The Patriarchate of Georgia denied rumors about the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church on the choice of the locum tenens

Representatives of the Georgian Orthodox Church have officially denied allegations of pressure from the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) on the decision of Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II to choose a successor to the patriarchal throne. The head of the Patriarchate’s Public Relations Service, Archpriest Andria Jagmaidze, called the information about external interference “speculation and lies.”

We are talking about the events of 2017, when Metropolitan Shio, who is currently considered the main contender for the patriarchate, was appointed as the locum tenens. In response to publications in a number of media outlets linking this decision to the visit to Tbilisi of the then head of the ROCOR Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), Archpriest Jagmaidze published a video of their meeting. The clergyman emphasized that the communication was exclusively public, which completely excludes the possibility of any secret agreements.

“Nine years of speculation and lies must stop, as if the Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia had a one-on-one meeting with a guest during this visit and as if the election of the locum tenens is somehow related to this day, ” – said the representative of the Georgian Patriarchate. The material also notes that the wave of rumors about “Moscow’s influence” has risen again in the Georgian media against the background of recent personnel reshuffles within the Russian Orthodox Church and past diplomatic visits of delegations.

Earlier we reported that the Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC) officially nominated three candidates for the vacant post of Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia.