The following brief announcement appeared on November 9, 2023 on the website of the Patriarchate of Georgia. Patriarch Ilya’s blessing of Georgia’s accession to the European Union seems significant on a number of counts, not the least of which is that EU membership requires substantive legal protections for a candidate country’s LGBTQ citizens, residents, and visitors. Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s readers will recall our commentary in 2018 on the June 2016 report by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hatewatch Staff entitled World Congress of Families Gathering in Tbilisi Showcases Anti-LGBT Rhetoric and Conspiracy Theories. (WordPress and the Wayback Machine were forced by court order to remove our commentary on this report pursuant to the plaintiffs’ default victory [meaning the defendant did not participate in the proceedings at all] in the Trenham et al. v. Sanfilippo civil lawsuit.)
In the interest of fairness, we also draw our readers’ attention to Father Yannick Provost’s May 2018 report that the Patriarchate appealed to the Georgian government to guarantee the safety of well-known LGBTQ activist Giorgi Tatishvili.
Finally, not to be overlooked is the unmistakable subtext of Georgia’s need for protection from Russia.
Statement of the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia
(09.11.2023)
Yesterday it became known that the European Commission positively evaluated the steps taken by the Georgian authorities and made a recommendation to the European Council so that our country can get the candidate status.
Over the years, European Commissioners and other representatives of the European Union have always emphasized that Georgia’s unique culture is an integral part of Euopean culture and that the preservation and development of our country’s Christian traditions, spiritual values and, in general, its ancient culture is important for the European Union itself.
ORTHODOXY IN DIALOGUE 