NGO: Orthodox Church Receives Greatest Financial Support from the State

Land totaling 1,714,822 m2 and a total of GEL 1,379,700 million were allocated in 2014-2018 from the State Reserve Fund for the Orthodox Church of Georgia, which is the major confession in the country and usually receives the greatest support from the state.

The information was released by the Georgia-based non-governmental organization the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC).

The organization has studied the practice of transferring financial resources and property to the Patriarchate of Georgia from the state budget and found that in 2018 the size of immovable property transferred to the Patriarchate significantly increased compared to 2016-2017.

The NGO assumes that this is related to the ongoing political processes, including the pre-election environs of the presidential race last autumn.

The Patriarchate has many times stated the resources given to the Church are compensation for damages that the Church sustained during the 19 and 20th centuries under the Russian Empire and later under the Soviet Union.

"Analysis of these years shows that the government continues to give financial and material resources to the Patriarchate without a legitimate public purpose. The transfer of this real estate to the Patriarchate is not usually connected with the obligation to return the historic ecclesiastical property seized in the Soviet period," the statement reads.

EMC released information provided by the National Agency of State Property.

“Immovable property is usually given to the Patriarchate for a symbolic price GEL 1 or totally free of charge. The state, as a rule, never indicates the purpose of property transferal and does not indicate the market value of the property. Accordingly, it is unclear exactly how much property is given to the patriarchate each year,” EMC said.

In addition, based on information from the Governmental Administration, the NGO says that apart from giving property to the Patriarchate, the government allocated GEL 1,379,700 GEL for restoration works in the Holy Trinity Cathedral that were carried out last year.

According to EMC, existing practices from the state towards the Patriarchate violates the constitutional principle of secularism and creates the practice of unjustified privilege and support of a particular religious organization.

“The prerogative of a particular religious organization creates hierarchies of other religious organizations or minorities and is of a discriminatory nature,” the NGO stressed.

The Georgian Patriarchate has the faith of 83%of the country’s population and is the most influential and richest religious organization in Georgia.

The relationship between the Orthodox Church and the government is regulated by a constitutional agreement which was approved by Parliament on October 22, 2002.

This document is considered one of the highest legal acts in Georgia after the Constitution, giving the Church privileges that are incomparable to the rights and privileges received by other religious communities. In addition to this, the Church is free from taxation.

By Thea Morrison

Image source: Netgazeti