbon, Academia Portuguesa da História, 1995), II, pp. 245-324; Portuguese translation in Anais da Academia Portuguesa da História, Series II, 30 (1985), pp. 483-506. See also J. Flannery, ‘The Martyrdom of Queen Ketevan of Georgia: an Episode in the Relations between the Church of Rome and the Georgian Church’, Chronos: Revue d’Histoire de l’Université de Balamand, 17 (2008), pp. 41-71. 30 For an overview of the missions of various Orders to Georgia, see A. Eszer, ‘Missionen in Randzonen der Weltgeschichte: Krim, Kaukasien und Georgien’, in Sacrae Congrega- tionis de Propaganda Fide Memoria rerum 1622-1972, vol. I/I (Rome, 1971), pp. 650-679. 31 On the Theatine missions in Georgia, see Tamarati, L’Église, pp. 506-560; C. Alonso, ‘Documentación inedita sobre las misiones de los Teatinos en Georgia’ (I), Regnum Dei, 122 (1996), pp. 25-115; (II), Regnum Dei, 123 (1997), pp. 119-209; (III), Regnum Dei, 124 (1998), pp. 269-372; (IV), Regnum Dei, 125 (1999), pp. 3-90; (V), Regnum Dei, 126 (2000), pp. 109-183.

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As in the case of the Augustinians, Jesuit hopes for a Georgian mission early in the 17th century would also be frustrated. It seems that the Jesuit Louis Granger encountered Georgians from Mingrelia when in Constan- tinople in 1613, and after advising the head of his Order of the potential of a mission to the region he offered his services.32 At the request of Levan Dedian, ruler of the country, and with the encouragement and financial support of the French ambassador in Constantinople, Achille Harlay de Sancy, Granger set off for Mingrelia, accompanied by a Jesuit lay-brother and an Armenian youth who spoke Georgian. After a shipwreck in which he lost most of his money and luggage, Granger finally reached Mingrelia, where he was warmly welcomed. The expedition would end in disaster, however, as on the return voyage to Constantinople both priest and lay- brother would die of plague in 1615. In fact, although a number of Jesuits spent time in Georgia, a mission as such was never established. Nevertheless, Granger’s correspondence with Claudio Acquaviva, the Jesuit General is valuable for the light it sheds on the dogmatic issues seen as dividing Ortho- dox and Catholics, and on the Roman attitude towards the Eastern rites.33 Among the questions on missionary strategy Granger puts in 1613 are: should we adopt the Orthodox rite?; if we adopt their rite, should we not adopt the manner of dress and practice of their monks?; if the Orthodox come to us for confession, should we question them about the procession of the Holy Spirit, Purgatory and the supremacy of the Roman pontiff, or leave them to their own belief; is it licit for the Orthodox to come to us for the sacraments, and for our faithful to go to them for the same?; should we, like the Greeks, re-baptise those Armenians who seek union with us? Acquaviva consulted the opinions of the professors of the Roman College and of Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, whose response was decidedly in the negative, including Bellarmine’s non licet to the adoption of the Byzantine rite and way of life of the Orthodox monks, ‘If we Latins adopt the Greek rite, we would confirm the error of the Greeks, for whom our Latin rite is illicit’. Bellarmine bases this on the juridical principle of reciprocity: it is not pos- sible to concede to others what they themselves will not concede to us.

32 On Jesuit missions to Georgia see V. Poggi, ‘I Gesuiti e la Georgia’, Civiltà Cattolica (1994), pp. 246-259. 33 Poggi, ‘I Gesuiti’, p. 249.

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Granger would return to the question in 1615, suggesting that ‘here where they are not used to the Latin rite, we might have, as a concession from the pope, permission to sometimes celebrate with the local bishops in their fash- ion, but keeping our rite for our own daily celebration. In this way we would show esteem for their rite and they for ours’. The response of the acting head of the Jesuits, Ferdinando Alber, following the death of Acquaviva, was also in the negative, ‘The adoption of the rite would involve something of the schismatic, the heretical, or at least some error. If we Jesuits changed rite, they would say that we no longer seek to persuade them to pass from schism to union, from error to truth’. Bellarmine’s negative response to Granger’s suggestion links rite to dogma, and represents the understanding of the period of the Latin rite as superior, a view which would be overcome only at Vatican II (Decree on the Eastern Catholic Churches, no. 3). In this connection, it is interesting to note that in 1757, the Capuchins obtained Roman consent for the use of Georgian for the Epistle Gospel, Gloria and Credo at High Mass, and in 1784, the same facility was extended to Georgians following the Armenian rite. It is to the important Capuchin mission that we now turn. Aware of the difficulties of the Theatines, over- stretched to the extent that they were unable to maintain more than their mission in Mingrelia, the Propaganda sent Capuchin missionaries to found a new mission in Tiflis in 1661.34 Of the five priests and two brothers who set out for Tiflis, only four completed the journey, and a further six missionaries were sent some years later. The mission developed rapidly, helped by their medical skills. A school to instruct youngsters in the Catholic faith was constructed, and also a church. The Order had some remarkable successes in converting senior figures, both civil and ecclesiastical. One of their number, prince Barzin, believed that full union between Georgia and Rome was close, and that as a consequence Georgia would become ‘the earthly paradise of the Catholic Church’. Of particular significance was the conversion of prince Saba Orbeliani in 1701. To more fully embrace the practice of Catholicism he passed control of his extensive territory to his brother, separated from his wife, and entered religious life in the Order of Saint Basil. He travelled to Europe in search of missionaries, visiting the

34 Tamarati devotes an extensive section to the Capuchin mission in Georgia, which survived for almost two centuries (L’Église, pp. 561-663).

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court of the Sun King in France. On returning to Georgia he worked to spread the Catholic faith, resulting in strong opposition from those who did not share his religious views. Despite Armenian persecution of Catholics in Georgia, particularly intense during the period 1697-1799, Catholicism continued to make progress, and an extension of the Capuchin mission into western Georgia was only prevented by Greek emissaries from the patriarch of Constantinople. In 1783 Heraclius II of Georgia placed his country under the protection of Russia by the Treaty of Georgievsk. However, the Russians failed to come to his assistance when Shah Muhammad Khan attacked Georgia in 1795 and reduced the city of Tiflis to ashes. Between 1801 and 1804 Russia would annex the whole of Georgia. Open persecution of the Catholic missionaries ceased, but, with Russian legislation now applied to Georgia, they were no longer free to proselytise. Remarkably, the missionaries nevertheless succeeded in obtaining funding for new churches in both Tiflis and Gori. In 1813, as a consequence of the shortage of missionaries, the Propaganda had been constrained to appoint a Georgian priest of the Armenian rite, the pro-vicar of Akhaltzikhe, as Prefect of the missionaries. When the church in Gori was built in 1820, there were only two Catholic missionaries in the whole of Georgia, increasing to three in 1823. A number of other priests would join them, but numbers were still insufficient and the Capuchin mission continued to decline. As Tamarati points out,35 the failure to create an indigenous Catholic clergy is puzzling, especially as historically two places at the Propaganda’s Urban College were reserved for Georgian students. In 1834, the Propaganda finally insisted that the Prefect of the Georgian mission send two Georgian Latin Catholics to the College, in order to train for the priesthood and minister in their homeland. These candidates, however, were required to be between the ages of 12 and 15, and it would have been many years before they were able to return as priests to Georgia. Ironically, the end of the Capuchin mission was due in no small part to the machinations of a former student of the Urban College, a priest in Akhaltzikhe, Paolo Sciagulianti, who saw the missionaries as an obstacle to his ambitions to the episcopate. With an increasing number of Armenian priests arriving in

35 L’Église, p. 651.

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that region around 1830 as a result of Armenian immigration,36 he and his supporters sought, in the view of the missionaries ‘not only to dominate the Latins but also to obtain the hospices and churches of the Capuchins on account of their abundant revenues’. Sciagulianti was not able to achieve his goal as rapidly as he had hoped, as the Georgian rulers often protected the Capuchins, and in the last years of the mission it also received support from the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in Lyon. A letter from the Apos- tolic Prefect in Georgia to the Society in 1841 sheds light on the structure of the Catholic mission to Georgia,

‘Our Mission is divided into two parts; that is to say, the Latin Mission and the Armenian Mission. Absolute jurisdiction over the first belongs to the Apostolic Prefect, appointed by the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, he also has jurisdiction over the second, communicated to him by the Arch- bishop Patriarchal Vicar of Constantinople. The second is likewise divided into two parts, the old and new Missions. The name old Mission is given to Akhaltzikhe, where the Catholic religion has been established since ancient times; the name new is given to the provinces called Lori and Shuragali, the Catholic religion was established after they had fallen under the power of the Russians since, in various places, a large number of Catholic families established themselves having fled the Turkish Empire in order to remove themselves from the cruel and tyrannical rule of the heretical Armenians’.37

Since its rule in Georgia began, the Russian government had sought to be rid of the Latin Catholic missionaries, unwilling to have foreign clergy in the Empire who were in direct communication with Rome, and under the influence of the Propaganda. In Tamarati’s view, it was the intrigues of the Armenian Catholic clergy that furnished the pretext to St Petersburg to act. Russia imposed unacceptable conditions on the missionaries’ continued presence, and in 1844 they received an irrevocable letter of expulsion signed by the emperor. This expulsion took place at the beginning of 1845, despite the efforts of the governor-general himself on their behalf. The expelled missionaries stayed in Trebizond, hoping to obtain permission to return, but in vain.

36 A pact between Russia and Turkey in 1829, following the Russo-Turkish War (1828- 1829) allowed many Armenians to escape their plight under Ottoman domination. 37 Tamarati, L’Église, p. 655.

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Georgia now had a single Latin rite Catholic priest, Anton Glakhov, who travelled from place to place ministering to his flock. Sciagulianti sought to take this opportunity to send his priests to take over the churches of the Capuchins, but the faithful barred the doors, saying that they belonged to the Latin rite and would rather have no priest than those of the Armenian rite. The government now felt it necessary to send for Polish priests who, despite not knowing the language, administered these churches until they could be served by Georgian Latin rite priests. Following these events, the Holy See and the Russian government concluded an agreement with regard to all the Catholics of the empire. As a consequence, all Georgian Catholics, Latin or Armenian, were placed under the jurisdiction of the new diocese of Tiraspol. This new arrangement was confirmed by Pius IX on 3 July 1848 with the Apostolic Letter Nos de Universali Dominici gregis salute Nobis divin- itus’. The Armenian Catholics were unhappy with being placed under the control of a Latin bishop, and a section of both their clergy and laity caused considerable difficulties to Latin rite Georgians. The Russian government, always seeking to undermine Latin rite Catholics, actively encouraged the Armenians to leave Roman communion and either enter the Russian Church or join the Armenian ‘Gregorians’. On 16 January 1886, Alexander III published an imperial proclamation (‘ukase’) forbidding the Catholic faithful in the Caucasus, whether Armenian or Latin, to use Georgian in their worship ‘in order that there should be no more division between Georgian Catholics and Armenian Catholics’. Surprisingly, despite attempts to extinguish Catholicism in Georgia by measures such as the expulsion of the Capuchins, the Catholic Church continued to function, and even show some signs of expansion. The ancient church of the Assumption in Tiflis was extended and embellished, while another Latin church had already been constructed in the city in 1877, principally for the large number of Polish Catholics there.38 The imposing Catholic church built between 1898 and 1903 in Batumi was converted into a high voltage laboratory during the Soviet era, and handed over to the Georgian Orthodox Church in 1989.39 Tamarati, critical of the failure to create a Catholic hierarchy in Georgia, notes that with the visit of

38 Tamarati, L’Église, pp. 671-672. 39 Catholic worshippers now use the church of the Holy Spirit, built in 2000.

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Mgr Eduard Ropp, then bishop of Tiraspol, to consecrate the new church, the Georgian faithful finally had the consolation of seeing their pastor for the first time since the middle of the eighteenth century.40

The Servants of the Immaculate Conception

With the dual intention of providing native Georgian clergy and overcoming divisions between Armenian and Latin rite Catholics, in 1861 Father Peter Karishiaranti, a Georgian priest from Akhaltzikhe, founded the Georgian Benedictine Congregation of the Servants of the Immaculate Conception, for both men and women.41 The Order was based outside Georgia, in Con- stantinople. The priests who returned to minister in Georgia used both the Catholic and Armenian rites, depending on the communities they served, while in Constantinople they said Mass in their chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes in Latin and celebrated the Byzantine office in Georgian. The Greek rite in Georgian was also introduced into the Congregation for ‘separated’ Georgians, in order to later provide a connection, as Tamarati puts it, with ‘those Georgians who longed for true liberty in order to be able to unite with the Catholic Church, for which they had always shown such veneration’.42 This ‘triritual’ congregation was approved by Pius IX in 1875. It seems that the Congregation had a printing press from the time of its establishment in Constantinople, and in 1914 it served three parishes in the city; Our Lady of Lourdes in Feri-Keui for Georgians and secondarily Armenians,43 another in Scutari for the Latins, and a third in Pera, also for the Georgians. At this period the Congregation had nineteen priests, seven working in Georgia, and

40 L’Église, p. 672. 41 Ibid., pp. 666-667, with a photograph of the founder. 42 Ibid., p. 667. 43 Tamarati (L’Église, pp. 668-670) describes having personally seen the great influx of pilgrims to visit the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes installed in the chapel of the Order’s house in Feri-Keui, where thousands of people from various Christian confessions, including Greek Orthodox, and Muslims, thronged the shrine from morning to night. Claims of miraculous healing led to a thorough investigation by the ecclesiastical authorities, who approved the cult. The Greek Orthodox authorities, fearful in Tamarati’s view of losing their flock to the Catholics, resorted to every means of preventing their faithful from visiting, and even threatened to burn the chapel to the ground, necessitating the stationing of guards both day and night for some six months.

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seven novices, although the seminary was forced to close by the war. The priests who went to Georgia in 1919 became victims of the massacres of 1921 and later, and recruitment ground to a halt. The constitutions of the Congregation were revised and presented to the Holy See for approval in 1925; they were approved for a period of seven years in 1930 by the Pro Russia commission. In 1955 there were still two elderly priests serving the parish of Our Lady of Lourdes, but the Congregation is now extinct.44 One of its best-known members was Fr Michael Tarchnishvili, who published extensively on Georgian manuscripts and liturgical texts, and the liturgy and theology of the Eastern Churches. After going to Constantinople as a student at the monastery of the Servants of the Immaculate Conception, he was later ordained at the monastery of Grottaferrata. He never returned to his homeland, and died in Rome in 1958.45 The Congregation in Constantinople had always been under the protection of France, and their founder later bought a house in France at Mon- tauban in the department of Tarn and Garonne.46 In 1874 the bishop of Montauban presided over a ceremony to bless the chapel and house of the Congregation, which also had, the bishop notes ‘a house of study for the young students of the Institute preparing to exercise the apostolate in the land of their birth’. This clarification of purpose is helpful, as in virtually all the correspondence between representatives of the Congregation and French officials in France and in Constantinople describes the purpose as being to provide a proper education in the French language for those who would teach it on their return to the East. While the students resided in the study house of the Congregation, they undertook their ecclesiastical formation in the seminary of Montauban, run by the Jesuits. This Georgian enclave in France never counted more than some twelve people, priests and students, and one of its principal activities was the printing of Georgian texts, including manuals of theology, philosophy, history,

44 These details and statistics are taken from the article R. Aubert, ‘Georgiens (Bénédic- tins)’, DHGE, col. 683. 45 A brief biography was printed after his death: G. Garitte, ‘Michel Tarchnishvili (1897- 1958)’, Le Muséon, 71 (1958), pp. 397-399. 46 On the French house, its activities and vicissitudes see I. Tabagua, ‘L’Imprimerie Géorgienne à Montauban’, Bedi Katlisa, 37 (1979), pp. 232-238.

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geography and grammar, mostly intended for Georgian Catholic children.47 These works were distributed both in Georgia and in centres of Georgian culture elsewhere. As a consequence of the anti-clerical legislation of the Third Republic, in 1880 the Georgian centre at Montauban was closed and the missionaries expelled, although a single priest and the one student there at the time were allowed to remain as caretakers, while the chapel was closed to the public. Appeals to the authorities finally resulted in the re-opening of the monastery in 1896, when it again received students, but had again ceased to function by 1901, by which time all its students had completed their studies and left France. Printing had also ceased at Montauban, and a new printing press, which had been donated by a French woman, was shipped to the congregation’s base in Constantinople. Likely inspired by the contemporary growth in Georgian nationalism and a renewed interest in its history and culture, including the Georgian Church, during the latter part of the 19th century a number of Catholics sought to use the Byzantine rite traditional in Georgia. Since Russia had restricted use of the Byzantine rite to the Orthodox, and since it appears that Rome did not promote its use among the Georgians, a number of clergy and faithful transferred to the Armenian rite, coming under the diocese of Artvin, established in Russian Transcaucasia in 1850. Only after the granting of religious freedom in Russia in 1905 were Georgian Catholics again able to use the Byzantine rite. It should be noted, however, that despite the claims in some sources, Catholics within the Catholic Church in Georgia following the Byzantine rite never formed an autonomous (sui iuris) Church.48 No men- tion of the establishment of a new hierarchical jurisdiction for such a group was published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, and if a bishop was in fact, as suggested, appointed and secretly ordained for Georgia in the 1930s, it is highly unlikely that he should have been sent purely for the small number

47 Twenty-one titles produced at Montauban are listed (ibid., pp. 233-234). 48 See for example the article on the Georgian Byzantine Church by M. Stadnik, which refers to a Georgian Byzantine Catholic Exarch, Fr Shio Batmanishvili (http://rumkat- kilise.org/georgiahist.htm, accessed 18/5/12). Stadnik is here following the view of Ch. Zugger, a Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic priest and author of The Forgotten: Catholics in the Soviet Empire from Lenin through Stalin (Syracuse NY, Syracuse University Press, 2001).

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of Byzantine rite Georgian Catholics, rather than as apostolic administrator of the whole of the diocese of Tiraspol, to which Georgian Catholics of both Latin and Byzantine rite belonged. The 1907 statistics of the Propaganda’s Missiones Catholicae give figures of 40,000 for Georgian Catholics, of whom 8,000 followed the Armenian rite (others suggest 50,000 and 10,000, or 30,000 and 22,000; it was clearly difficult to establish precise numbers). An estimate for the number of native Georgian Catholics in 1919 is around 13,000. At this period the other Catholics in Georgia were principally Polish, German, Lithuanian, and Czech, most of whom left Georgia during the Soviet regime. Christopher Zugger suggests that there were as many as 8,000 Georgian Catholics of the Byzantine rite. Numbers aside, it would be interesting to know if the Byzantine rite that they used was that created by the Congregation of the Immaculate Conception. The eve of the brief period of Georgian independence after the fall of the Russian Empire (May 1918-February 1921) also saw the re-establishment of the office of Catholicos of the Georgian Orthodox Church, suppressed by Russia in 1811. Kyrion II replaced the Russian exarch, and in July 1918 a representative of the Catholicos made contact in Georgia with the Apostolic Delegate, Mgr Dolci, who agreed to receive a delegation which presented him with a letter from Kyrion dated September 1917 in which he notified Ben- edict XV of his election, recalled the ancient links between the two Churches, and gave his solemn promise to protect the Catholic minority.49 Dolci sent the letter to Rome, noting the desire of the delegation to obtain recognition of the ‘Georgian Catholic Rite’. On his own initiative, the Apostolic Delegate said to those concerned and to their colleagues in the Armenian mission that the ‘moral force’ of the papacy might support the ‘consolidation of their nascent states’ and that both peoples ‘could become Catholics almost without realising it’ if they were allowed to maintain their ancient rites and practices. In Rome, at the end of July, the commission charged with religious affairs in Russia had considered a report from Mgr de Ropp (archbishop of the Russian metropolitan see of Russia at Mogilev from 1917-1928) in which he hoped

49 Both the Georgian original and a manuscript French translation are reproduced in G. Rigotti (ed.), Dall’Orente al Tevere: Scritti in onore del cardinale Ignace Moussa I Daoud per il cinquantesimo di sacerdozio (Rome, Edizioni ‘Orientalia Christiana’, 2004), tab. 6.

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for the restoration of the Georgian rite among the Catholics of the country. In August 1919, the commission appointed the White Father Antoine Delpuch,50 who had played a major part in the founding of the Oriental Congregation and the Pontifical Oriental Institute, as Apostolic Visitor to ‘the vice-realm of the Caucasus’ and sent him to Georgia. At the same time, clearly believing that the long-sought union with the Georgian Orthodox Church might finally become a reality, the commission also sought the opinion of a number of experts (including Korolevskij and Pellegrini) on the criteria and procedure to be used in the event that a non-Catholic Eastern Church should come into unity with Rome. On his return in early 1920, Delpuch recommended that both Georgian Catholics and the Latin missionaries be allowed to use their Byzantine rite. The Oriental Congregation concurred, and also established a permanent mission to Georgia, under the leadership of the Dominican bishop of Cuneo, Gabriele Moriondo, who was given the title of Vicar Apostolic of Georgia and apostolic Administrator of the Caucasus and the Crimea, accompanied by two (or possibly three) Jesuits. The mission succeeded, however, only in reaching Constantinople before learning of the Soviet occupation of Georgia and the fall of Tiflis. Catholicos Kyrion had died in mysterious circumstances after less than a year in office, in July 1918, and Catholic hopes for Georgia came to an abrupt end.51 Georgian Catholics were included in the general persecution of Christian- ity under Soviet rule, with the clergy targeted in order to deprive the faithful of their pastors. All the Catholic priests serving the seven Catholic parishes in Georgia functioning at the time of the Soviet invasion either died or were killed. The last Georgian priest, Konstantyn Saparshvili, was initially arrested in the 1920s and spent time in a number of prison camps. He was allowed to return to Georgia in the 1950s, but forbidden to work as a priest. He

50 On Delpuch and his visit to Transcaucasia, see V. Poggi, ‘Antoine Delpuch, Visitatore Apostolico in Transcaucasia (1919)’, Studi sull’Oriente Cristiano, 5/1 (2001), pp. 93-13, cited in C. Simon, Pro Russia: The Russicum and Catholic work for Russia, Orientalia Christiana Analecta, 283, (Rome, Pontificio Istituto Orientale, 2009), p. 245, n. 68. 51 See Simon, Pro Russia, pp. 244-245, citing G. M. Croce, La Badia Greca di Grottafer- rata e la Rivista ‘Roma e l’Oriente: Cattolicesismo e Ortodossia fra Unionismo ed Ecumenismo (1799-1923) (Grottaferrata, Abbadia), II, pp. 262-264, n. 171, which summarises events and provides extensive documentary references.

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earned a living as a resort photographer, while secretly providing pastoral care to the Catholics of the villages of Mtskheta. On the death of the parish priest at the church of St Peter and Paul in Tiflis, the only remaining Catholic church open in Georgia, he was ordered to take his place, and died there in 1973.52 This church appears to have been kept open partly as a ‘showpiece’ for foreign visitors, but enabled the survival of Catholicism in Georgia and would become a witness to its rebirth after the Soviet era. When Georgia regained her independence, there was a single Catholic priest, of Polish origin, Fr Jan Sniezynski. Ordained in Riga in 1967, he came to Georgia in 1970 to assist the elderly Fr Konstantyn, becoming parish priest after his demise. He served a small multi-national group of believers. Apart from Georgians there were Armenians and Chaldeans, and the heirs of Poles, Germans. Lithuanians, and Czechs. Despite the prohibitions and threats of the KGB, the liturgy continued to be celebrated. Children and young people were forbidden to attend church, catechesis was individual and at one’s own risk, and no official church meetings were allowed. The priest was assisted by two sisters of the Congregation of Servants of Jesus in the Eucharist from Belarus, Maria Aszychina and Helena Laboranska, joined in 1980 by Rosa Albert from Karaganda. Initially, the sisters lived incognito at Rustavi, 25 km southeast of Tbilisi, commuting to the capital by bus. Gorbachev’s perestroika of the 1980s allowed new priests to arrive in Georgia. The first two to arrive, Fr Kornaszewki from Latvia and a Salesian priest from Odessa, were sent to serve the Armenians, then without clergy. Others followed, and begun to work among Georgian Catholics. This period also saw the return of expropriated church buildings to religious use, although the shortage of Catholic priests effectively meant that the Orthodox Church was the main beneficiary, also taking control of those Catholic churches in good condition. The Catholic Church would end up with only two small churches at Arali and Vale in Mtskheta, and the church of Sts Peter and Paul in Tbilisi, which had always been in Catholic hands. In 1989, the Vatican and the former USSR signed a historic document establishing diplomatic relations between the two states. In spring 1991, a

52 Details of the fate of the seven Catholic priests in Georgia in the Soviet period are given in T. T. Chmielecki, ‘Odrodzenie katolicyzmu w Gruzji po rozpadzie ZSRR’, Archiwa Biblioteki I Muzea Koscielne, 70 (1998), pp. 315-329.

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first representative of the Holy See, Archbishop Francesco Colasuomo, arrived in Moscow, and visited Georgia on several occasions in 1991-1993. His final visit marked the introduction of a Vatican representative to Georgia, Mgr Jean-Paul Gobel, who was appointed titular archbishop of Calatia and Apostolic Nuncio to Georgia and Armenia in December 1993, with his jurisdiction extended to Azerbaijan in January 1994. He was also named as Apostolic Administrator of the Latin rite for the three countries. A parallel ordinariate was established for Catholic Armenians, headed by Archbishop Nerses der Nersessian, a member of the Mekhitarist Order. Only the Armenians of Tbilisi still belong to the Latin rite parish of Sts Peter and Paul. Before the establishment of the Apostolic administration and the re-establishment of the hierarchy, the parish priest of Tbilisi, Jan Sniezynski, had invited members of the Neo-Catechumenal Way to help in renewing religious life in the parish. In August 1991, a new priest joined the Tbilisi parish, Fr Adam Ochal, former rector of the seminary in Wroclaw and chaplain to the Neo-Catechumenal movement. Given special responsibility for evan- gelisation, he started new catechumenal groups in Tbilisi, Gori and Akhaltzikhe, and also accompanied the parish priest on his visits to the town of Gardabani, which had a large Chaldean population with no priest of their own. With the assistance of the Sisters of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, pastoral care was extended to the region of Kakheti. A new apostolic centre was opened in 1995 and Mgr Gobel and his Polish Salesian assistant established the Caritas charity organisation and succeeded in obtaining the return of the first Catholic church in Tbilisi, dedicated to the Assumption, to its rightful owners. Work also began on the building of a large hospital, to be run by the Camillian Order. After the long period of Soviet occupation and its suppression of religion, the renewal of religious consciousness and expansion of pastoral care, especially among the young, presented some difficulty. The Ordinary was French, lacking knowledge of Georgian language and culture. Although he succeeded in obtaining two Stigmatist priests from Italy, and sent two young men to be trained for the priesthood, the real problem was the complete lack of indigenous clergy. There were tensions between the followers of the neocatechumenal way and other members of the parish, leading to a degree of disorientation among the faithful, unsure whether to gather in houses or to

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worship in the parish church. There was a lack of parish buildings in which to meet for parish activities, and a lack of unity among an international group of clergy. In June 1995, after twenty-five years of service in Georgia, Jan Sniezynski resigned the post of Vicar General to which he had been appointed only eight months earlier, and returned to the Ukraine, leaving Fr Adam Ochal as parish priest of Tbilisi. He would be joined in August 1995 by another neocatechumenal priest from Poland, Fr Jerzy Szymerowski, who would become parish priest in the town of Vale. In 1996 a young Italian priest, Raffaele Gagliardi, became assistant priest in Tbilisi, while the two Stigmatist priests referred to above, Giuseppe Pasotto and Gabriele Bragantini, having completed Georgian language studies, took responsibility for pastoral care in Kutaisi, second larg- est city in Georgia and capital of the western region of Imereti. They were joined by three nuns in 1996, and together faced the challenge of reinvigorat- ing a Catholic community deprived of any pastoral care for over sixty years. In November 1996, Fr Giuseppe Passotto, by this time a fluent Georgian speaker, was appointed as the new apostolic administrator. It is not easy to obtain accurate statistics for the Catholic Church in Georgia. Chmielecki describes the situation of the Catholic Church in Georgia in 1998 as follows: Apostolic administration of Latin rite Catholics is under the direct jurisdiction of the Holy See. Excluding the administrator, there are six Latin rite priests, one Chaldean priest, and four Armenian rite priests for the Armenians. Of the twelve clerics in total, there are no Geor- gian nationals; there are seven Poles, three Italians, four Armenians and one Assyrian. There is access to regular pastoral care in the cities of Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Batumi, and Gori, and the smaller towns of Arali, Vale, Ivlita, Khizabavre and Akhaltsikhe. There are only three working churches, in Tbilisi, Vale and Arali. In Kutaisi Catholics meet in a chapel at the house of the Stigmatists, in Akhaltsikhe they use a building provided by the council, and in Batumi services are held in a private house. All Catholics of the Latin rite, except in Tbilisi, are of Georgian origin, and their liturgies are celebrated in Georgian. Overall numbers are difficult to estimate, but appear not greatly different to those given before the Soviet invasion. In Tbilisi there are also a number of Armenians who do not have their own priest, and Chaldeans, who use the parish church but with their own priest and liturgy. There are also small numbers of parishioners of

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Polish, German, Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Czech origin. Liturgies are usu- ally celebrated in Latin or Georgian, with an English Mass for the growing number of expatriates. The singing is occasionally in Russian, while the second reading is always repeated in Armenian, and the homily is given in Russian or Georgian, depending on the celebrant. The Church owns little property apart from the churches we have referred to, and no parish has a presbytery or rooms for catechesis. Only in the Stigmatist house at Kutaisi are there a couple of rooms for parish use. In Arali and Vale, the parish priests live as lodgers in family houses, while in Tbilisi the parish priest has always had his own flat. The neocatechumenal community has also managed to buy a house for parish use. The pastoral profile is varied. In Tbilisi, the neocatechumenal movement, which tends to separate it followers form parish life, is highly influential. A weekly service ‘in vacuo’ takes place at their house, together with other liturgies and classes in religious education. The parish church offers similar classes after the Sunday liturgy, taught by the Eucharist sisters and lay people. The sisters of Mother Teresa run a house for abandoned children and orphans, and also organize basic catechetical classes and prepare children for the sacraments. Despite the challenges faced by the Church, the number of believers continues to increase- drawn from atheism rather than from the Orthodox faithful. Again, speaking of 1998, there were three seminarians studying in Rome and Russia, two in Verona with the Stigmatist Fathers, and one with the Salesians in Poland. A number of others at a late stage in making a decision to enter religious life were staying with the Stigmatists in Kutaisi. The presence of these new Georgian priests will enable the further renewal of the Catholic Church in Georgia.

Diplomatic Contacts between the Holy See and Georgia

Returning from India to Rome, Pope John Paul II spent two days in Georgia, 8 and 9 September 1999. In his speech on arrival at Tbilisi to President Shevardnadze, Catholicos Patriarch Ilia II and the other assembled dignitaries,53 he referred to the country’s glorious Christian past, expressed

53 The pope’s speeches on arrival in Tbili and to Catholicos Ilia II and the Holy Synod, the Common Declaration of the two Church leaders, and the audience following his

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his gratitude to the president and Catholicos patriarch for their invitations, and expressed his profound wish for a strengthening of communion between the Georgian and Catholic Churches, and that the new found freedom should lead to a new Christian culture and ‘a society worthy of this noble nation’. On the afternoon of his arrival, the pope was received by the Catholicos Patriarch of Georgia and members of his Holy Synod. He assured them of his respect and admiration for the Georgian Church, referred to the work of the international Catholic-Orthodox commission, and recent contacts between the Georgian and Catholic Churches, and to the added significance of his visit on the eve of the Jubilee of the year 2000. John Paul also gave his assurance that his representative in Georgia would use all his efforts to strengthen links of cooperation and understanding, ‘free of all misunder- standing and distrust, and marked by profound respect’. At the end of their meeting, the two Church leaders issued a joint statement in which they made an urgent appeal for international peace, in order that the third millennium could see the establishment of ‘peace on earth and goodwill to all’. On 9 November, the pope met with the Catholic community in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Tbilisi,54 and celebrated Mass in the city’s stadium, where he urged the Catholic faithful to commit themselves to ‘so that the whole of society may become one great family, open to true solidarity and peace’.55 In the general audience following his visit to India and Georgia, the pope referred to the earlier visits of President Shevardnadze and Patriarch Ilia II, and his wish to pay homage to the witness given by the Geogrian Church throughout the centuries, and to establish new points of contact between Christians, in order that ‘at the beginning of the third Christian millennium, they might strive together to proclaim the Gospel to the world with one heart and soul’. He also spoke of the numerous martyrs of the Soviet era,

return to Rome after his journey to India and Georgia, are given in French translation in La documentation Catholique 2215 (5 December 1999), pp. 1025-1030: English versions in L’Osservatore Romano of 11 and 18 November 1999. 54 English text at http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/travels/documents/hf_ jp-ii_spe_09111999_tbilisi-catholic_en.html (accessed 19/5/12) 55 English text at http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/travels/documents/hf_ jp-ii_hom_09111999_tbilisi_en.html (accessed 19/5/12)

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both Catholic and Orthodox, and their heroic witness to the faith. In refer- ring to the ‘small but fervent Catholic community of the Caucasus’, he described the ‘unexpected’ numbers who attended the mass in the stadium of Tbilisi as as ‘ sure sign of hope for the future of the Church in the entire region, and of his particular joy in meeting the faithful in the church of Saints Peter and Paul. Following the papal visit, negotiations began for a bilateral agreement between the Vatican and the Georgian state. The agreement would have given recognition to the juridical status of the Catholic Church in Georgia, without affecting the legal status of the Georgian Orthodox Church, established as the religion of the state.56 Archbishop Jean Louis Tauran, Secretary for the Holy See’s Relations with Foreign States, had arrived in Tbilisi on 18 September in order to sign the agreement on behalf of the Vatican, but on 20 September the Georgian authorities announced the suspension of the signing of the document, sine die. This change of heart was occasioned by the pressure exerted on the government, shortly facing an election, by the Georgian Orthodox Church.57 On 18 September the Catholicos Patriarch had appeared on Georgian television to denounce ‘the danger of such an agreement for the stability of the region’! He publicly appealed to President Shevardnadze, asking him to renounce an agreement that ‘would give Catholicism in the Georgia a status analogous to that of the Orthodox Church, which would be unacceptable’. On the following day, there was a significant demonstration on the streets of Tbilisi in protest against the agreement, and the spokesman of the Georgian Holy Synod reaffirmed the opposition of his Church to what it considered to be a manoeuvre by

56 For a detailed analysis of Church-State relations in Georgia see K. Tsintsadze, ‘Legal Aspects of Church-State Relations in Post-Revolutionary Georgia’, Brigham Young Uni- versity Law Review (2007), pp. 751-774; also T. Grdzelidze, ‘The Orthodox Church of Georgia: Challenges under Democracy and Freedom (1990-2009)’, International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church, 10/ 2 (2010), pp. 160-175; D. Kalkandjieva, ‘A Comparative Analysis on Church-State Relations in Eastern Orthodoxy: Concepts, Models, Principles’, Journal of Church and State, 53/4 (2011), pp. 587-614; Sh. Kincha- gashvili, ‘Post-Soviet Georgian Nationalism in the Context of Social Memory and Collec- tive Trauma Theories’, download at http://iliauni.academia.edu/ShotaKhinchagashvili/ Papers/305627/Post-Soviet_Georgian_Nationalism_in_the_Context_of_Social_Memory_ and_Collective_Trauma_Theories (accessed 18/5/12). 57 See the report in ‘Géorgie’, Irenikon, 76 (2003), pp. 625-627.

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the Vatican to increase its influence in the country. Shortly afterwards, the Prime Minister announced to the delegation led by Mgr Tauran that the government ‘no longer wished to sign’. Obliged to return to Rome empty- handed, Tauran issued a strongly critical statement of the Georgian government’s actions, actions which would, he said cause great suffering to John Paul II who had visited the country in 1999, and declaring that that it would be the Catholic community of the country which would suffer most, deprived of any guarantees under the law. This unfortunate incident indicates continuing tensions between the Cath- olic and Orthodox communities in Georgia and the sometimes physically violent persecution of religious minorities by some Orthodox. The situation is all the more unfortunate as Ilia II had previously been a staunch supporter of the ecumenical movement, and the Georgian Orthodox Church had been a member of both the World Council of Churches, in which he served as co-President from 1979-1983, and the European Council of Churches. Under intense pressure and the threat of schism from the conservative heads of five important Georgian monasteries, the Catholicos Patriarch and the Holy Synod were forced to withdraw from both bodies, and the attitude of the Georgian Orthodox Church appears to have become increasingly reac- tionary. The attitude of the leaders of the Georgian Church has been strongly criticised by Father Basil Kobakhidze, who lectures on journalism at the Georgian State University.58 His analysis of the newspapers and magazines published by the Georgian Orthodox Church reveals, in his opinion, anti- Western bias which hinders the creation of civil society. ‘Sometimes’, he adds, ‘I am afraid that Georgia is threatened by Orthodox fundamentalism’. He sees the failed agreement with the Vatican as a vivid demonstration of this trend. While Catholics have suffered less in this climate than evangelical groups or Jehovah’s witnesses, their lack of legal status makes it difficult to

58 See for example the comments by F. Corley, ‘Georgia: Two leaders of religious violence finally sentenced- but what about the others?’, Forum 18 News Service, 1 February 2005, at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:0n83vVWPvusJ:www.unhcr.org/ref- world/pdfid/46891906d.pdf+Father+Basil+Kobakhidze&hl=en&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEES irfisTb-7ZPAXIierKTMyWxQltaaGnBjZ4xfms31eFRT9IiycrCyrThP16uD_4Dy_O_72- Q37qDUED-DzX5PuMM9Ses9CU3a4ZZSpoAFUnGbjNi5XNBCifVv8YcFEjPd8m-BP e&sig=AHIEtbTqScVaBcPrzhUvR_4emWZbc1YwuQ (accessed 18/5/12)

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obtain permission to build new churches, and disputes over church ownership with the Orthodox remain unresolved.

A ‘Small but Fervent’ Catholic Community

There has, however clearly been encouraging progress in the Catholic Church in Georgia since the situation in 1998 described by Chmielecki: in an interview in April 2008,59 Bishop Giuseppe Pasotto, Apostolic Admin- istrator of the Caucasus of the Latins, while recognising the difficulties caused by Catholics being a tiny minority of one per cent in a country which is overwhelmingly Orthodox and is also 11 per cent Islamic, paints a picture of a Church which is committed to communion between the Catholic groups in the country and ecumenical dialogue, lay formation and witness and service to the wider community. There are some 50,000 Cath- olics of three different rites: Armenian, Latin and Syro-Chaldean. There are fifteen churches, apart from the five requisitioned in the time of the USSR and since given to the Orthodox. The numbers of clergy serving the three Catholic communities have increased considerably. Twenty priests serve the Latin faithful: while the majority are still Italian and Polish, there are now two Georgian priests, there are some twenty religious communities of men and women and twelve permanent deacons in training. Apart from this there is Syro-Chaldean priest60 who serves two very active communities of around three thousand faithful, while the Armenians have ten priests and their own bishop. There is now a small seminary, and at the time of the interview this had five Latin Catholic students and four Armenians: two ordinations were scheduled and the prospects for vocations encouraging. A particular problem with regards to the Orthodox, especially in view of the frequency of Catholic-Orthodox marriages, is the refusal of the Orthodox

59 G. Mattei, ‘La piccolla “divisione” del Papa nel terra del Stalin’, L’Osservatore Romano, 25 April 2008. 60 An Assyrian Chaldean Catholic Mission in Georgia was established in 1995, and on 17 October 2009 the Mar Shimon Bar Sabbae Assyrian Chaldean Religious Cultural Centre was consecrated by his Beatitude Cardinal Mar Emmanuel III Delly, the Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon. A group of several hundred Orthodox protesters blocked the entrance to the compound, until they were removed by the police. The community has been served since 1996 by Father Benyamin Beth Yadegar, a native of the region of Urmia, and uni- versally known as Father Benny.

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to recognise Catholic baptism, and an insistence on the re-baptism of the non-Orthodox partner. Bishop Pasotto admits to a certain degree of frustra- tion regarding this and other matters of difference with the powerful and influential Georgian Orthodox Church, whilst doing all he can to maintain channels of communication. Noting that Georgia was evangelised at the end of the apostolic era, he expresses his desire to highlight the importance of communion, as a gift and contribution to all Georgians, in a country characterised by great diversity There is a small street in downtown Tbilisi where Catholic, Orthodox, Armenian churches, as well as a mosque and a synagogue exist side by side. It may be some time before this quiet witness to religious tolerance again reflects the situation in Georgia. Judging by its history, however, Catholicism in Georgia will be able to weather the storm, and may emerge even stronger than before.

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